Pre-Shipment Inspection in Pakistan: The Complete Buyer's Guide

What a pre-shipment inspection checks

An inspector attends the factory or warehouse, confirms the lot is the one on the purchase order, draws a random sample of cartons and pieces, and checks them against the specification both sides signed. The scope follows the order, but most programmes cover the same six things:

• Quantity and assortment: pieces, sizes and colours packed against the order.

• Workmanship: every visible defect in the sample, logged and classed as critical, major or minor.

• Measurements: key points measured against the size chart and its tolerances.

• On-site tests named in the order, such as a zip run, a seam pull or a barcode scan.

• Labels and marking: care, content and origin labels, swing tags and carton marks.

• Packing: carton count, carton condition, packing method and the packing list.

Two limits are worth stating plainly. An inspection is not certification: it reports on the lot presented on the day. And it is not a laboratory test: fibre content, colour fastness and restricted substances need analytical testing.

Timing differs by provider. Tti Inspections books pre-shipment inspection at the 100 percent packed stage, so every carton that will ship is in the population the sample is drawn from. Some providers start once 80 percent of the order is complete or export-packed (QIMA, Cotecna). That is faster, but the last fifth of the order is never in the sample.

How AQL sampling turns a lot into pass or fail

Three inputs decide the verdict. The lot size gives a code letter and a sample size. The inspection level adjusts that sample, and general level II is the default when nothing else is agreed. The acceptable quality limit (AQL), set separately for each defect class, gives the accept and reject numbers. The tables come from ANSI/ASQ Z1.4 and its international counterpart, ISO 2859-1.

The table below covers the lot sizes most apparel and home textile orders fall into, with the two AQLs buyers use most: 2.5 for major defects and 4.0 for minor ones.

Critical defects are the ones that could injure the user or break a legal requirement, such as a broken needle left in a garment or a small part that can come off a child's item. Most buyers accept none: a single critical defect in the sample fails the lot, whatever the major and minor counts show.

The sample does not grow in step with the lot. A lot 300 times bigger gets a sample only 10 times bigger, so the share of the order opened falls from about 4 percent at 3,000 pieces to about 1 percent at 30,000.

That is why the AQL matters more on big lots. On a 30,000-piece order at AQL 2.5, 14 major defects in a 315-piece sample still pass.

A worked example: 3,000 polo shirts

A buyer orders 3,000 polo shirts with critical 0, major 2.5 and minor 4.0 at general level II. The lot is code K, so the inspector opens 125 pieces drawn from cartons across the whole lot.

• Critical: none found. Passes.

• Major: 6 found, against an accept number of 7. Passes.

• Minor: 12 found, against a reject number of 11. Fails.

The lot fails on minor defects even though the major count passed, because each class is judged on its own. The usual next step is a sort and rework of the whole lot by the factory, then a re-inspection of a fresh sample at the same plan.

Switching rules: when the plan should tighten or relax

AQL plans are built for a run of lots from one supplier, not a single order. ISO 2859-1 sets three severities and the rules for moving between them:

• Normal to tightened: 2 lots out of 5 or fewer consecutive lots are not accepted on first inspection.

• Tightened back to normal: 5 consecutive lots are accepted.

• Normal to reduced: production is steady, the supplier has built up a strong run of accepted lots measured by the standard's switching score, and the responsible authority, usually the buyer, agrees.

• Reduced back to normal: any lot is not accepted, or production becomes irregular.

Tightened inspection uses stricter accept numbers, so a supplier with a poor record has to deliver better lots to pass. Writing the switching rules into the inspection protocol costs nothing and puts the pressure where the record says it belongs.

Book it so a failed lot can still be fixed

Count back from the vessel cut-off, not forward from the end of production. The plan needs the inspection day, the report, a rework window and a re-inspection, and only then loading. Tti Inspections confirms bookings within 24 hours and issues the report within 24 hours of the inspection finishing, which keeps the rework window as long as the production schedule allows.

Send these with the booking request, so the inspector checks the order the buyer placed and not the one the factory remembers:

• Purchase order with quantities by style, colour and size.

• Approved sample or its reference, and any comments from sample approval.

• Specification and size chart with tolerances.

• Defect list classed as critical, major and minor.

• AQL for each class and the inspection level.

• On-site tests to perform and how each is passed.

• Label and carton-mark artwork, and the packing list.

• Factory address, contact person and the planned ex-factory date.

What a report needs to hold up in a claim

The report is the product. If a dispute reaches a claim, it is the only record of what was in the cartons, so it has to let a third party repeat the decision.

• Lot identity: order number, styles, quantity presented and the carton numbers opened.

• Sampling basis: lot size, code letter, sample size, and the AQL and accept and reject numbers for each class.

• Defect log by class, with a photograph of each defect type.

• Measurements recorded against the tolerance, not just marked pass or fail.

• Quantity, assortment and carton counts against the packing list.

• Packing, labelling and carton condition, with photographs.

• The verdict with its arithmetic: PASS, FAIL or HOLD, and the count that decided it.

Pre-shipment inspection is one of eight stages

A final check finds problems when they are most expensive to fix. Tti Inspections runs eight stages for softlines, and a programme can use as many as the risk justifies: sample picking at about 10 percent of production, pre-production inspection before manufacturing begins, initial production inspection at about 10 to 20 percent, during-production inspection at about 30 to 60 percent, pre-final inspection at about 60 to 80 percent, pre-shipment inspection at 100 percent packed, a full check of every piece where the risk demands it, and loading supervision at the container.

Each stage answers a question the next cannot. Whether the fabric is right is answerable before cutting and too late at packing. Whether the right cartons went into the container is answerable only at loading.

What Tti Labs covers

Tti Labs' inspection arm, Tti Inspections Pvt Ltd, is accredited to ISO/IEC 17020 by the Pakistan National Accreditation Council under certificate IB-006, valid to 12 Sep 2027 and listed on the PNAC active register.

• Pre-shipment inspection against the purchase order, sampled to ANSI/ASQ Z1.4, with default limits of critical 0, major 2.5 and minor 4.0 at general level II unless the buyer sets others.

• Four-point fabric grading to ASTM D5430 where fabric is in scope.

• All eight softlines stages, so a programme can be built around the production moments that carry the risk.

• Laboratory follow-up under ISO/IEC 17025, PNAC accreditation LAB-022, when a defect raises a material question.

• Offices in Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad and Sialkot.

• Booking confirmed within 24 hours and the report within 24 hours of the inspection.

Tti Labs reports what it finds on the goods presented. A report does not certify the supplier's management system or guarantee that later production will match the lot inspected.

Book a pre-shipment inspection with Tti Inspections Pvt Ltd. UAN 111 786 001. Reports built to hold up in a claim.

Related guides: AQL Inspection in Pakistan: Sample Sizes, Accept and Reject Limits, Third-Party Inspection in Pakistan: How Independent QC Actually Works, Factory Audit in Pakistan: The Supplier Checklist Buyers Should Require, Denim QC in Pakistan: Shade, Wash and Measurement.