Handbag Defect Classification: Three Classes, Twelve Codes and the Numbers Written Before the Draw

The Three Classes, Defined Before Anything Is Counted

Classification is administrative work performed in advance, not judgement exercised under pressure. A finding that was never defined at the specification stage becomes a negotiation at the audit table, and negotiation always favours whoever is holding the cartons. Three classes are enough; four invite argument, because the fourth is usually called cosmetic, and cosmetic is a matter of taste where the others are matters of arithmetic. Write your own examples under each heading before bulk opens rather than borrowing a generic list.

• Critical: a finding that makes the piece unsafe, unlawful or unsaleable, such as an unaccounted needle fragment in a panel or a handle that separates at its attachment under load. Zero tolerance applies, and one finding rejects the lot.
• Major: a finding a client would notice and return, such as a shade deviation above Delta E 1.5, a visible wave along the gusset seam, or an edge that has cracked at a corner. Counted against the accept number.
• Minor: a deviation inside tolerance that does not affect saleability, such as stitch tension variation that still measures 8-9 per inch. Counted, monitored and trended across lots rather than contested.
• Zero-tolerance items written separately: named findings that override the accept number entirely, such as a mis-spelled monogram or a missing interior component.
• Declared characteristics: natural markings accepted on the sealed reference, since a healed scar deliberately placed by the marker is character rather than a fault.

Twelve Codes That Survive Translation

Codes do three things words cannot. They keep the sheet short when four people are reading it in two languages, they let you tot up the same finding across lots, and they stop a description such as “edge not good” from being reinterpreted by whoever happens to be holding the pen. Twelve families cover most structural failures on a leather body with metal fittings; add style-specific codes only where a recurring failure earns one.

Two of those codes do most of the damage in practice. HW-02 and HW-03 sit inside the unit where no client can see them until the day a lock will not close or a foot catches on silk, and SFT-01 is the one finding that no quantity of good stitching can compensate for.

The Zero-Tolerance List That Never Reaches a Vote

A critical finding stops the line rather than joining a tally. That distinction matters because a zero-tolerance defect discovered by the client is a recall, while the same defect discovered at the bench is a repair, and the distance between those two outcomes is measured in reputation rather than money. Write the list before sampling payment is made, ask for the line-stop procedure in writing, and name who may authorise a restart.

1. Stop the affected operation and quarantine every unit touched since the last in-process check.
2. Account for the physical cause: recover the whole needle before a replacement is issued, and log the event against the operation.
3. Inspect the quarantine population unit by unit rather than by draw, since critical findings are rare and clustered.
4. Correct the cause, not only the symptom, then record what changed in the specification for the next capsule.
5. Release the restart on a written authorisation, with the reopened draw documented alongside the original finding.

Major Findings Against the Accept Number

Major findings are the working currency of the audit: common enough to appear on every lot, serious enough to decide whether the cartons travel. They are counted against the accept number set by lot size and inspection level, which is why the numbers below belong in the specification rather than in the memory of whoever attends the draw.

A 500 pcs style therefore draws 50 units, or roughly one bag in ten, and passes with three major findings on the sheet. Founders read that as permission to ship imperfect goods; read correctly it is the tolerable process average of a continuing series of lots, and the correct response to a recurring finding is to change the specification, not to argue about the unit.

Minor Findings: Counted, Then Actually Used

Minors are where the return on record-keeping lives. Individually they change nothing; together they are the earliest signal that a pattern is drifting, a needle is dulling or a lot of hide is behaving differently from the last one. Three rules turn them from noise into a warning: a per-lot review threshold, a promotion rule across lots, and a reporting interval short enough for the information still to be actionable.

Review threshold

12 minor findings of any single code on one 500 pcs lot triggers a process review

Promotion rule

The same minor code appearing in 3 consecutive lots is reclassified as major

Recording unit

Tallied per drawn unit, so per-100-unit rates compare across styles and seasons

Reporting interval

Sheet issued within 24 hours of the draw and before packing release

Trend horizon

Compared across the last 5 lots rather than against the previous one alone

Where Each Class Surfaces in the Sequence

Every finding has a least costly moment, and the multiplier below is the argument for inspecting early. The figures are relative: one unit of cost is a single skin replaced at incoming material, so the same failure intercepted at the final draw costs forty because it has travelled through cutting, assembly, finishing and packing on its way to becoming forty problems.

Zero-Tolerance Clauses Written Separately

Some findings are small in cost and enormous in consequence, and those belong in their own clause rather than inside a class. A wrong letter in a monogram costs nothing to correct before the parts are cut and everything afterwards; an interior component missing from one unit in fifty is statistically acceptable under most plans and commercially unacceptable to the client who receives that one. Name them, keep them outside the accept number, and check them at a higher rate than the rest of the draw.

• Monogram or foil detail incorrect in letter, position or kerning.
• Any interior component missing from a finished unit.
• Lining or dust cover supplied in the wrong specified colourway.
• Magnet closure reversed in polarity, so the flap will not stay closed.
• Barcode, care card or origin labelling mismatched against the style record.

Switching Rules Most Programmes Forget

A single lot is judged once; a series is judged by rules that tighten and loosen around the middle. ISO 2859-1 carries switching procedures that many programmes never mention, and they are the reason two brands can inspect the same numbers and end up with different long-run quality. Knowing them costs nothing and changes how a specification should be written.

1. Normal to tightened when 2 of any 5 consecutive lots are rejected: the same sample size is kept while the accept number falls.
2. Tightened back to normal once 5 consecutive lots have been accepted under the tightened plan.
3. Discontinuation when 5 consecutive lots remain on tightened inspection, at which point all further lots stop until the process is corrected.
4. Reduced inspection is available after a sustained run of accepted lots and with agreement on both sides, though it rarely suits a first capsule.

What Goes on the Sheet, Field by Field

The sheet is the artefact a retailer, an insurer or a marketplace will eventually ask for, and a sheet assembled afterwards is a reconstruction rather than a record. Nine fields make it usable: enough to identify the lot without a phone call, and few enough that it still gets filled in on a Friday afternoon.

Lot identity

Style reference, colourway, purchase order and quantity submitted

Plan used

Standard reference, AQL value, inspection level and code letter

Units drawn

Individual unit numbers, not merely a total count

Per-unit tallies

Each finding recorded by code against the unit it was found on

Classification column

Critical, major or minor assigned at the time of the finding

Photographic set

Images of every critical and every disputed finding

Instrument readings

Thickness, shade and build figures with the gauge used

Decision line

Accept, reject or accept-with-rework, signed and dated

Re-check record

Result of the second draw appended to the original finding

Cost, Records and the File You Keep

Documentation handling for a lot file starts at USD 4.80 and covers assembly of the set rather than the testing itself, which is quoted separately and only earns its fee when it is booked against a named lot. Our validated partner factory Quanzhou Yingming Bags, an SGS-validated site, has run export programmes since 2014 across 7 production lines at about 200,000 pcs per month, with sampling taking 6-10 working days and bulk 35-50 days. Minimum order quantities run at 500 pcs per style and colourway, which is also the lot size most of the plans above are quoted against.

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