--- "Paul A. Asgeirsson"
> standards or we will get other suppliers." Lucas
> was one that built all their
> new stuff really up to snuff, but now for the old
> stuff, Ahhhhhh, never mind!
Pa,
Remember, though, the engineer's perspective (BTDT) -
Customer (BMC/Leyland/Whatever):
"Build us a turn signal switch for $30, a wiper switch
for $30, a high beam flash switch for $30, and a horn
switch for $30. No, wait, make us a switch that does
all 4 functions for $49." So, under threat of being
asked to go work elsewhere, the engineers make a piece
of crap that meets the spec filled with ridiculous
little springs, plastics formed at a time when the EPA
regs were kicking in and processes suffered,
etc....and you can bet Lucas and Leyland made a mint
off the spares biz, which makes CEO's very happy.
Sadly, sometimes it doesn't pay for a company to make
a good product. So guys like us put in GM
alternators, which, IMHO, makes us SPOs.
OK, I'm ranting now - in the aircraft biz, a lot of
companies have beaten out our mag bearing products
(see the smiths-aerospace.com website - the C-130 ECS
is what I was testing at Edwards this winter) by
saying "our POS turbine costs one-third of the Smiths
unit without mag bearings, and it lasts as long." But
the spec will say it must last 20,000 hours, so the
competition makes theirs last as long by scheduling
removal and overhaul at 2000 hours at half the cost of
what their unit costs new. So it costs the customer
almost 4 times as much over the product life, not to
mention maintenance costs. Kind of like saying an
engine will last 1,000,000 miles if you replace the
engine every 50,000 miles.
=====
Ron Soave
The optimist says the glass is half full.
The pessimist says the glass is half empty.
The engineer says the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
The British car owner says it's leaking.
__________________________________________
Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger
http://phonecard.yahoo.com/
|