Product inspection is the process of checking goods for compliance with your specifications and requirements. Generally conducted at the factory manufacturing your product. Samples are checked against a detailed inspection plan for appearance, applicable functionality, packaging integrity, workmanship, and your specific requirements. Discovered defects are classified as major, minor, or critical depending on inspection plans.

Inspections help minimise the risk of defective products by ensuring they meet both customer standards and industry and government regulations. This serves to protect your reputation avoiding recall and shipment delays.

There are several types of inspections available throughout the production process; initial production inspection (IPC), During Production (DUPRO) and Pre-Shipment inspections (PSI). IPC - Initial production samples are inspected prior to volume production. This inspection in quality verifies that product specifications are being met and avoids unnecessary reengineering work later. DUPRO - random samples are evaluated from production lots when the process is ~20-30% complete. This confirms the quality of your product and allows any necessary changes to be addressed early on, reducing rework time and costs. PSI - finished goods are verified conforming to the purchase order specifications i.e. colour, workmanship, label, function, fit, packaging, etc.). A pre-shipment inspection (PSI) generally occurs when production is 100% complete and packaging is 80% complete.

AQL stands for Acceptable Quality Level. It is defined as the "quality level that is the worst tolerable". International standard ISO2859 (equivalent to MIL-STD-105e, ANSI/ASQC Z1.4-2003, NF06-022, BS6001, DIN40080, and GB2828) is widely adopted to measure the acceptable quality level of the products inspected.

One is the table to determine the code letters as per the lot size (see table A below), the other is the AQL table (see table B below) which tells the sample size should be chosen and the maximum acceptable defect counts.

Shipment quantity is firstly decided and if general inspection levels-II is selected to be the sampling method, sample size code letter can be obtained from Table A. With this code letter sample size can be determined from Table B for single sampling plan. Depending on the AQL being chosen, the corresponding acceptance number and rejection number can be determined.

CRITICAL A Defect that is likely to result in unsafe conditions or contravene mandatory regulation. MAJOR A Defect that would reduce the usability of the product or show an obvious visual defect affecting the sellability of the product. MINOR A Defect that does not reduce the usability of the product but do not meet the defined quality standard.

Majority of the retailers are specifying General inspection Level II in their purchase order. The common AQL for defects acceptance are: Critical: 0; Major: 2.5; Minor: 4.0.

ICW secures the best price in only 3 simple steps. With the price comparison feature, ICW marketplace is allowing you to seamlessly filter through tens of inspection quotations from various labs to find the best quote for you. Your inspection report would be uploaded into our cloud storage and can be accessed real-time anytime and anywhere.