Model Forum / General / Railroads / August 2007

You've got a four loco lash-up with two B-units in the middle then?

John.

That's a big assumption - there must, for instance, be some motor car plants
where cheap and luxury end of the market vehicles are made under the same
roof.

John.

Why would that be? The factory delivers the quality level the customer
wants and is willing to pay for.

It's not the workers' fault - it's a matter of the contract between
Hornby and the factory. The factory produces models for Hornby under
contract. If Hornby wants a lower price, then quality control will be,
um, skimped. The amount of and quality of detail in the tooling may also
vary, as will the amount of applied detail. I don't know whether Hornby
shipped their tools to China, or whether they contracted for new
tooling, too. If the latter, then it's up to Hornby to make sure the
correct chimneys are made and applied. Etc.

I'm really quite surprised that people think that quality is a worker
problem. It's a management problem, and always has been. If management
wants the workers to build a better car, for example, management will
ensure that the parts are better and fit better, and that the line is
set up to deliver a better product. That means both that the workers are
trained to meet the expected standard, and that quality control is
applied at every step of the process. But both worker training and
quality control are expensive. Beyond a certain level, it's cheaper to
replace defective product than to pay the cost of higher skills and
quality at the factory.

That being said, high price is not a good guide to quality. As the
experience of buyers of "luxury cars" attests, a car costing $75,000 is
nowhere near 3 times as durable etc as a car costing $25,000. The
function of the higher price is not to guarantee quality, but to prevent
the unwashed from buying the thing - exclusivity matters more important
than quality for people with an exaggerated sense of their own importance.

But I'm drifting OT, again. Sorry. ;-)

Worked in local biscuit factory as a student (many years ago). All the main
supermarkets and the companies own brand were produced on the same line but
the best ones were taken first for M&S, then the next best for etc etc.

Not quite the same for model factories, but they can put best workers on
best models and the less competant and trainee workers on the lesser models.
Can also use different quality raw materials.

Cheers,
Simon

kim said the following on 18/08/2007 16:07:

I'm a manager of a small manufacturing facility, and although there are
certain standards of quality below which we refuse to drop, a customer
who pays for 100% inspection/test is guaranteed to have a higher pass
rate (100%!) than one who only wants to pay for sample inspection and no
test.  Things do go wrong in any manufacturing process, and it's up to
the end customer to decide how much risk he is prepared to take compared
to the cost of reducing that risk.