No Pride in thier work

[hooch502]

wait till you deal with Lippert and their infamous Shwintek System.
thats how all this started. My Voltage is a 2012, when the motor was changed Lippert was on 6th generation slide out motors for the year.
These companies make gobs of money. maybe they need to use some of it learn what quality is.
The RV industry is worse than the car industry.

[wahoonc]

Originally Posted by hooch502

wait till you deal with Lippert and their infamous Shwintek System.
thats how all this started. My Voltage is a 2012, when the motor was changed Lippert was on 6th generation slide out motors for the year.
These companies make gobs of money. maybe they need to use some of it learn what quality is.
The RV industry is worse than the car industry.

Nothing new... The car industry sucked back in the 70's and 80's then the Japanese spanked them. They did learn from that. Unfortunately I don't see that happening in the RV industry. The only thing that is going to change the RV industry is consumers getting smart and not spending their money on poorly constructed RV's. There are a very few good RV manufacturers out there, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Too many people think that they are too expensive. With RV's quite often you get what you pay for.

Aaron

[Mole]

As the military told me, your stuff is bought from the lowest bidder.

In a nutshell, the problem with quality starts at the plant.
In most locations, production line folks are pretty close to minimum wage starting and with a couple years of experience they might start being able to afford to eat something other than Ramen noodles. Despite words to the contrary, they are hounded daily about numbers of product past their little section of the line. While there may be quality inspections and inspectors, marginal is excellence! I've seen more than one rig with some part of the wood laying on the floor after transit because it was put on with a staple rather than a screw. As far as a plant using the latest and greatest gear on a new rig; never going to happen. Plants buy in bulk and use FIFO (First In/First Out) as their mantra on what parts go into a rig.

Once you get to a major chain repair center, a new problem arises: Your craftsman has to be strong in one but preferably two of the following fields: Cabinetry and woodworking, Glass reinforced plastic (fiberglass) repairs, general electrical systems (wiring issues), specific electrical & electronic systems (automatic leveling, antenna amplifier and wiring, battery chargers, slide out tuning), plumbing (iron & pex), hydraulic systems, air conditioning, metal fabrication and welding, structural welding, tire and wheel balancing and alignment, rubber roof repairs and window & door seating.

That same repair person is also going to be working at low wage because they will not likely have two skills to start with. They will also be dealing with a person who wants to see a certain amount of repairs to leave in a timely manner because they 1: Don't care about quality since it's not their name going on the repair paperwork or 2: have an under-educated guess about how long it takes to do a proper repair when all of the problem is not actually known. Example, your water heater stops working. Do you look to ensure that your gas is turned on, has liquid in the cylinder, try the system a second time and then count the coding out on the control card to tell the technician so that when they actually look at the system, they already know that these items have been checked. Saving that technician a little bit of time helps him get your unit back to you quicker and keeps that service manager off of his/her backside.

I currently work as industrial maintenance and majority of the time I hear "It just stopped working" from the operator who has been on shift the entire time that I have been yet hasn't been watching their equipment. Giving the service writer something more than "it just stopped working" when you can helps them relay to the right tech in the back what has happened.

Waiting time on parts is also a service writers nightmare. My Kodiak has two sky lights and apparently a warning came out about them leaking because of a problem at the factory. Kodiak also authorized replacement of the stove countertop with Corian from the laminated board that was originally there. Unfortunately, since there is no apparent color registry number in the VIN of the unit, Kodiak eventually sent down a replacement piece in every color that they had that they thought was a dark brown, five sets total. Only took fifteen weeks until the right color arrived. Being nice with the service writer will also get you a bit of preference as will taking time to talk with the tech working on your rig. It's amazing that just being understanding and kind will get you a more thorough look-over at your rig. Treating the service writer and a couple of techs with some Cokes and burgers once when things are bad with part arrival can get your unit out with a full check out. Is it necessary? No, but what does it hurt to be kind? Do you do this every time you visit? Not at all. Only if the problem is beyond their control. Our rig was at a Camping World about 75 minutes away from the house, Problem A (gas heater draft switch failure) lead to the aforementioned sky light warning which lead to a water heater control card being found faulty before they released the rig back to us. The burgers and Cokes were delivered after the third panel set was delivered and lead to the complete check out later. Cost to us: five months of waiting for repairs complete and under $40 to feed the crew once.

[hooch502]

in plain english cw sucks, its all about the money and the turn over.

[aguablanco]

Pride begins at the top and works it's way through an organization. When top management shows more interest in production numbers than the quality of the units manufactured it is apparent to the hourly workers what is the most important issue. Until management decides that quality workmanship is in their best interest it will never happen. I will never blame the assembly team for shoddy workmanship. It should be the first job of management to assure all workers know what the standards are and the consequences for not following them. Until management steps up and does their job nothing will improve.
RichH

[wahoonc]

Originally Posted by aguablanco

Pride begins at the top and works it's way through an organization. When top management shows more interest in production numbers than the quality of the units manufactured it is apparent to the hourly workers what is the most important issue. Until management decides that quality workmanship is in their best interest it will never happen. I will never blame the assembly team for shoddy workmanship. It should be the first job of management to assure all workers know what the standards are and the consequences for not following them. Until management steps up and does their job nothing will improve.
RichH

To a point. I ran production crews in industrial construction for quite a few years. There were always a few that did not take pride in their work. Fortunately they were the exception rather than the rule. I had one crew that was basically lazy, they would half ass something figuring they would get paid more money to fix it later. On one project I made them do the re-work and only paid them minimum wage for the rework. Unfortunately that is now illegal. But it got their attention!

It takes everyone to make a quality product and only one bad apple to spoil the whole thing.

Aaron