I didn’t see the programme, but will make the effort to do so. However, German quality and reliability is a false perception. ‘German’ consumer goods are generally made in the same Chinese factories using the same components as the rest of the world’s brands and are generally neither more nor less reliable. As for German ‘premium’ quality cars, they regularly dominate the worst positions in the most unreliable car statistics, one brand is particularly poor – looks good though. Who says German products and engineering is premium? That’ll be the Germans and their cleaver marketing machine. No offence to anyone intended, just observations. T
----- Original Message ----- From: Ed Price Sent: 06/07/12 10:12 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [PSES] German Technical Reputation I was watching an interesting BBC documentary TV show the other night; it’s focus was product quality and the publicly perceived image of quality goods. I had been aware that German consumer goods had at one time been held in poor repute in the British marketplace; recall the Irish song about a man who caught his wife cheating on him, so he attacked her with a razor and then hung himself: But she’s still alive and sinnin’ For the razor blade was German made But the rope was Belfast linen! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wmwwvWE3lE The BBC explained that German industry (starting with AEG) began a corporate and industrial makeover around 1900, emphasizing a designed-in quality that stretched from the product itself to even the graphics and fonts used in their advertising. They further explained that this gave rise to German product verification societies which set standards and enforced compliance (see, I did manage to keep on topic). The BBC claimed that within 10 years, the effort had turned around the British public’s perception of German consumer goods quality. Ed Price El Cajon, CA USA - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to < [email protected] > All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas < [email protected] > Mike Cantwell < [email protected] > For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher < [email protected] > David Heald < [email protected] > - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <[email protected]> David Heald: <[email protected]>
