Helping Inbound Quality Assurance Teams Succeed
May 29, 2019
Inbound QA teams in the distribution center have big responsibilities. They are the last set of eyes to audit merchandise prior to its debut for retail sales. They need to look for sewing defects, excessive threads, defected pull cords, sizing specifications, water repellent issues, zippers, buttons, odor issues, mold and much more!
Although well trained and prepared for success, teams are increasingly faced with multiple challenges:
- A very diverse array of potential quality issues to examine
- High volumes of product that arrives daily from overseas
- Challenges of finding capacity, space and resources to quickly resolve “quality holds” when they are discovered
- Pressures of time to get product cleared and into retail stores
- Reliance or hope that the overseas QA teams have properly verified that goods sent to the U.S. meet standards and specifications
When looking at potential losses in the millions of dollars, not counting your company’s reputation when quality issues are not addressed upon arrival in the US, the QA team is faced with the Quality Conundrums.
QCI – Your Quality Crisis Management Partners
Even if your factories are running at 99% accuracy, problems still happen. When you find your imported shipments in need of some assistance, Quality Corrections & Inspections thrives in the “Crisis Management” business and is at the ready for general operations and specialized tasks.
What do you do when your distribution center receives a shipment that is less than desirable? For example, a shipment of wet clothing, the kind of box that when opened is enough to say…. “wave the red flag!”
How can Quality Corrections & Inspections help your company to save money with this type of shipment? Mildew and mold remediation are everyday services at QCI. Sometimes a large batch visit to the ozone chamber can resolve an odor problem. Most often the garments need laundering, retagging, folding, and new polybags.
Even Complex Quality Challenges Can Be Solved
Quality issues can often be complex to solve.
For example, color bleed and dye migration are common occurrences that can happen when two unlike fabrics are sewn together and the dominant color can bleed ink onto the lighter color leaving it to look like a preschool art project. Similarly, who knew that hang tags could pose a problem? However, when wet they too can bleed onto garments and leave their calligraphy and color markings on their garments!
The trained technicians at QCI can turn all your laundering problems around without turning the ship around and have your merchandise into retail stores in time for their launch.
Meeting Product Compliance Standards
There are a variety of product compliance standards that apply to products such as apparel, footwear and travel goods. For example, care, content, and country of origin labels are carefully examined by regulators and inbound QA teams for compliance. And, labels are regularly presented on products in a variety of formats such as sewn-in, woven, heat transferred and tag-less.
Many distribution centers are not equipped with the staff, expertise or the variety of equipment that might be needed to handle high volume label changes.
QCI has the capabilities to quickly and cost-effectively address the wide variety of label changes that may be required by the QA team.
Similarly, when a company cancels an order from an overseas factory, QCI can be at the ready to change labels for purposes of a brand change or sale of the product to another retailer.
Hit the Ground Running When Your Footwear is not “Floor Ready”
Footwear has its own run of interesting quality conundrums ranging from organic mold to footbed issues, various kinds of refinishing or stitching issues, delaminating soles, and leather blooming.
One of the top trending issues in the rework industry is hardware replacement. Buckles and eyelets are often in need of reinforcement or even replacement as they are not secured well enough onto a boot.
Sometimes they have oxidized or even rusted during the trip from the overseas factory to the U.S. distribution center!
Another trending quality issue is inadequate adhesive or bonding of the insoles to the sole of the shoe.
This problem requires knowledge of adhesives but is easily rectified and important for brand quality and to present a floor ready product in stores.
In other cases, problems are just simple quirky fixes. For example, incorrect shoelace colors or sizes in a few thousand pairs of athletic shoes.
Request a Free Project Analysis Today
When the unexpected happens, QCI address your quality conundrums and can fix your “uh-oh’s”!
Contact us anytime for a no-obligation project analysis. We’ll get back to you with complete project details and a free estimate as quickly as possible.
