Fashion Terms — the Apparel Search fashion terminology directory
An apparel quality management system, abbreviated QMS, is a collection of business processes focused on manufacturing proper quality clothing, footwear or fashion accessories. It is expressed as the organizational structure, policies, procedures, processes and resources needed to implement and maintain high quality performance against a stated quality policy and objectives.
An apparel quality management system which is also abbreviated as QMS is basically a collection of business processes focused on manufacturing proper quality clothing, footwear, or fashion accessories. The objective of a quality management system is to maintain a quality policy and maintain the quality objectives to meet internal or customer requirements. The QMS is expressed as the organizational structure, policies, procedures, processes and resources needed to implement and maintain a high quality performance. In the apparel industry, the process takes on many aspects. Most of the leading companies develop compliance manuals (vendor manuals) that detail their quality managements procedures in a very specific manner. Although equally concerned with maintaining good quality, some of the smaller size companies may not create a complete manual as the larger companies. This is possibly due to lack of time and other resources.
The following links are will lead you to a few areas on Apparel Search that may help you on your quest for further education on this subject.
The buyer's quality manual is one of the important resources utilized by garment manufacturing factories to set up adequate processes. If you are a wholesaler or retailer, it is suggested that you provide your manufacturers with a details manual to follow. It is important to make certain that the clothing factories that you select are producing product of the highest possible quality. These quality manuals are very useful to understand product quality requirement of a brand.
Here are a few examples of fashion company vendor manuals:
JC Penney Manual – posted on Baidu
The GAP Manual – posted on Scribd
Note: the above listed manuals are only examples. These most likely contain outdated material. Always consult directly with the retailer or brand owner for most current information.
Learn about fabric tensile strength and colorfastness & crocking.
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A quality management system turns good intentions into repeatable practice. Instead of relying on each factory, inspector or production run to improvise, the system states the quality policy once, sets measurable objectives under it, and then defines the procedures that make those objectives reachable: how fabric is inspected when it arrives, what tolerances a measurement must meet, how a sample is approved, what happens when a defect is found, and who has authority to stop or release a shipment. Because the system is written down, a new employee, a new factory or a new customer can all be brought up to the same standard without starting over.
In apparel, the buyer's manual is where the system meets the supply chain. Leading brands and retailers develop compliance manuals that spell out their requirements in detail, and a factory that produces for several customers may work under several manuals at once, each with its own testing, labeling and inspection requirements. That is why the manuals matter as reference documents, and also why examples found online must be treated with care: a posted manual is a snapshot, it most likely contains outdated material, and the current version always has to be confirmed directly with the retailer or brand owner.
A QMS also gives quality problems somewhere to go. Testing results — for properties such as tensile strength, or colorfastness and crocking — feed back into the procedures that produced them, so a recurring failure changes the process rather than being caught garment by garment forever. Software built for quality management supports that loop by recording inspections and results in one place. Whether the system is a full manual or a leaner set of procedures scaled to a small company, the test is the same: clothing factories producing product of the highest possible quality, consistently, in a way the customer can verify.
A QMS is the collection of business processes, organizational structure, policies, procedures, processes and resources a company uses to maintain a quality policy and meet its quality objectives for clothing, footwear or fashion accessories.
The buyer's quality manual — also called a compliance or vendor manual — details a brand's or retailer's quality procedures in specific terms. Factories use it to set up adequate processes, and wholesalers and retailers are advised to provide one to their manufacturers.
Smaller companies are equally concerned with maintaining good quality, but they may not create a complete manual the way larger companies do, possibly because of limited time and other resources.