[TheForge] rant concerning quality of products

[ries]

Terry, welcome to the 21st century.

I dont know why the Italians make such higher quality small farm  
equipment, but they sure do.
I use a 4 foot tiller on my small tractor, and I have a very nice  
Italian one. It wasnt that expensive, its machined properly, painted  
well, the welds are neat and clean, and I beat the crap out of it for  
years on end and it works great.

I have bought US made small tractor implements, and they are cheap,  
shoddily made, poorly painted, and every corner you can cut is cut.
Notable exceptions to this would be the Woods company, which makes  
good stuff that lasts. And, I am sure, there are others.
But the cheaper, generic, accessories for 25 hp or so tractors are  
funny that way.

Italy has HIGHER TAXES, HIGHER REAL ESTATE PRICES, HIGHER WAGES, MORE  
GOVERNMENT REGULATION, and they hardly ever work, between holidays and  
long lunches.
And yet, somehow, in the categories they manufacture in, they make  
stuff that is higher quality, and the same or cheaper price, than  
american made stuff, and thats including paying for shipping.

I cant figure it out.
But I love my Italian made machinery. I have a made in Italy set of  
Angle Rolls, and they are very high quality, tough, and cost about 1/3  
of what a made in USA set would.
Similar stories are told about Italian cold saws, pharmaceutical  
equipment, packaging machinery, food processing machines, textile and  
tile machines, motorcycles, guns, and many more products.

I think part of it is that the Italian firms are mostly still family  
owned- they havent gone down the bean counter, IPO driven, greed path  
that we have.

ries


On Apr 17, 2009, at 2:19 AM, terry l. ridder wrote:

hello;

the past two days i have been working with a pto drive shaft.
the pto drive shaft is manufactured in the usa . the dealer
who sold me the pto drive line shaft told me that it had been
inspected and greased that it was ready to go. none of what the
dealer told was in any way shape or form even remotely being
close to being true.

the drive shaft was never greased. anywhere.
the universal joints perhaps had minimal grease in them
but the grease fittings have been painted over with a heavy
coat of paint. the one universal joint is installed wrong.
there is no way to get to the grease fitting as presently
assembled. the yoke which contains the 6 spline hole which
should slide onto the pto drive shaft has a heavy coat of
paint half way up the spline hole. it is clear upon looking
at it that this is overspray. they could have prevented this
by just placing a little amount of white petroleum jelly on
those areas that should not be painted. after painting and
drying wipe the white petroleum jelly off. the drive shafts
had to be shortened a few inches which the dealer was suppose
to either have the factory do or his technical people do. well
yes they were shortened but they did nothing to remove the burrs
they created. the drive shaft protection sleeve looks like
a beaver gnawed through it and not a professional techinical
worker with a proper metal saw. i thought that perhaps it was
just this one shaft and not the entire batch that i ordered.
they are all in the same or even worse shape. i called the
salesman's cell phone and left a long message explaining
that i was not a happy camper and that he either came out
bringng one of his technical people to fix the shafts on the
spot or i was going to bring the shafts back to him and plant
them on his desk while i waited for my money back. i have not
heard back from him yet.

have the few remaining manfacturers in the usa laid off all the
qualified workers and kept only the lowest paid workers to turn out
their products? i would be ashamed to deliver anything that looked
remotely like these drive shafts.

are salesmen so ignorant that they can not tell if the techincal people
are handing them a line or not?

where in all of this is the quality control inspections? have the few
remaining manufacturers in the usa just abandoned quality control?

it is sad that this has happened. i was attempting to 'shop american'
instead of ordering the comer industry drive shafts from italy. the
comer industry sales rep in the usa did have a lower price on the drive
shafts and the sample he provided to me is a quality product.

i have a request of proposals and request of bids out on several
gearboxes which comer industrys in italy also makes. i have modified the
request for bids in that they must supply one unit for my quality
control inspection to have their bid even considered.

manufacturers are crying for orders and sales but they are falling down
on delivering the quality goods that the customer expects whether it is
a depression, recession, or booming economy.

no wonder the usa has become a third rate banana republic.

-- 
terry l. ridder ><>
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Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/