> While there's enough blame to go around, most of
> the soaring electronic failure rate experienced
> over the last decade is the responsibility of the
> Taiwanese.
> Stan
> Stokrocki
In my opinion, the firm making the bad parts is only partially to blame. Most
of the blame should be heaped upon the maker/importer of the final product for
not having an incoming receiving inspection process. Yes, it costs money to
hire inspectors and provide them with test equipment. Then again, there are
outside laboratories that can be contracted to do testing of the complex parts.
Merely assuming that all parts coming in the back door are working and built
properly is like a time bomb waiting to go off. Sooner or later it will bite
you. Likewise, sending completed products out the front door without a
thorough final test/inspection is the same as telling your customers to do the
inspection that you should have done yourself.
Would airlines purchase Boeing airplanes if the planes were not tested and
inspected thoroughly? I wonder how much Boeing spends on QC -- both incoming
and final -- as a percentage of the cost of an airplane? I wonder if Gary
Chudzinski would have willingly paid an extra $15 for an HO mass-produced
engine without any problems at all? I bet he would, but he can answer for
himself.
To add a bit of S scale model railroading to this message, even the best of S
importers/manufacturers do not do thorough testing. Some do not test at all,
but just send the box off to the customer after it clears customs from the
orient. Others do a test run on a short section of straight track and do fix
the obvious defects. Nobody actually runs each and every loco around a curve
or up a grade before shipping to a customer. Curves and grades are where many
problems surface because the pilot truck, trailing truck, wheelsets, couplers,
etc. all shift sideways and up&down and touch things they should not be
touching. Pulling a long train up a grade would quickly expose wimpy u-joints
and rubber tubing slippage and the like.
We, the model railroading consumer, have been brainwashed to believe that we
are not willing to pay for tested and inspected merchandise. If Gary will pay
extra for a good loco, so will I !! I just wish every loco ran as well as the
UP turbine that performs during my open houses. That is on heckuva piece of
industrial machinery.
By the way, the "S"acto convention will have a clinic on how to make engines
run better. Is that a sign of the times or what?
Cheers...Ed L.
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