Quality Control

[Winslow Yerxa <76450.3230@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

TO: internet:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Harvey Andruss writes:

    >Also, the cost of a factory doing it could be cheaper if the
    >design focused on improving the right areas, rather than
    >trying to fix them during final QC or re-work, as you implied
    >in your price discussion.

It's not a question of "fixing" anything that's wrong "discovered
deficiencies" as you put it elsewhere in your post. The design is
not in question - it's a question of execution in the stage of
final adjustment, which is a matter of highly skilled hand labor.
There is no way of reducing the cost of this kind of labor. If
you pay people less or give them less time to do it (same thing),
they will do less, and quality will suffer. AS with the
complaints on today's list about badly adjusted Marine Bands. Not
a problem with design, just with execution.

Automation is little help. Most of what comes off Hohner's new MS
production line ends up being hand finished. However, they've
bungled the job of automation pretty badly. I'd be curious to
find out how Tombo and Suzuki are handling it.