Very Disappointed with New Keystone Alpine

ToddD wrote:

laknox wrote:


The industry as a whole could start by:

1) Adopting an industry-wide building code.
2) Geting off the pay-per-piece wages that allow the crews to build the day's quota as fast as they can, then leave. Meaning, if they can build the X units for the day's quota in 5 hours, they go home. If the mfr wants X units, make the crews build them in a normal 8 hour shift.

As an owner of a manufacturing firm, I don’t have a problem with work being done fast, I just have a problem of bad work being done fast.

This is a quality accountability problem, not a speed problem.

However, with a workforce supply issue in the Elkhart area, it is difficult to deploy a culture of quality, as the workers themselves are key ingredients in that strategy.

It’s not impossible to increase output with a fixed labor input while simultaneously holding a high quality standard, but it is definitely difficult to do, which is why there is a quality issue across most of the industry right now.

To achieve high efficiency with quality, first you need quality workers.

To that I say "CR@P!". Given the "quality" of what's put out, if you take extra time building the same # of units, you're almost certain to put out better quality. Drilling a hole to run wires or pex instead of taking a hammer and bashing the hole out (pics posted here a few years ago), cleaning roofs off so trash doesn't poke through the membrane (post just last week regarding this), making sure ducting is actually attached to vents (many, many posts about this), =cleaning= the ducting out (ditto), making sure wiring is attached with the right polarity or not chafed (recent post about a new FW with =burned= wiring at the j-box on the pin of a brand new unit), the list goes on.

If the workforce is so thin in IN, why don't the mfrs consider moving to another location? Hell, here in AZ, with the housing boom going on, people are moving in to work in construction. No need to scrape the bottom of the barrel and hire Marty Methhead. While the economy is improved, there are still many large, unused commercial spaces around the state where a manufacturing facility could be set up. Weather means no snow days shutting down production. COL is cheaper than IN, I'm sure. Two major E/W interstates, with one, I-10, having much better weather to move inventory, especially in the winter.

The list goes on...

Lyle