The most common quality problems with Indian textiles are shade variation between rolls and lots, shrinkage above the agreed limit, GSM and width running short, and weaving faults above the agreed point count. Colourfastness failures, skew, short rolls and damp cargo follow close behind. None is unique to India, but the structure of the industry makes some more likely. Many mills in Ahmedabad and Surat are not composite mills. Weaving, processing and finishing often happen at three separate units, and each handover is a place where a defect can enter and nobody owns it.
The problems below appear most often in inspection reports and claims. In each case the cause is known and the prevention is cheap compared with a rejected container.
The defects that appear most often
- Shade variation. Rolls from different dye lots, or from the two ends of one batch, do not match, and centre to selvedge shading shows up on wide widths. The cause is usually small batches, loose lab dip control or mixed lots at packing.
- Shrinkage above the limit. Fabric that was not sanforised, or was pulled wide on the stenter to make width, shrinks 5 to 8 percent in the wash when the spec said 3.
- GSM short. The mill reduces pick density or uses a finer weft to save yarn, or the finishing stretched the cloth. A 5 percent shortfall looks small on paper and is large on cost.
- Width short. Cuttable width is less than stated because the fabric relaxed after a wide stenter setting, or because damaged selvedges must be trimmed.
- Skew and bowing. Weft runs off square, usually from the finishing range, so stripes and checks cannot be cut straight.
- Weaving defects. Broken ends, missing picks, slubs, reed marks, oil stains and thick places. These are counted under the four-point system and should not exceed the agreed points per 100 square yards.
- Colourfastness failures. Poor washing off after dyeing leaves loose dye, dark shades on cotton fail wet rubbing, and some reactive blacks and turquoises fail light.
- Short length per roll. Roll tickets state 100 metres and the roll measures 96, or rolls contain more joins than allowed.
- Moisture and mould. Fabric packed at high humidity during the monsoon, or in a container that sweats, arrives spotted.
- Yarn substitution. A cheaper cotton or a different count is used after the sample was approved, which shows as a change in hand feel, strength or pilling.
- Late delivery. Processing houses run many customers' work through the same ranges, and a small order waits behind large ones.
Why these faults get through
Most of these faults are visible before shipment. The fault gets through because the mill grades its own goods, because the inspection sample was chosen from the best rolls, or because the buyer checked a lab dip but never tested a bulk lot. Price pressure matters too. A mill that quoted a very low price recovers margin on pick density, GSM and roll length, and a buyer who did not write tolerances has no basis to complain.
Subcontracted processing is the other weak point. When the weaver sends greige to a processing house, the processor works to the weaver's instructions rather than to your spec, and the weaver may not have passed the spec on at all.
How to prevent them
Write tolerances and test methods into the spec and attach it to the purchase order. Approve a lab dip, then a bulk shade sample from the first lot, and require shade lot numbers on every roll ticket so lots can be kept apart at cutting. Have a cutting from every bulk lot tested at an independent lab for shrinkage, GSM and colourfastness before the goods are packed.
Inspect at the mill before packing, not at your warehouse. A four-point inspection of 10 percent of rolls, chosen at random by your inspector, finds shade, width, skew and roll length problems while the mill can still fix them. Ask for silica gel and polythene wrapping on each roll between June and September, and have the container checked for leaks before loading at Mundra or Hazira.
How we help
We inspect fabric at the mill against your spec, choose rolls at random, and send sealed cuttings to an NABL-accredited lab. We supervise loading at the port and send a weekly update with photographs while the order is in production. If a supplier keeps slipping on shade or GSM, we offer a free 20-minute sourcing review.