Significance of "Quality Control" in Leather Goods and Garment Production

The leather industry is one of the priority sectors that contribute to export income and economic development in the majority of African countries, in terms of creating job opportunities. Leather products need high care during manufacturing because their quality should never be compromised. Quality is a universal term used to evaluate the performance of a product or a service and the acceptance by the customer(s) in terms of customer satisfaction. As such, understanding quality concepts such as quality control (QC), quality standards, procedures, and documents related to leather goods and garment production in accordance with manufacturing company's policy is deemed useful within the context of this paper. Supervisors, quality controllers, and operators in leather products manufacturing firms need to know required quality parameters and associated control mechanisms so that defect-free products will reach the end users. In order to achieve this, quality-influencing parameters such as performance, reliability, durability, serviceability, esthetics, features, and conformance are measured so as to verify set quality levels. Furthermore, factors that affect the quality of leather goods and garments as well as methods of identifying and isolating common defects and faulty pieces especially in the finishing activities of leather production are included herein. Hence, this paper covers quality control aspects on leather goods observed within the garment manufacturing subsector.