Quality Control Inspection & Audit Service for Footwear & Shoes

Quality Assurance and Quality Control for the Footwear Industry

With over 40 years’ experience in the footwear industry, Pro QC International presents a wide range of quality assurance and quality control solutions to shoe manufacturers and retailers.

In the footwear industry, fashion and comfort must always go hand in hand. In addition, shoe manufacturers and retailers must comply with international regulations and adapt their working methods to suit market expectations. This is challenging due to the complexity of the global footwear supply chain.

Since 1984, Pro QC International has helped companies match the quality of their shoes with international standards through our industry experience and technical expertise. Our team brings our expertise to bear on supplier qualifications and prototype development and to mass production and shipping. This allows our customers to ensure quality and reduce production delays. We control footwear quality and secure the supply chain of our clients with factory audits, QMS audits, social audits, ISO 14001 audits, shoe inspections, and supplier management services.

Pro QC’s highly skilled inspectors and auditors conduct quality control solutions for the footwear industry. Ensuring social and environmental compliance and the quality of shoes when outsourcing to a supplier or producing abroad can be challenging and costly without an anchored presence on the ground. Pro QC operates in all major footwear manufacturing regions, including China, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Italy, Germany, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Spain, Poland, United Kingdom, Portugal, Romania, United States, Mexico, Brazil, Tunisia, Morocco, and many more countries.

Shoe Quality Control

The several parts of a shoe such as heels, soles, and laces, are often produced by different suppliers and then assembled elsewhere. This makes the production process complex and can lead to quality challenges. Quality defects in the footwear industry are often related to dimensions, excess glue, degumming, marks and dents, asymmetry, packaging, and incorrect labeling. During a quality control inspection of shoes, our inspector covers quantity, package and packaging, product style/construction, logo, labeling, markings, accessories, measurement, functional and performance tests, and more.

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Textile Quality

Social Compliance

In factories with insufficient health and safety procedures and lack of compliance with regulations, workers can suffer from very harsh working conditions that lead to health and work-related harm. Other social compliance concerns include child labor and discrimination. A social audit allows a company to verify the compliance of a supplier and take the necessary corrective action. Several auditable standards apply to the footwear industry, including SA8000, WRAP, SMETA, and BSCI.

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Environmental Compliance

The footwear industry is increasingly adopting new materials and manufacturing methods to improve its environmental impact. The negative impact on the environment from conventional shoe manufacturing is mainly due to the processes and materials used. For example, in some countries, many chemicals are used for the tanning process and discharged into rivers, riverbanks, or near fields, thus polluting water and soil.
To ensure environmental compliance in their entire supply chain, companies need to audit their suppliers, implement environmental management systems such as ISO 14001, and take the necessary actions to improve their impact on the environment. Pro QC provides ISO 14001 gap analysis audits, preparation for certification, and consulting services.

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Environmental Compliance

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Our Application

Pro QC International’s broad range of Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) solutions for the footwear industry can be applied to improve factory performance or to control the quality of your product categories such as:

Leather footwear
Rubber footwear
Textile footwear
Footwear parts

Quality Assurance and Quality Control Services for shoes

Manufacturing Audits and Advisory

Take advantage of our end-to-end comprehensive approach to improve your supply chain performance.

Manufacturing Process Audits
Process Improvement
Production Capacity Analysis (Run & Rate)
Quality Investigation (root cause investigation of a defective product)
Root Cause Analysis
Corrective Action Follow-Up
Process Failure Mode Effects Analysis (PFMEA)
Continuous Improvement

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Supplier and Factory audits

Pro QC’s range of comprehensive audits for the footwear industry include:

Supplier Verification
Supplier Quality Audits
ISO 9001 Quality Management System Audits
ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Audits
ISO 45001 Management Systems of Occupational Health and Safety Audits
Social Compliance Audits: SA8000, WRAP, SMETA, BSCI
Supply Chain Security Audits
Combined Audits

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Footwear Quality Inspection Services

Our quality control inspections for shoes include:

First-Article Inspections (FAI) are performed prior to mass production. Product properties are measured and compared with specifications to verify quality matches.
In-Process Inspections (IPI) ensure that the processes and techniques used to manufacture textile and garments are followed.
Pre-Shipment Inspections (PSI) verify the conformity of textile to specifications before shipping. Inspectors evaluate workmanship, functionality, packaging, labeling, and other criteria as required.
Container Loading Supervision (CLS) ensures that proper methods are employed during product loading, and counts are verified on-site.
Sorting services are used to inspect production and detect quality issues or perform rework operations.

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Supplier Management

Pro QC’s Supplier Management Solutions enhance compliance and performance of the entire supplier portfolio by:

Performing an on-site risk assessment
Establishing a corrective action plan
Verifying corrective action implementation through detailed follow-up activities
Scheduling subsequent annual visits based on supplier risk level
Providing a supplier portfolio dashboard and performance analysis

Our supplier management team will create a customized checklist that meets even the most exacting requirements. The supplier management service is particularly suitable for small QA teams with a large supplier base across the globe. Pro QC assists these teams in investigating and resolving compliance and quality issues in a timely and cost-effective manner.

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Why Pro QC International?

Partnership

Pro QC genuinely sees your company and your suppliers as partners looking for growth and improvement. We don’t just give pass/fail results. We provide professional recommendations, facilitation, and performance management to achieve the desired results.

Quality Dashboard

Pro QC’s quality dashboard provides a holistic dashboard view of your supplier portfolio including data analytics to better understand and determine the next action required at your supplier.

Experience & Expertise

Pro QC has overseen successful supplier transformation projects which have helped companies from the textile industry achieve their quality goals.

Global Presence

Pro QC has agile teams of textile engineers in more than 88 countries ready to meet your quality assurance needs for projects ranging from a quality inspection of textile to a comprehensive audit.