Chinese Junk

[mixfinder]

I, like everyone else, hate the quality of appliances foisted on us in the US.
I hear Mexico, China and occasionally India blamed.
Could it be the factories in those countries are simply creating the specs requested of them?
If the same products, using the same specs were manufactured in the US would we assume they would be better quality?
Isn't it the manufacturer who is really at fault and not the foreigners who produce the products to American specifications?
Kelly

 

[tolivac]

I fell China's product quality is variable-They can produce some fine products or?? I have a few guns built there in my gun collection-some models are excellent-even BETTER than the same model built here-otrher gun models they build are actually unsafe to shoot.the example of the good one is the copy of a Colt model 1911 auto pistol.The bad model they built was the M14 Rifle-a copy.When I looked at a China built KA Food Processor-will keep my French built one.I am wondering if they will start building mixers in China or Mexico.I really feel India and Mexico are not really suited for manufacturing products.They are not originally "industrial" countries.It seems they were changed within trhe last 10 years or so.But that aside-I think SUPERVISION of the product quality is the key-no matter where its built.The "Headquarters" may not be supervising the plants where the items are made adequaetly.

 

[sudsmaster]

Quality manufacturing can be done anywhere you like. It's a matter of having competent engineering, good raw materials, the necessary buildings and equipment and support staff, and of course a well trained workforce.

I recall there was a lot of junk produced in America - our cars in the 80's were a good example. It wasn't due to the workforce, or the equipment. It was more to do with poor engineering and cost cutting foisted upon the product by management. It was only when Japanese cars - from a nation formerly known for producing junk - showed the American car mfg's that their domestic customer base was not captive that they started to improve designs and quality.

 

[brettsomers]

i think its more junky DESIGNS, rather than poor workmanship that spoils many foreign produced products. good point about the american cars.

 

[panthera]

A thought for the future

I teach at a poly-technical university in Munich. A large minority of our students are from China. They arrive at our university with a background in the natural sciences at least as good as our German students.
Whereas our students often need nine or ten semesters for their first degrees, our Chinese students almost always finish on time or early.
They are curious, industrious and very much understand what quality engineering is all about.
More to the point, their business orientation is towards long-term profit and not short term killings. They or the next generation are going to wipe up the floor with the young, dynamic managers who can't think past the next quarter and honestly believe they can get away with screwing the shareholders, workers and customers forever.
They were able to up till now - but what the Japanese were for the car industry, the Chinese will be for the white goods.
In case anyone is curious just how fast they are learning, take a look at how "Haier" is coming up in the consumer magazine's ratings.
It will get worse - for the workers, for the consumers - before it gets better. Pity - brand name loyalty still plays a rôle in the US...

 

[brettsomers]

Pity - brand name loyalty still plays a rôle in the US...

makes sense, since the US is prolly more slave to advertising than any other country.

 

[knitwits1975]

Rich, Rex, and Kelly

Absolutely right. Forgive me for sounding like the country of origin is the culprit. I guess that the best way for us to phrase our gripe is by saying "Outsourced Products". This places the blame where it belongs, on the greedy corporate manufacturers for the inferior quality products instead of people in Asia or India etc... Once a manufacturer decides to outsource a product, with that decision comes another decision, that is to compromise quality. Too many have then shopped by price, and therefore, you cannot buy quality at any price. The Chinese can make some dandy items. But like you said, Kelly, the greedy manufacturers do not want that, and it's not like we're doing China any favors, the workers work at sweat-shop wages, and they are going to get more and more polluted because China is too crowded. One thing about me is that I wish Americans could have their dang jobs back, and America would revert back to making solid quality products. However, in order for this to happen, The people of USA need to realize how valuable such a market would be. Unfortunately, most Americans do not want to spend $800 on a microwave even if it lasts 20+ years, instead of $99 for one that lasts 4 years. Whatever country it came from is in-material.

 

[Designgeek]

Re. Mexico and India:

I have examples of telephones from both places, and they are the equal of anything coming out of the UK or Europe. Those from India tend to have a resemblance to the UK types, and those from Mexico tend to have a resemblance to the European types. BTW, here we are talking about rotary dial phones produced at a time when the mechanical elements of the design were critical.

Phones produced in China, by which I also mean rotary dial phones produced for use in China, were almost but not quite up to the same spec.

But from my experience, the worst of all in terms of overall quality, came from the USSR and Eastern Germany during their communist phase. That has nothing to do with ideology -Polish and Czechoslovakian phones are right up there with anything else in Europe, even during their communist phase.

Whether any of this translates to other types of appliances, and to products made for the USA market, remains to be seen. I suspect the real problem is when a company headquarters decides to shift its competitive position to favor price over quality. From there, all else follows.

 

[neptunebob]

Back when I was in high school (1980-4) I learned in French class that even though France is an advanced country they had the worst phone system. It took ten years to get a phone, many people used pay phones and you often had go to a post office (PTT) to use a phone and to wait for phone calls. I guess they don't think phones are important. I have also read that Soviet and Russian phones are terrible.

 

[Designgeek]

Yes, France Telecom, or the P et. T (later PTT) was for a while the joke of Europe. Their telephone sets were reasonable enough though, and were often equipped with additional watch-case receivers so you could listen with both ears (or have your secretary listen & take notes while you were on the phone). Since the 80s or so, they've moved ahead by leaps & bounds and are now first-class, and in some ways ahead of the USA.

Interestingly, Deutche Bundespost (the German telecom) was somewhat backward about modems for a long time: they apparently charged you an arm and a leg for having one, and this was right around the time the internet was getting started. They have since changed their tune rather dramatically

I have examples of all of these going back to the WW2 era through the 1970s.