Skip to content
ATMA Apparel & Textile Merchandising Academy
English
Log in Create account

Guide

AQL and final inspection

A statistical inspection method that checks a sample of goods and uses an agreed rule to pass or fail the whole batch.

This guide explains the words you will meet on this topic and shows which ATMA lessons teach each step. The definitions are from the ATMA glossary, in English, Arabic, French and Turkish.

Key terms

AQL (Acceptable Quality Level)
A statistical inspection method that checks a sample of goods and uses an agreed rule to pass or fail the whole batch. · AR مستوى الجودة المقبول (AQL) · FR Niveau de qualité acceptable (NQA) · TR Kabul edilebilir kalite düzeyi (AQL)
Bulk production
Making the full quantity of the order, as opposed to a small sample. · AR الإنتاج بكميات كبيرة · FR Production en série · TR Toplu üretim

From the course

This page is for anyone who has to answer a question that sounds odd the first time it is asked: how can checking only some of the pieces in an order tell you anything about the pieces nobody looked at. AQL, short for Acceptable Quality Level, is the answer the whole apparel industry has agreed on. It is a statistical inspection method: pull a sample of a known size from the whole lot, count the defects found in that sample, and compare the count against two fixed numbers, one that lets the lot pass and one that fails it.

From the lesson “What AQL means and why a factory inspects a sample, not every piece” · part of the full course

What you will learn

These ATMA lessons cover the topic, from the basics to building a working document or checklist.

  1. What AQL means and why a factory inspects a sample, not every pieceThis page is for anyone who has to answer a question that sounds odd the first time it is asked: how can checking only some of the pieces in an order tell you…
  2. Reading an AQL sampling table to find the right sample size and acceptance numberThis page is for anyone who has agreed to run an AQL inspection and now needs the two numbers the method actually runs on: how many pieces to pull, and how many…
  3. What happens when a final inspection fails, and the options that followThis page is for anyone standing in front of a lot that has just failed, needing to know what happens now, because a failed inspection is not the end of the story…
  4. Building a complete AQL final inspection report for a shipmentThis page is for anyone who has run every individual step this course covers and now needs to put them in one place a buyer can actually rely on, because a…
  5. In-line quality checks during sewing versus end-of-line final inspectionIn-line and final inspection are not two names for the same thing done at different times.

Start with one full lesson, free. No account is needed for the first lesson of the course.

Read the free lesson See the full course map

Quick answers

What does “AQL” mean in garment merchandising?

A statistical inspection method that checks a sample of goods and uses an agreed rule to pass or fail the whole batch.

What does “Bulk production” mean in garment merchandising?

Making the full quantity of the order, as opposed to a small sample.

Related guides