Plant Tour
Today we took a tour of one of Thor’s plants in Elkhart,IN. The young man that gave the tour worked in sales and was really seemed to know the process well. I bought a new Thor Daybreak in 2013 and h...
Forum Discussion
I visited three different RV production operations before buying, two more since. Even in a common price range, building practices are not the same.
There are two places a company can manage cost, one is in the design or engineering and choice of materials, the other is in production methods. Even at the wages being paid, labor is still the biggest cost for most RVs, and the more the process can be automated, the lower the cost and better the quality. For automation, you have to come closer to building them all the same, which means the production worker is not figuring out where and how to route wiring and plumbing, deciding how many fasteners to use, etc. He has to be following specifications specific to model being built, another quality variable thus taken out of the equation.
Buying at entry level prices, I don't expect perfection, but by choosing a manufacturer using semi-automated production methods, writing detailed specifications for laborers to follow, having a multi-stage inspection program using independent inspectors rather than letting a production team write off its own work are all part of a process working toward quality management in mass production. I chose a brand because of what I saw of the process.
You can also get quality from "craftsman" builds, but you can't get that at low price points. However, that is a direction I might go if I buy another RV. The choices here are few, and you usually have to order it and wait for it to be built.
There are two places a company can manage cost, one is in the design or engineering and choice of materials, the other is in production methods. Even at the wages being paid, labor is still the biggest cost for most RVs, and the more the process can be automated, the lower the cost and better the quality. For automation, you have to come closer to building them all the same, which means the production worker is not figuring out where and how to route wiring and plumbing, deciding how many fasteners to use, etc. He has to be following specifications specific to model being built, another quality variable thus taken out of the equation.
Buying at entry level prices, I don't expect perfection, but by choosing a manufacturer using semi-automated production methods, writing detailed specifications for laborers to follow, having a multi-stage inspection program using independent inspectors rather than letting a production team write off its own work are all part of a process working toward quality management in mass production. I chose a brand because of what I saw of the process.
You can also get quality from "craftsman" builds, but you can't get that at low price points. However, that is a direction I might go if I buy another RV. The choices here are few, and you usually have to order it and wait for it to be built.
