[Healeys] water pumps and other repro parts

[Bob Spidell]

Side note/story: A member of a flying club I was in--name of Tom, who happened to be German--was a process/QA engineer (last I heard he was overseeing production for Apple in China). He told a story: 

Take, for instance, a glass container to a Japanese company. They will measure, study and analyze the sample and return with a prototype that is superior in every way to the sample, but likely exceeding your maximum unit price point. 

Take the same sample to a Chinese company and they will produce a prototype that is inferior in every way to the sample, with a hole in the bottom. Tom said he would point out the hole in the container--whose purpose was to contain fluids--and the Chinese would say "But it's only 3 cents per unit." 

Tom: "IT HAS A HOLE IN THE BOTTOM!!!" 

Chinese: "IT'S ONLY 3 CENTS!!!" 



----- Original Message -----

From: josef-eckert at t-online.de 
To: "John Davidson" <jdavidso at shaw.ca>, "Forum Healeys" <Healeys at autox.team.net> 
Sent: Sunday, March 1, 2015 7:11:30 AM 
Subject: [Healeys] water pumps and other repro parts 

Sorry, but this is very naive thinking. I am working part time for a big parts supplier here in Europe. 
Most parts are ordered from China. You get a sample, you order a batch of 100, 500 or 1000 pieces. Perhaps you get 5% customer complains, which is normal, when the batch is slightly faulty you may get 10% customer complains. When its more you will have to think about the issue. When there are no complains, parts are not sent back, all is fine, even parts are faulty and customers fix on their oown. Often thee are no complains, even the part is faulty, but its cheaper than the similar part from the competitor. 
To put in a quality control in the system would raise the net purchase price to a double or tripple. Customers move to the competitor, as you can`t sell it to the prize your competitor does. You may not believe the low purchase prize of these parts from China, but you need to buy batches of at least 100 parts. So when they are faulty you need to sell most of them before you look for a different supplier. You can`t send these parts back, as delivery costs are higher than the parts value and Chinese suppliers are not very customer friendly. 

Josef Eckert 
Konigswinter/Germany 


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