Lawnmowers and Cars Made in Japan

[ozkai]

Many years ago brand named items such as Honda, Mazda, Seiko, Casio, etc. were made in Japan.

Many of these products are now made in third countries like Thailand and China.

I feel that Japanese made goods offer superior quality and workmanship.

A Japanese owned factory in Thailand wouldn't use Japanese workers and Thai people tend to be very laid back and cut corners.

This has come up as you will notice my LawnMower Ava which is a Honda, apparantly the best within gardening circles..

I've noticed a lot of Japanese swear blind that Japan is best..

Is this true?

What's your choice. Would you purchase a SONY Camera which is made in Japan or Thailand, or wouldn't it sway you?

[Tenchu]

I trust brand owners, not countries.

Thailand can make some quality things. For example, the Boxing equiptment I buy here is far superior quality than anything in the West. Strong leather, good stitching. I was impressed.

Also, in Thailand, you need a good education to work with motoring or electronics. Workers here are usually very proud of themselves and try to work quite well. I mean, they have to work so hard to get these jobs... they don't want to mess it up once they've got it.

Anyway, Sony may be looking for more profits trying to build it in cheaper countries, but it still has its reputation to consider. If it starts turning out poor quality products, then it's going to lose customers.

As for now, I wouldn't be fussed where it was made too much. I look at the ownership. The location of a factorty is usually based around profits. It's the location of the owner that matters. Making products in China is not so bad, making products in China for a Chinese owner is when the problems start...

[Nyororin]

I agree with Tenchu on this.
Many Japanese brands are well known in Japan to produce their actual products outside of the country.

What matters, really, is the time invested in quality checks. Japanese brands tend to be more in depth and demanding when it comes to the quality of things they bring in for assembly.

For example - the factory will run it`s internal quality check and those pieces which pass are then checked by Japanese staff at the factory. They weed out even more problem pieces, and then send the packaged goods on to Japan where they are put through another quality check. If the factory has more than a set number of faulty pieces (usually 1% per shipment), they lose their lucrative contract... Something no one wants.

Any location is capable of producing extremely high quality goods - IF the top goes to the trouble of checking, double checking, and making sure that the factory and workers take responsibility. If they just order from some factory and don`t do a multi-layered quality check at every stage... No matter where they produce there are going to be serious problems.

[ozkai]

Originally Posted by Tenchu

I trust brand owners, not countries.

Thailand can make some quality things. For example, the Boxing equiptment I buy here is far superior quality than anything in the West. Strong leather, good stitching. I was impressed.

Also, in Thailand, you need a good education to work with motoring or electronics. Workers here are usually very proud of themselves and try to work quite well. I mean, they have to work so hard to get these jobs... they don't want to mess it up once they've got it.

Anyway, Sony may be looking for more profits trying to build it in cheaper countries, but it still has its reputation to consider. If it starts turning out poor quality products, then it's going to lose customers.

As for now, I wouldn't be fussed where it was made too much. I look at the ownership. The location of a factorty is usually based around profits. It's the location of the owner that matters. Making products in China is not so bad, making products in China for a Chinese owner is when the problems start...

Yes, I always thought Thai products, as you say, Leather tiems, starw, ceramics, wood were good..

I think the quality failures are coming from hardware that was once used from Japan, which generally had a protocol of out with the old, and the new as standard, to moving on to products from Thailand, China, etc., that used a cheaper recipe of compounds for the manufacture.

And them I'm thinking that the average Japanese worker is more precise and disciplined related to the culture, where as a Thai factory worker may forego a screw with a feeling of Mai Pen rai..

Manufacturing has defuinitely changed and become cheaper over the years to compete..

[ozkai]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

I agree with Tenchu on this.
Many Japanese brands are well known in Japan to produce their actual products outside of the country.

What matters, really, is the time invested in quality checks. Japanese brands tend to be more in depth and demanding when it comes to the quality of things they bring in for assembly.

For example - the factory will run it`s internal quality check and those pieces which pass are then checked by Japanese staff at the factory. They weed out even more problem pieces, and then send the packaged goods on to Japan where they are put through another quality check. If the factory has more than a set number of faulty pieces (usually 1% per shipment), they lose their lucrative contract... Something no one wants.

