Gotta Chime In:
I have personally seen 3 - 4 elaborate test tracks several years ago when I shared a builder with a big train manufacturer. All importers of trains have requirements of QC tests for their product. It would be lunacy to do otherwise.
But perceiving what is and isn't a problem is what makes the difference between a successful QC process and a useless one. I have seen workers run an engine back and forth, put the pilot truck back on the track repeatedly and not think anything of it. Or see the engine lifting on a curve because of a part interfering, but not derailing and again, no reaction by the QC people. I have seen them ignore grinding noises, high current draw, thinking these things must be OK. Also missing burned out lights, bad speakers, malfunctioning shut down sequences, bent or broken detail, are all things that we look for when we do our QC testing but they miss due to just plain laziness. The factory QC people make $300 a month, so you an imagine what you get for that money. I bopped one guy on the head several times for resting his head in his hands while a model ran around the test track. I asked him to be removed from QC several times but I keep finding him there every time I return. It's not my factory, I can only suggest or demand.
So I come here and use the DIY method. I watch them testing, I spot check, I hang around looking for anything repetitive going wrong. We do drop testing of the finish product to simulate the Gorilla in the Samsonite commercial. Then we open the box and see if anything broke, came loose, bent. But what we can't find are those things the shake loose after 10 days of vibration and shocks in the UPS and USPS systems, like cold solder joints on wires, or screws working themselves out. That's what customer service is for.
We all want what we buy to be perfect when we open it. Why can't this happen with more regularity with our model train purchases?
On my last trip home I sat next to a young man who was returning from China. He worked for Google and was in charge of QC of their Cell phone production. He said our experiences are nothing different than anyone elses. In their production they ordered 1,000,000 phones. But they start with batches of 20,000 to 50,000. And make corrections to production as they get feed back from their customers and QC tests at the factory. After the 4th batch the phones have all the bugs worked out and the rest of the production has acceptable quality.
In Model Trains, you only get 1 shot, 1 iteration. You correct what you find at the factory in the middle or at the end of production and hope for the best after shipping. Each new model is a different production and a new design and new set of problems. That's why we have extensive customer support.
I hope this sheds some light on your experiences. It's a hobby business, designed to give you the biggest happiness for the buck and a big variety. They are expensive to make, packed with engineering and electronics and they are well designed. But there are no iterations in manufacturing these models so we get what is statistically possible, which seems to be about 10-15% defective rate after shipping. To do more would drive the costs up a lot. That's my experience with this.
Happy Holidays All,
Scott Mann - 1 more day in China.