Hi y'all:

We built a house boat with two Yanmar sterndrive engines LHA4 and
two Mercury Bravo Two drives. All purchased in the U.S.
Between engine and dashboards we needed to install extension
harnesses. These seem to have been made in the U.S. not in Japan.
On one harness the yellow and the yellow-white wire had been mixed up
and on the other harness a total of four wires had been crimped
mirrored instead of correctly. This was how the harnesses came out of
the factory. Instead of "Lub. Oil Pressure" the "Diesel Preheat" light
illuminated and on the starboard dashboard the "Water Temp." light
did not come up. Of course you cannot pull the crimp contacts out of
the watertight connectors and reorganize them without destroying the
connectors. Throw the harnesses away was not an option so we had to
cut the wires and reconnect them.
Not good.

When we did the first test of the engines and the Bravo drives the
starboard drive clutch did not engage. Error when hooking up the
cables? Not ours. We opened the Bravo drive and lo and behold: The
cable was not even hooked up internally. There is no way that it
came off accidentially during shipping. -- Factory fault.

So now I ask your opinion/experience:
Where has the quality control gone in the U.S.A?
Is really the contractor/shipyard supposed to do the Q.C. for the
factory? Who do they suppose to pay for the extra work?
Your comments are appreciated.

Kind regards, Eike Lantzsch
Capiatá, Paraguay

Quality, in my opinion, is driven by demand. Either the company is
making enough money where they dion't mind having a reputation for
"oops's" or they don't have the internal support structure. In the long
run, only those who provide the best quality, and that's service and/or
product, will survive.

If they lose enough business because of it and don't address the issue,
they'll go out of business. The competetive market place is unforgiving.

That's my opinion. That and $4 will get you burnt coffee at Starbuck's.

Eike Lantzsch, ZP6CGE wrote:

Hi y'all:

We built a house boat with two Yanmar sterndrive engines LHA4 and
two Mercury Bravo Two drives. All purchased in the U.S.
Between engine and dashboards we needed to install extension
harnesses. These seem to have been made in the U.S. not in Japan.
On one harness the yellow and the yellow-white wire had been mixed up
and on the other harness a total of four wires had been crimped
mirrored instead of correctly. This was how the harnesses came out of
the factory. Instead of "Lub. Oil Pressure" the "Diesel Preheat" light
illuminated and on the starboard dashboard the "Water Temp." light
did not come up. Of course you cannot pull the crimp contacts out of
the watertight connectors and reorganize them without destroying the
connectors. Throw the harnesses away was not an option so we had to
cut the wires and reconnect them.
Not good.

When we did the first test of the engines and the Bravo drives the
starboard drive clutch did not engage. Error when hooking up the
cables? Not ours. We opened the Bravo drive and lo and behold: The
cable was not even hooked up internally. There is no way that it
came off accidentially during shipping. -- Factory fault.

So now I ask your opinion/experience:
Where has the quality control gone in the U.S.A?
Is really the contractor/shipyard supposed to do the Q.C. for the
factory? Who do they suppose to pay for the extra work?
Your comments are appreciated.

Kind regards, Eike Lantzsch
Capiatá, Paraguay

Yea, nobody wants to pay for quality. We went through that big quality push
a decade or so ago, but the companies still found that most people only buy
on price, then love to bitch about it later. Disgusting, but the way it is.
Too many sales folks and bean counters running the show. It'll swing the
other way someday... there is always an opportunity for someone to make the
"best" of anything, but it's a harder road to follow.

--


Keith
__
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he
will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
"Matt Langenfeld" wrote in message
ink.net...
Quality, in my opinion, is driven by demand. Either the company is
making enough money where they dion't mind having a reputation for
"oops's" or they don't have the internal support structure. In the long
run, only those who provide the best quality, and that's service and/or
product, will survive.

If they lose enough business because of it and don't address the issue,
they'll go out of business. The competetive market place is unforgiving.

That's my opinion. That and $4 will get you burnt coffee at Starbuck's.

Eike Lantzsch, ZP6CGE wrote:

Hi y'all:

We built a house boat with two Yanmar sterndrive engines LHA4 and
two Mercury Bravo Two drives. All purchased in the U.S.
Between engine and dashboards we needed to install extension
harnesses. These seem to have been made in the U.S. not in Japan.
On one harness the yellow and the yellow-white wire had been mixed up
and on the other harness a total of four wires had been crimped
mirrored instead of correctly. This was how the harnesses came out of
the factory. Instead of "Lub. Oil Pressure" the "Diesel Preheat" light
illuminated and on the starboard dashboard the "Water Temp." light
did not come up. Of course you cannot pull the crimp contacts out of
the watertight connectors and reorganize them without destroying the
connectors. Throw the harnesses away was not an option so we had to
cut the wires and reconnect them.
Not good.

When we did the first test of the engines and the Bravo drives the
starboard drive clutch did not engage. Error when hooking up the
cables? Not ours. We opened the Bravo drive and lo and behold: The
cable was not even hooked up internally. There is no way that it
came off accidentially during shipping. -- Factory fault.

So now I ask your opinion/experience:
Where has the quality control gone in the U.S.A?
Is really the contractor/shipyard supposed to do the Q.C. for the
factory? Who do they suppose to pay for the extra work?
Your comments are appreciated.

Kind regards, Eike Lantzsch
Capiatá, Paraguay

Keith says:

Yea, nobody wants to pay for quality.

raises hand
I do! I do!
/raisied hand

Seriously, I will pay much more for a good quality product than for the "just
about do it" alternative.
I went to college to learn yacht design in 1978, and bought good quality tools
for the job. I'm still using them (when I HAVE to draw by hand...) That
includes mechanical pencils as well as curves, etc. My "daily driver" pencil
is now 26 years old, and still (gasp!) accepts the same 0.5mm leads it did when
new. What amazes me most is that the standard 0.5mm lead is still available -
they haven't changed it to 0.55 just to increase pencil sales. ;-)


I calculated once (comparing notes with a past employer) that I had saved about
$50 per year by not buying the cheapo 6-month-if-you're-lucky pencils he was
using.

Steve "cheapskate"
Stephen C. Baker - Yacht Designer
http://members.aol.com/SailDesign/pr...cbweb/home.htm

I search for and buy quality - once.
I have a great number of tools, some are power, some are hand and some
just like Stephen's (including a Brunning flying head) that are all well
over thirty years old (I wasn't young when I acquired same).
A young friend was in my shop one day and he just looked around with his
mouth open. He finally asked "Where did you get all this old stuff?".
I was then forced to explain that it got this "stuff" and then it got
old (too). It all still works and I expect it to as long as I need it.

It is harder to find quality these day

But, generally to all and specifically to Eike, when something is
delivered that does not perform as promissed, Take the POS Back and
DEMAND Compensation at least new fully functional gear. Unless WE hold
the a-holes feet to the fire, they will keep trying to get a way with
this.

And, Thank You for telling us what not to buy.

Matt Colie - so old I rememeber pride in my work.

Keith wrote:
Yea, nobody wants to pay for quality. We went through that big quality push
a decade or so ago, but the companies still found that most people only buy
on price, then love to bitch about it later. Disgusting, but the way it is.
Too many sales folks and bean counters running the show. It'll swing the
other way someday... there is always an opportunity for someone to make the
"best" of anything, but it's a harder road to follow.