AQL inspections, explained

A sample size is drawn from the lot according to a published table, and defects found are classified as critical, major or minor. Each class carries an acceptance number: find more than that many and the lot is rejected. A typical apparel standard accepts more minor defects than major ones and no critical ones.

The inspection is therefore a decision rule, not a measurement. A lot that passes still contains defects, at a rate the buyer has agreed in advance to tolerate.

Assortment. An AQL inspection examines the quality of garments, not whether the shipment contains the sizes and styles that were ordered. A lot can pass inspection comfortably and still be wrong in the only respect that matters commercially, which is the failure mode described in prepacks versus loose cartons.

Specify the standard in the purchase order rather than leaving it to the inspection agency. Define what counts as critical for the category. Inspect before shipment rather than on arrival, because a rejection at origin is a production problem and a rejection at destination is a freight and duty problem too. And keep the inspection report, since it is contemporaneous evidence of condition at a known date.