Understanding AQL 2.5 without the jargon

Acceptable Quality Limit decides whether a batch ships or fails. We break down what the numbers actually mean on the factory floor.

AQL — Acceptable Quality Limit — is the math that turns a pile of garments into a pass or a fail. It sounds intimidating, but the core idea is simple: how many defects are you willing to tolerate before you reject the whole batch?

The numbers, plainly

An AQL of 2.5 for major defects means a brand will accept at most 2.5% of the sampled units carrying a major flaw — a broken zipper, a misaligned seam. Cross that line and the batch fails, regardless of how good the rest looked.

• Critical defects: limit is zero — anything that could hurt the wearer.
• Major defects: a flaw that gets the item returned to the store.
• Minor defects: a cosmetic imperfection a customer might overlook.

The trap is the sampling. Pull the wrong sample size and your 2.5 means nothing. That's why the inspection app should calculate the sample for the auditor — not leave it to a tired human with a calculator at the end of a long shift.