"Actually, their supplier f'd up."
nope they f-cked up.. its up to them to make sure that what their supplier sends them is fit for use.. if they dont do this its their f-ck up.. end of story..
as someone who does manufacture and sell things i do know the way its works..
if i ship out faulty products to customers its my f-ck up nobody elses..
but sh-t happens and i am sure all concerned will learn lessons from it and be better for those lessons learned in the future.. tis the way life works..
trog
ps.. two lessons can be learned from this thread.. lesson one is fanboys will always defend.. lesson two is that even the best can still f-ck up sometimes.. he he
...What?
You either manufacture knick-knacks, or dreams.
The reason things are initially tested and certified (in the automotive industry the process is called a PPAP) is because everyone supplying parts to a manufacturer must prove their parts are good. If you've got documentation which proves the parts were right at one point, then suddenly you get a batch of defective parts, it's the supplier that's changed something. It's best practice in the industry to randomly sample supplier's parts and verify them, but that's automotive. If you're a manufacturer in a much tighter industry, you don't have the money to invest in somebody randomly sampling everything that comes in the door. Quality costs money, despite the axiom that the money quality saves being greater than its cost.
So EK proves out the parts. Their samples work, so they begin manufacture. EK has their name on the product, but the people who made a mistake are the ones supplying them the parts. It's not EK's fault for accepting defective goods, this is the supplier trying to deliver a cheaper or defective part. EK loses face with the consumer, but if they can pull those gaskets out and find them defective guess who's paying? I see nothing here indicating that EK did a poor job prototyping or specifying, so you're going to have to explain how its their fault.
More importantly, attempting to place blame on EK is crap. If you actually work in manufacturing you know crap happens. Somebody has an off day, your temp. sucks at the job, or maybe a machine is failing without any outward indications. Quality exists to try and find this, but even on the best days you can't catch some errors. The best thing EK can do is recall their hardware, and make the consumer whole. That's exactly what they are doing. Tell me, what exactly do you believe they're capable of doing beyond this? Do you expect them to offer something to the consumer, and make what may already be a gigantic financial burden kill the product line?
Finally, I was taught as an engineer. If you believe all rubber is the same you're a special kind of ignorant. You've got a visco-elastic, anisotropic material that has a very low hardening point. Tell me, how do you expect to create a product with 100% consistency with those conditions? If you can somehow do that, explain to me why when I buy steel I cite an ASTM standard, which has a tolerance band on input materials. Why can't I specify specific percentages of elements, without suddenly incurring huge charge.
I'd love to work in your world. A place where personal responsibility is somehow a standard. In the real world blame flows down hill. EK might take a PR hit initially, but their reputation for doing what is best for the customer will get them sales in the future. They'll take a financial hit, but you'd better believe the manufacturer of that rubber ring is going to bear the brunt of the cost (should they want to deal with EK any more). Coming to the conclusions you have, and claiming any knowledge of manufacturing, is baffling. The only people I've ever seen with your perspective run small mom-and-pop shops, where 100% inspection is covered by higher costs. I know for a fact that billion dollar companies rely on their suppliers for parts, and whenever they've got an issue you'd better believe step 1 is making sure that their suppliers are the first people to hear about any issues in the field. Usually they hear it to the tune of a DMR, NCMR, CAR, or other acronym that has a heavy financial burden associated with it.
