Program Overview
This program, helps participants move beyond inspection-heavy models to build a culture of first-time-right manufacturing and defect prevention. The program blends lean quality concepts, real-world apparel factory examples, and hands-on exercises to equip participants to identify defect drivers, apply prevention tools like Poka-Yoke, RCA, inline quality gates, and create action plans for sustainable quality excellence. Participants will walk away with practical frameworks to reduce rework, improve delivery performance, and protect profitability.
Features
- Understand zero-defect manufacturing beyond traditional inspection
- Identify defect sources and cost-of-poor-quality hotspots in apparel production
- Apply practical tools (Poka-Yoke, RCA, quality gates) to prevent defects
- Build a factory-specific action plan for zero-defect implementation
Target audiences
- Factory GMs / Plant Heads
- Quality Heads / QA-QC Managers
- Production Managers / Line Supervisors
- Industrial Engineers, Lean / TPM / CI Leads
Curriculum
- 5 Sections
- 19 Lessons
- 1 Day
Expand all sectionsCollapse all sections
- Zero Defect – Beyond Inspections to Process Ownership4
- 1.1Zero Defect: Meaning, evolution, and why it matters now
- 1.2The cost of defects: Direct + hidden costs (rework, customer penalties, brand damage)
- 1.3Key Terms: First-Time-Right (FTR), Defect Cost Pyramid, COPQ (Cost of Poor Quality), DHU (Defects per Hundred Units)
- 1.4Example: A mid-tier export house saved 10% cost by reducing inline defect rate through process control
- Apparel Manufacturing — Where Defects Are Born4
- 2.1Common defect sources: Cutting: misalignment, marker issues; Stitching: seam slippage, wrong thread; Finishing: incorrect trims, stains, packaging errors
- 2.2Root drivers: skill gaps, poor process design, material issues, lack of SOPs
- 2.3Activity: Process Flow Defect Mapping (cut to pack)
- 2.4Caselet: Inline DHU reduced from 6% to 3% in a knitwear unit
- Tools & Practices for Zero Defect3
- 3.1Defect prevention tools: Poka-Yoke (mistake proofing); SOP Standardization + Operator Visual Aids; Inline Quality Gates; First Article Inspection (FAI); Root Cause Analysis (5 Why, Fishbone)
- 3.2KPI Focus: RFT%, DHU, Rework %
- 3.3Case: Denim factory using Andon + Poka-Yoke to reduce pocket misplacement defects
- Simulation - Zero Defect Problem Solving4
- Sustaining Zero Defect4