Understanding AQL 2.5 Inspection Standards in Garment Manufacturing
How Acceptable Quality Limit (AQL) tables work during pre-shipment inspections and how to set defect thresholds for bulk clothing orders.
Acceptable Quality Limit (AQL) is the statistical sampling standard used worldwide to determine whether a garment shipment meets buyer quality expectations.
In standard B2B garment sourcing, AQL 2.5 for Major Defects and AQL 4.0 for Minor Defects are standard benchmarks. Quality inspectors select sample cartons randomly according to ISO 2859-1 sampling tables.
Major defects include skipped stitches, out-of-tolerance measurements (+/- 1cm), open seams, and shade variation. Minor defects include untrimmed thread ends or slight packaging misalignments. A comprehensive final random inspection report guarantees carton integrity prior to freight forwarder dispatch.
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