My story was based on a company Corolla, probably a 1992 that I was assigned when I hired on in 1994 [I let the wife have my '75 240D]. When I first took the car to the Toyota dealer and gave the service manager a list of items that were causing me concern [can't remember the list anymore] his first comment was that mine must be a US manufactured car. He then checked the VIN and confirmed that it did indeed come from a plant here. I assume US/Japan plants used the same parts, or parts made here using the same specs [anybody know about that?], so the difference was where it was put together. I'd not want to start a thread on work habits [willingness to do a mind-numbing job day after day] or cultural values, but the finished product seems to have been different depending mostly on where it was put together. BillR Jacksonville FL 1981 300SD 283k miles
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jim Cathey Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 8:38 PM To: Mercedes Discussion List Subject: Re: [MBZ] Mercedes Quality > Somebody who knows more than me should point out the difference in > Japanese QC vs German QC. The Germans accept a certain amount of bad > cars, and try like heck to catch them and fix them before shipping > them, while the Japanese see any bad car as a problem in the process, > and find a way to fix the process so that problem just doesn't happen > anymore. Have I got that right? Maybe more of an asian thing rather than just Japanese, 20 years ago when we had some contract manufacturing done in Taiwan I was sent over to look at the initial production. As the designing engineer I was able to look at what they'd made. (Which was, at that time, exactly what we would have built locally.) They had a pile of bad units stacked to one side, and I was going through them one by one. I'm sure they were worried that there was a systematic problem, but each one was just normal (in my book) fallout. Every one had something different wrong with it, and nothing caused me any particular worry. I vividly remember one instance where I determined that there was a bad PAL device, and according to my practice I just popped it out of its socket and smashed it, so that a bad one wouldn't be mistaken for good. A minor commotion ensued, one of their engineers grabbed it up and ran off with it, carrying it like it was a valuable and delicate item. Or a sick pet. I don't think I'd want to have been whomever was responsible for programming it. I'm sure they wanted to chase down _exactly_ what was wrong with it to see if there was some part of the process to fix. I kind of doubt that China, however, is exhibiting this type of trait. In my mind they are more cowboys than that, and in a way more like us. But I could be wrong. -- Jim _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
