Care, Maintenance, Quality Control and Entrepreneurship
This domain covers garment care, quality inspection and the business side of garment production. The exam tests care labels, stain removal, quality checks and basic entrepreneurial planning.
Care and maintenance
Care labels use five basic symbols: washtub for washing, triangle for bleaching, square for drying, iron for ironing and circle for dry cleaning. Dots or bars indicate temperature and cycle. Sort clothes by colour and fabric, turn garments inside out, use mild detergent for silk and wool, dry in shade and store with protection from moths and damp. Treat stains promptly: cold water for blood, solvent for oil, blotting rather than rubbing.
Quality control
Inspection occurs at fabric, cutting, stitching and finishing stages. Common checks are measurement against spec, seam strength, stitch density, colour matching, symmetry, thread trimming and needle detection. The 4-point fabric inspection system assigns penalty points for defects; a lower score indicates better fabric. AQL sampling is used for lot inspection.
Entrepreneurship
A small garment unit needs market research, product choice, costing, pricing, sourcing, production planning, quality control and marketing. A cost sheet includes fabric, trims, labour, overheads and wastage. Break-even is the point where revenue covers total cost.
Worked example
A producer makes 100 kurtis. Fabric costs ₹150 each, trims ₹20, labour ₹80 and overheads ₹50, giving ₹300 per unit. Selling at ₹450 gives ₹150 contribution. Fixed costs of ₹15,000 are covered after 100 units. Reasoning: break-even quantity equals fixed cost divided by contribution per unit.
Traps
Ignoring care-label symbols. Rubbing a stain and spreading it. Inspecting only the finished garment. Pricing without overheads. Confusing profit with contribution.
Key points
- Care labels use five standard symbol groups.
- Silk and wool need mild detergent and shade drying.
- Quality checks run from fabric to finishing.
- The 4-point system scores fabric defects.
- Break-even quantity = fixed cost ÷ contribution per unit.