Three emails about the same loose button
The new cardigans went live on Tuesday. By Friday, three customers have emailed with photos of buttons hanging by a thread. Your warehouse opens a carton and finds more of the same. The delivery had been booked in, scanned and put away on the day it arrived, because the drop was waiting. Nobody opened more than a couple of garments.
Now you have units out with customers, units on the shelf that might be faulty, and a factory asking for evidence of how many are affected.
Why checks get skipped
- Goods-in is judged on speed to get stock sellable.
- There is no written sampling rule, so how much gets checked depends on the day.
- Fault types differ by garment, but checkers work from memory.
- Faults found are not recorded, so there is nothing to show the factory.
- Nobody has the authority to hold a delivery.
When a third-party inspection happens at the factory, brands sometimes stop checking at their end. A factory inspection is a sample too, and things happen in transit.
What faulty stock costs
| Fault found by | What it costs |
|---|---|
| Customer | Return, apology, maybe a review |
| Customer service | Time spent on each case |
| Warehouse later | Re-checking stock already put away |
| Nobody | A factory claim with no evidence |
How we build a goods-in check that sticks
- For each delivery, the tool tells the checker how many garments to open from each style, colour and size, based on a sampling rule you choose.
- A checklist per product type appears on a phone: seams, buttons, zips, print alignment, colour against the approved sample, care and size labels, measurements for key points.
- Each fault is recorded with a tap, a photo and the carton it came from.
- If faults pass a level you set, the delivery is put on hold in your stock system, so it cannot be sold until a person decides what to do.
- Held stock can be fully checked, sorted into sellable and faulty, or kept for the factory.
- A fault log by delivery and factory builds up over time, with photos, ready for claims and for the next conversation about quality.
A normal delivery afterwards
The cardigans arrive. The checker scans the delivery note, and the phone says to open a set number from each colour and size. Two have loose buttons. That is above your level for buttons, so the delivery is held automatically. The team checks every button, pulls the faulty ones and releases the rest, and the drop goes live a day later with clean stock. The factory gets the fault log and photos the same afternoon.
Checks that fit the season
The checklist changes with the product: knitwear needs different checks from printed jersey or tailoring. Colour checks against the approved lab dip are easier with a reference swatch photographed under the same light. Measurement checks can use the tech pack's points of measure, so the checker knows what tolerance is allowed. What you claim from the factory, and how, is set by your agreement with them; the log gives you evidence, not a legal position.
Returns feed the same log. When a customer sends back a cardigan with a loose button, the returns bench records it as a fault against the delivery it came from, so a problem that slipped past the sample still counts towards the factory's record. Over a season, you can see which factories and which product types produce the most faults, and which checks catch them, which is useful when you plan where to place next season's orders.
Signs faults are getting through
- Customers report faults before your team does.
- Goods-in checks depend on who is on shift.
- There is no record of faults by factory or delivery.
- Faulty stock has been sold because a delivery was not held.
- You struggle to evidence a claim to a factory.