What Does a Garment Factory Audit Check?

A garment factory audit checks five things: legal and business documents, the physical workshop and equipment, the quality control process, working conditions, and real production capacity. Most buyer-side audits are completed in one day on site, and a remote video audit can cover four of the five areas in 60–90 minutes. We welcome third-party inspection, video walkthroughs and site visits, and the address is published on this website. Below is what an auditor actually looks at, mapped to what we can show on the day, so you know what to prepare and what a "pass" really means.

The five audit areas

Area	What the auditor checks	Evidence
Documents	Business licence, export rights, tax registration, contracts	Originals plus copies, seal matching the licence
Workshop and equipment	Machine list, layout, lighting, safety, storage	Physical walk-through, machine count against the list
QC process	Inline checks, final inspection, defect records, needle detection	Records per order, inspection station, working machine
Working conditions	Age records, hours, wages, safety exits, PPE	Payroll and attendance samples, interviews
Capacity	Lines, headcount, monthly output, order book	Capacity statement, current work-in-progress on the floor

Two rules for reading the result. First, an audit measures conformance to a standard, not quality — a factory can pass a social compliance audit and still sew a bad armhole. Second, a report is a snapshot. The useful question is not "did they pass" but "what did the auditor write down as an observation", because observations are where the real gaps sit.

Documents: what should be ready before the auditor arrives

• Business licence with the legal name, and the company seal that matches it.
• Export rights or the registration that allows direct export.
• Tax registration and recent invoices or customs records.
• Employment records: contracts, attendance, payroll, age verification for every worker on the floor.
• Machine list: type, brand and quantity, matching the physical floor, plus coverstitch and overlock machines for dance costumes, leotards and sportswear.
• Quality records: inspection reports, defect logs, needle detection logs.
• Certificates you actually hold — and, just as important, a clear statement of the ones you do not hold yet.

On that last point: our certification status is stated honestly on the factory page, including what we do not have yet and when we expect to have it. In place of certificates we publish the equipment list, capacity figures, process photos, working terms and anonymised order history. An auditor who is told the truth about a missing certificate writes a cleaner report than one who finds an inconsistency between the document pack and the floor.

Workshop and equipment: what an auditor sees in 20 minutes

An experienced auditor walks the floor and checks four things without being told:

1. Machine reality. Count the machines against the list. Our equipment list is published as a table with machine type, brand and quantity. If a machine matters for your style and it is not listed, ask — we would rather say no than take an order we cannot run.
2. Process flow. Does fabric move in one direction, or does work travel backwards across the floor? Reversed flow is where mixed size bundles and skipped operations come from.
3. Work in progress. How much is on the floor, in what stages, and does it match the capacity claim. Capacity figures reflect regular monthly output, and peak-season scheduling needs prior booking.
4. Storage and safety. Fabric store, trim store, finished goods area, exits, fire equipment, aisle width.

At our factory, cutting, sewing, quality control and packing are all completed in-house — that is four of the steps an auditor looks for, under one roof. Printing and embroidery are done by vetted partner workshops, and we say so rather than presenting them as ours.

QC process: the part that predicts your order

Social and document audits do not tell you whether your order will arrive correct. This section does.

Control point	What happens	When
Fabric check	Weight, shrinkage and shade confirmed against your standard	Before bulk cutting
First-piece check	First garment off the line measured against spec	At line start
Inline inspection	Checked during sewing, at the station	Throughout the run
Final inspection	Measurement and workmanship on finished pieces	After finishing
Needle detection	Every finished piece passes through a detector	Before packing

Every finished piece at our factory passes through a needle detector before packing. That is standard on every order, because a broken needle tip is a recall risk in any category. On stretch styles — dance costumes, gymnastics leotards and sportswear — we additionally confirm fabric weight and stretch recovery and run a shrinkage test before bulk cutting, so the finished garment matches the sample you approved. We agree a defect rate cap in writing before production starts, and pieces above the cap are remade or credited at our cost.

Working conditions: what auditors sample

This is the area factories get wrong most often, not because of conditions on the day but because of records. Auditors typically sample a cross-section of worker files, then cross-check the file against a face-to-face interview and the production records for the same week. If the attendance sheet shows twelve hours and the worker says eight, the report says so.

Practical preparation:

• Age documents on file for every worker, checked before hiring, not after an audit notice.
• Attendance, payroll and production records that agree with each other for the same period.
• Safety equipment in use, not stored: machine guards, masks where dust exists, clear exits.
• A named person responsible for compliance who can answer the auditor's questions directly.

Capacity: how to test the numbers

Ask for three figures and make them consistent: production lines, workers per line, and monthly output in pieces. Then ask one follow-up question — how much of next month is already booked. A factory with a full order book will tell you its next free slot; a factory that overstates capacity will promise your start date immediately, in peak season, with no questions asked. We publish our capacity figures and state plainly that peak scheduling requires prior booking.

If your audit is a buyer-side visit rather than a third-party social audit, bring a short list of style-specific questions: which machines are used for your construction, who does the pattern, who signs off the first piece, and where your goods will be stored. Video walkthroughs are welcome before you place an order, and we can walk through the cutting room, sewing lines, QC station and warehouse on a live call. Third-party inspection is also welcome: we schedule the line so your inspector sees the bulk goods, not a staged sample.

Before you book the audit

Send your audit scope and preferred dates in advance. For a third-party inspection, book it during bulk production rather than after packing so the inspector sees the goods in process. For a video audit, list the areas you want to see so the call is not a guided tour. Start from the factory page for our published equipment, capacity and certification status, or send your audit questions through the enquiry form and we reply within 24 hours. Our commercial commitments — MOQ, sampling, lead time, payment and after-sales — are on our working terms.

Frequently asked questions

Do you accept third-party inspection, and how is it scheduled?

Yes. Book the inspection and we will schedule production so your inspector sees the bulk goods rather than a staged sample. In practice that means the inspection is booked during the 30-day bulk window, not after packing. We also welcome a video walkthrough of the workshop before you place an order.

Do you have audit reports or certifications?

Our certification status is stated honestly on the factory page, including what we do not have yet and when we expect to have it. Where certificates are absent, we substitute verifiable data: the published equipment list, capacity figures, process photos, working terms and anonymised order history. If a specific certificate is a hard requirement for your buyer, tell us at enquiry stage so neither side wastes a sample round.

What should we prepare if we visit in person?

Bring your tech pack or reference sample and your audit checklist. On our side, the documents, machine list and QC records are available on site, and the address is published on this website. If you want to see a specific operation — needle detection, final inspection, packing — say so before the visit so the relevant line is running that day.