Inspection

Shipments of selected merchandise can be subjected to random-sampling inspections at the Exchange distribution centers by our QA inspectors or at suppliers’ facilities around the world by contracted third-party inspectors. A wide variety of merchandise that could be inspected include clothing, furniture, toys, small appliances, sporting goods, outdoor living items, luggage, kitchenware, jewelry, military clothing, giftware, shoes, etc. Samples are examined for product safety and conditions that may adversely affect their appearance, serviceability, or customers’ acceptance of the items. Shipments failing QA inspection are either cancelled or returned to suppliers, or re-inspected after suppliers correct the deficiencies.

Inspection data and quality performance of inspected suppliers are monitored and evaluated by the Quality Assurance Department at the Exchange headquarters. Inspection efforts are directed more towards the Exchange’s private label or direct import suppliers, new suppliers/shipments, or suppliers with relatively lower performance in quality inspections. Standard Inspection Procedures on a variety of merchandise are available to the Exchange suppliers upon request.

The Exchange inspection sampling plans are derived from MIL-STD-105E or ANSI / ASQ Z 1.4, Sampling Procedures and Tables for Inspection by Attributes (also known as ISO 2859-1, Sampling procedures for inspection by attributes - Part 1: Sampling schemes indexed by acceptance quality limit (AQL) for lot-by-lot inspection). They are designed to provide maximum inspection productivity while maintaining a high degree of random sampling reliability. Plans are provided for Acceptance Quality Levels of 2.5, 4.0, and 6.5 percent defective for different types of merchandise and are extracted from Inspection Levels I and II of the above standards. The acceptance criteria for the smaller (of the two) sample sizes in the Exchange sampling plans are based on Level I, tightened inspection, while acceptance criteria of the larger sample sizes are based on Level II, normal inspection. The rejection criteria in all sample sizes of the Exchange sampling plans are the same as that of Level II, normal inspection.