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Originally Posted by grantp
That's true Mike but the Japanese seem to have a different approach to quality matters than can be found in other places.
Plus they listened to some of the manufacturing gurus from the USA - like Deming - and improved on the suggestions made over time.
Things eventually became more expensive of course ... to they shifted some manufacturing to cheaper countries. That may also have been influenced by lack of space to build factories and the risks of catastrophic earthquakes, etc.
I'm not sure that other places have the same attitudes or ever will.
Moreover the world, for now, seems to have moved to rampant disposeability principles. That's probably partly driven by tech at the moment followed by desperate attempts to find ways to keep the economy "growing" during an impending period of energy supply constraint.
As far as I can tell China has been a rapid development basket case over the past 2 or 3 decades and right the way through the manufacturing and delivery chain every possible corner is being cut without anyone believing that there will be significant, avoidable consequences coming back from their decisions and actions.
Whether the same is true for other emerging manufacturing centres only time will confirm.
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I worked on a bid for a well known rolling stock manufacturer a few years ago. They seriously considered off shoring the production of the body shell (U.K. design) to a Chinese company and were very impressed by the price, quality and the factory facilities.
However, they did not go through with the plan because the penalty clauses for late deliveries of the completed trains to the end customer were very onerous, and the U.K. company could not risk delays in shipping the body shells from China.
Given the recent issues with the blocking of the Suez Canal by the Ever Given container ship (2021) and the current issues in the Red Sea their decision was proven correct (although production of those train would have been complete by 2021).
It just shows that a) Chinese quality can be good (anyone heard of any issues with modern MGs etc?) and b) the production costs in the far east may be cheaper but if the sea lines of communication (SLOCs) are disrupted the west is very vulnerable.