Originally Posted by
Dave Anderson NH
It is common on both the Neanderthal Forum on on the power tools arena to bash Chinese manufacturing and quality. Wake up folks, I've got really bad /good news for you. China has the most modern manufacturing plant and the most modern machine tools in the world bar no one. Products like cell phones, iPods, desktops, laptops, TVs, and and and on we could go are produced every day of the year. The ability and desire to produce quality is there and you see and use it every day without any problems. The big fly in the ointment comes when someone decides to have a product knocked off but is unable to write good specifications or provide good dimensioned and toleranced part and assembly drawings when they bid the project out. The ultimate winner in this case is the ____ Mfg company who submitted the low bid, got the order, and made the tools. When the tools don't work properly in form, fit, and function the Chinese (or for that matter any other mfgr in the world) can legitimately still demand payment since they met the specifications and delivered product. The purchaser is then left with the choice of scraping or selling an "iffy" product to recoup as much of their money as possible. The other issue involved here is quality control. Good quality requires process control, incoming material inspection, in-process inspection, and a final quality inspection of the finished goods. Too many companies who order in any off-shore country farm out the quality functiion to a 3rd party firm who has no understanding of how the product is used, how it should work, etc. They only can evaluate if the tool and its parts meet the specifications. It took companies in the power tool area like Jet and others years to understand what they needed in bid packages and how they needed their own staff quality engineers and inspectors to supervise and assist their contract manufacturers. I seriously doubt that WC or any of the people who order hand tools made in any far east country have the needed staffs "in-country" and I suspect that they make at best a visit or two to the factories per year. To make matters worse, it the person making the visit isn't intimately familiar with manufacturing operations and doesn't audit the operation, the whole visit is window dressing and a waste of time. I can not count the number of times I've escorted visitors through the manufacturing areas of my day job just to have them smile, nod, and pretend to understand they knew what I was talking about.
The bottom line is this. If Chinese factories get detailed specifications on materials and a complete drawing package without errors or ambiguities. If the purchaser does quality audits and works with the maker to resolve issues as they arise. If the purchaser is willing to pay for both quality works and materials (ie a high enough price to pay for the materials). Then the Chinese will own the market and your only choice will be for Chinese made tools or tools from defunct American manufacturers. China can and will produce quality if some one is willing to pay for it.