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- Feb 1, 2015
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Two decades ago, when I worked for a medical device company, our Quality Assurance Manager, a professional in the field, told us that, if customers were not complaining about the product, we were building too much quality into it. As an engineering manager, if I saw a product deficiency, I made every effort to correct the deficiency. I realize that there is a cost for additional quality and the line has to be drawn at some point but, IMO, it is a matter of ethics.
Later, when I was involved with a startup biotech company, we need to have some prototype molding done of a technically challenging plastic part. We contacted a nationally known American company and had the choice of going with a mold and parts made in USA but with an aluminum mold of rather short life span or with a steel Chinese mold and Chinese made parts. We opted for the latter. As stated the part was technically challenging and the process of getting suitable molded parts was far more involved than either we or the vendor imagined.
Everything went along not great but acceptable for a few years. We place product specifications on the parts and insisted on them being individually inspected before leaving the factory. As might be expected, this brought price increases, ultimately reaching tenfold. Unexpectedly, we got a shipment that was total crap, not even close to meeting our specs. After a bit of investigation, we found out the the press that they were molding on had died so they sent the work to a different factory where they had no idea as to what was being done to ensure meeting our quality standards.
To be fair, a few years later the company that acquired us decided to bring the production back stateside. We haggled around, soliciting bids for the mold design and manufacture and for production parts. We finally picked a regional company (against my better judgement). There was a sizable cost for the mold and we also had to pay for a third party mold flow analysis. First production parts were to have come off in about six months. This process began four years ago and they still have not produced a production part.
Offshore manufacturers make products cheaply because they employ cheap labor. Many times the production workers are not aware they are making poor products. I don't believe that anyone, given the choice between making a bad product or making a good part and all else being equal is going to make the bad product. That doesn't mean that there isn't some plant manager trying to squeeze a little more production out of their plant or a QA inspector using the squeal test for appropriate product quality. The solution for that though is vigilance on the part of the US importer or manufacturing counterpart.
A second point is that although we see a rash of complaints about Chinese lack of quality, it also exists in US made products. There are certainly quality Made in USA products but I have run into more than my share of problems with them as well.
Regarding product imported by US vendors, my Grizzly lathe came missing a set screw for adjusting backlash on the cross feed, drive belts that wouldn't work as supplied, and a Woodruff key that had been inserted upside down and the gear spacer pounded on, cracking the spacer. My Tormach PCNC770 has a list of problems a half page long. Grizzly claims to inspect every machine on arrival in it US warehouse yet the crate had apparently never been opened. The same was true for the 770.
Finally, having ISO 9000/9001/9002 certification in no way implies that you are supplying quality products, only that you are supplying products of consistent quality. The whole philosophy of ISO 9000 is that you design a product and make a first article to test for compliance to existing standards, if any, and because you have a quality system in place, you can make production product that will meet the same standards, if they were tested.
Later, when I was involved with a startup biotech company, we need to have some prototype molding done of a technically challenging plastic part. We contacted a nationally known American company and had the choice of going with a mold and parts made in USA but with an aluminum mold of rather short life span or with a steel Chinese mold and Chinese made parts. We opted for the latter. As stated the part was technically challenging and the process of getting suitable molded parts was far more involved than either we or the vendor imagined.
Everything went along not great but acceptable for a few years. We place product specifications on the parts and insisted on them being individually inspected before leaving the factory. As might be expected, this brought price increases, ultimately reaching tenfold. Unexpectedly, we got a shipment that was total crap, not even close to meeting our specs. After a bit of investigation, we found out the the press that they were molding on had died so they sent the work to a different factory where they had no idea as to what was being done to ensure meeting our quality standards.
To be fair, a few years later the company that acquired us decided to bring the production back stateside. We haggled around, soliciting bids for the mold design and manufacture and for production parts. We finally picked a regional company (against my better judgement). There was a sizable cost for the mold and we also had to pay for a third party mold flow analysis. First production parts were to have come off in about six months. This process began four years ago and they still have not produced a production part.
Offshore manufacturers make products cheaply because they employ cheap labor. Many times the production workers are not aware they are making poor products. I don't believe that anyone, given the choice between making a bad product or making a good part and all else being equal is going to make the bad product. That doesn't mean that there isn't some plant manager trying to squeeze a little more production out of their plant or a QA inspector using the squeal test for appropriate product quality. The solution for that though is vigilance on the part of the US importer or manufacturing counterpart.
A second point is that although we see a rash of complaints about Chinese lack of quality, it also exists in US made products. There are certainly quality Made in USA products but I have run into more than my share of problems with them as well.
Regarding product imported by US vendors, my Grizzly lathe came missing a set screw for adjusting backlash on the cross feed, drive belts that wouldn't work as supplied, and a Woodruff key that had been inserted upside down and the gear spacer pounded on, cracking the spacer. My Tormach PCNC770 has a list of problems a half page long. Grizzly claims to inspect every machine on arrival in it US warehouse yet the crate had apparently never been opened. The same was true for the 770.
Finally, having ISO 9000/9001/9002 certification in no way implies that you are supplying quality products, only that you are supplying products of consistent quality. The whole philosophy of ISO 9000 is that you design a product and make a first article to test for compliance to existing standards, if any, and because you have a quality system in place, you can make production product that will meet the same standards, if they were tested.
