Quality Control - Domestic vs Japan

[buster]

The build quality of the ZR2 (2022) is OK. It feels solid and well put together, but the panel gaps are way off. Also a lot of interior squeaks/rattles here and there that seem temperature dependent. I suspect it's relatively common for a body on frame truck with a high level of interior plastics. Also a covid built truck. Overall no complaints.

 

[Hall]

customers may notice thin paint

That is an odd one and this isn't a worker issue. Do people paint vehicles in assembly plants anymore ? I thought it was all automated and done by robots now.

It's "emergency department " Nobody.calls it the OR any longer

I've only heard it referred to as "ED" in the UK. Here, it's always been "ER". Checked a couple nearby hospitals and they call theirs "emergency room" or "emergency centers".

 

[Ws6]

That is an odd one and this isn't a worker issue. Do people paint vehicles in assembly plants anymore ? I thought it was all automated and done by robots now.

I've only heard it referred to as "ED" in the UK. Here, it's always been "ER". Checked a couple nearby hospitals and they call theirs "emergency room" or "emergency centers".

ED, ER, same same. Depends on the company. Sometimes they see patients, sometimes clients, but it's all just a euphemism.

 

[Zee09]

Japan is living off a past reputation
No better than the rest... Toyota is proving that daily...

 

[Pablo]

Never seen ED or OR used for ER but I might carefully ask my wife as she used work in the industry

 

[Zee09]

This is disgusting
If i put out a memo like that to my customers they would tell me that is my problem because its my product and i need to fix it. Excuses with over MSRP pricing and a bad attitude that goes along with it is totally unacceptable and the premise we are all gullible and will accept bad quality because our country can only be so good...

Sounds more like second quality dumping to me and a poorly trained workforce... what an embarrassment.

 

[Pablo]

This is disgusting
If i put out a memo like that to my customers they would tell me that is my problem because its my product and i need to fix it. Excuses with over MSRP pricing and a bad attitude that goes along with it is totally unacceptable and the premise we are all gullible and will accept bad quality because our country can only be so good...

Sounds more like second quality dumping to me and a poorly trained workforce... what an embarrassment.
View attachment 344713

This guy gets it.

Not sure who he is but he really nailed it

 

[nthach]

service type jobs, retail, food, transportation, clerks, interactions are totally different.

They want to be there doing what they are doing, and they want you to enjoy whatever it is they are doing for you.

People in the service business here often feel trapped in low wage and their attitudes and feeling are noticeable.
They dont like their jobs, and dont want to be doing what they are doing and you can feel it.

This is where I feel AI and automation/robots can make the most impact, instead of laying off desk jockeys and middle management. Let’s face it, minimum wage will be going up - which is a good and bad thing. Most retail/food service/customer service jobs must live and die by the daily schedule spat out from their ERP/timeclock(like UKG’s Kronos)/POS(Oracle Micros for example) to align with budgeted labor. CSI scores are important, too. Waymo with self-driving cars and Uber jumping on that bandwagon(they won’t fully go full-on self driving, cheaper to pay humans slave wages than to invest millions in self-driving cars since Waymo has Alphabet’s backing) - but Uber has yet to prove profitable. Fast food can definitely be automated. Minimum wage retail/customer service/food service jobs aren’t the domain of teenagers anymore.

It's a cultural thing. Most Americans wouldn't tolerate Japanese management or work culture. It has its tradeoffs. One youtuber who is American moved to Japan to teach. She found higher pay and better overall schedule. She gave the first company two weeks notice. They told her she dishonored and shamed the company and its employees.

The Japanese value respect via subordination and order but they also value egalitarianism at their factories. No unions(at least in the US, Toyota workers have a union in Japan), management and their subordinates work together. If work is slow, you’re not sitting in the cafeteria or the “job bank”, you’re doing other things like cleaning up, minor repairs or sent on a task. That goes against American exceptionalism. Meanwhile at a UAW plant, there’s always a rift between the rank and file, the smallest thing can erupt into a strike but management wants to eke out every last dollar of “productivity”, which is why American car/quality hasn’t improved(maybe except the last 20 years). But, while the otakus glaze over Japanese culture, there is a dark side to it - overwork and stress. In Japan, unless you run your own business, a fresh college grad is expected to give it all to their company, wine and dine with their bosses, and consider work to be “family”. The sariman culture. Toyota was in the Japanese press a while ago when the lead engineer of the Prius committed suicide. Which is pretty common - they make our 9-5 desk jockey culture look tame.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

Yes Agree , but Forums have gotten Smarter & Collective of We the People starting to Catch on to all Bull ..

There are at Least 2 Class Action Suites - I Know Of . .

Several Times Over Year - some Direct Questions come out of No where from Folks that only been on few Forums for 1 week
Those Mostly New Lawyers Looking for Info on Cases or Their Paralegals searching - now - may find what They need with AI . .

Looking at Ford , GM , Chevy , Volvo , Audi , VW - all - Had Very Troubled Times - some of Which brought on Much Higher Cost
Cut Backs Hurt in many Area's . .

Then Manufacturing - just thought We Dump ~ Inspectors & Inspection sections & let Rejects Fall where they may - If Our Tails get in
Binder We'll Just have do ~ Recall & Blame it on Vendor ~

The birth of the extended warranty!

 

[buster]

Yeah I regret not getting an extended warranty.

 

[dfarr67]

We've Gone through 2 American Made Refrigerators with Worst Design Faults & Issues to Point of Loosing
$285 Bucks worth of Food .. from one that Died while away for 7 days with ice maker turned off ..

P Poor Insulation to P Poor Ice Makers & Parts -1 Unit Ice Maker in Back Wall Sweated so Much entire Back Refrigerator Rusted Out
4 Yrs Old - Built like Crap ..

I Guess We had spent $2K instead of $1700 - might have gotten Better Unit = Maybe this was 2016 so On 3rd Refrigerator since 2022
Broke Out Cash $3K for Much Better Bosch .. Prior to all this Non-sense Unit Last 20yrs - We Left with Sold Home ..
During those 20yrs we just didn't realized how Bad Quality had gotten ..


Yes They are Today - Bottom Computer Line $ to Penny On Bottom_Line . & Poor Trained Inspectors .

Mostly ~ Plus many Manufactures Stream-Lining Inspection with ISO 9000, 10,000 , 14000
They all Through Math & machines are so Good Owners & Manufactures could just Lay Off 100's of Good Inspectors
Using Statistical Prediction & Math

( W R O N G )

Even with research and more money in hand- sometimes the quality of yesteryear is simply not available. Not impressed with my Whirlpool apliances.

 

[nthach]

Even with research and more money in hand- sometimes the quality of yesteryear is simply not available. Not impressed with my Whirlpool apliances.

My neighbors had the compressor on their American made Maytag hit the deck in less than a year. It was the legacy Whirlpool SxS that hasn’t really changed much since the 1990s but with more electronic controls and R-290 refrigerant in R-134a architecture.

My parent’s Chinese-made Whirlpool French door OTOH is working just fine. It’s a Hisense underneath.

 

[Hall]

GE Appliance is owned by the Haier corporation which of course is Chinese

Many years ago, we bought an appliance at Home Depot (washer or dryer, can't recall) and it was brand "X" (Maytag or Whirlpool or whatever), but the box said "HAIER" in big, bold lettering on it. They didn't even try to pretend it was the well-known name brand everyone knows.