Any location is capable of producing extremely high quality goods - IF the top goes to the trouble of checking, double checking, and making sure that the factory and workers take responsibility. If they just order from some factory and don`t do a multi-layered quality check at every stage... No matter where they produce there are going to be serious problems.

Japanese manufactured products are also well known outside of Japan for the quality. You will often see in Australia on a Sharp AQUOS TV or a SUBARU motor vehicle the words "Fully Imported from Japan" which is a real selling point due to the high quality reputation of Japanese manufactured products.

I'm scrutinizing the agreement factor on weeding out the products as you put it from Japan, to Japan and outside of Japan as that would end up causing the product to be far to expensive.

The whole idea of building the associated brand factory outside of Japan in cheaper parts of Asia is to get the costs down. For example, four Thai workers for the same price as one Japanese.

Exceptions to this are factories in China that for example manufacture barnd name bags. The factories are owned by Mr. Wong, NIKE, ADIDAS approach Mr. Wong to manufacture the product for them, whilst the brand name chooses the thread, zippers, etc. You could walk in and say you would like 20,000 Nyorin Bags and they would make them. Now that's an idea

You say any location is capable of producing extremely high quality goods, I can't agree as it's just been so well proven not to be the case which usually groups the countries into smaller manufacturing possibilities dictating which products and the likes.

[Nyororin]

Obviously there is going to be a difference if when it comes to technological capabilities - but I do not believe that a location or group of people themselves are incapable of producing high quality goods. It is a matter of training and management.

Sharp televisions are assembled in Japan... From parts made both in Japan and elsewhere. What "counts" as I pointed out, is final assembly and quality checks.

It is still cheaper to produce pieces outside of Japan and run them through multiple quality checks than it is to produce the things in Japan and run them through the SAME quality checks.
It seems you are assuming that if the pieces were produced inside of Japan they would not be put through the same checks. There is no difference - the same checks are done no matter where the parts were made or assembled. If the production costs are lowered, the total cost is lowered. It has nothing to do with quality checks.

To clarify even more; Let us assume that all parts are produced and assembled in Japan. The factory will produce, then run internal checking as part of the production process. Then the pieces will be run through a line dedicated to quality checking before being boxed and sent on to assembly. At the assembly plant, they are again checked when received prior to being sent down the line for assembly. After assembly, they are again checked in a dedicated quality check line... And then boxed for sale.
In a factory OUTSIDE Japan -
A factory trained by a Japanese company representative (usually with a number of Japanese management staff) produces parts according to the same rules as a Japanese factory. This includes a regular quality check as part of the regular line. Then produced pieces will be run through a quality check line (usually where the Japanese staff supervises and participates) before being boxed for shipment to Japan. Parts arrive in Japan, and are checked for quality before being put into the assembly line. There is another dedicated quality check after assembly.

The ONLY difference in the actual process is the addition of "shipment to Japan". The exact same quality checks occur in the exact same places in the time table under the exact same policies. The cost cutting is in the labor costs. A Japanese factory worker usually makes around 1500/hr. The same worker in China or another low cost country is usually less than 1/5th that.

Problems arise when quality checks are ignored at some point, or when there is no real training or observation of factory policies.

[burkhartdesu]

Well, obviously the Japanese export their work to other countries because of the cheap labor -- which leads me to believe that Japan has more money to spend on quality checks As Nyororin said (Or atleast I'd like to believe so)

[Tenchu]

Originally Posted by ozkai

Yes, I always thought Thai products, as you say, Leather tiems, starw, ceramics, wood were good..

I think the quality failures are coming from hardware that was once used from Japan, which generally had a protocol of out with the old, and the new as standard, to moving on to products from Thailand, China, etc., that used a cheaper recipe of compounds for the manufacture.

And them I'm thinking that the average Japanese worker is more precise and disciplined related to the culture, where as a Thai factory worker may forego a screw with a feeling of Mai Pen rai..

Manufacturing has defuinitely changed and become cheaper over the years to compete..

Well, my Thai made Honda motorbike works really well. If this country has problems making decent things, I can't see it.

[ozkai]

Originally Posted by Tenchu

Well, my Thai made Honda motorbike works really well. If this country has problems making decent things, I can't see it.

Obviously they got the quality check right

[Ryzorian]

Heh..Toyota is one of the Big three in the US, Heck it employs more Americans than GM does.