Very Disappointed with New Keystone Alpine

laknox wrote:


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

Again, this is not a speed issue. Quality is a culture. A bad worker doesn’t automatically get better when they do it slower.

The worker shortage is a recent issue due to a recovered economy (more demand) but a decimated labor supply from when the recession hit, Elkhart was one of the hardest hit when luxury goods demand dried up. A lot of the skilled workers moved away, and not so easy to get them back now that they are gainfully employed elsewhere.

Moving a plant because of a temporary boom certainly isn’t a viable option, layered on top of the supply chain complications that would cause (lots of suppliers to the manufacturers are local).

Should the demand sustain, those that invest in efficiency initiatives will be the ones that get both throughput *and* quality. They’ll be able to do more with less, and Marty Methead will be out of a job, since he doesn’t do quality at any speed (pun intended).