In organisations which have quality systems like ISO 9000/14000  - quality
is - meeting specs which do not neccesarily add to product value / life or
reliability . The end customer wants material better and cheaper - and above
all accepatble to his IQC/QA .
most of the times manufacturing is budenned with costs for specs which are
unneccesary - an Alice in Wonderland world . Try this - way to excellence /
nirvana etc.

1. approach the problem as a challenge to improve process ( re. Joyce )

 2.  it is more rewarding to do it better than others and cheaper too.
 karma)

Once you internalise the problem you will have fun.

The most challenging part is to cajole the customer ( QA or buyer) to accept
while you improve .

It is tempting to teach your customer something - ( masssages your ego too.)
but attrition causes irritation - inflamation - trauma and poossible
extinction.

Anil Kher.

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen R. Gregory <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, August 04, 1999 12:02 AM
Subject: [TN] Culture Changing...any ideas?


>Hey ya'll!
>
>Well, it's cooled down to a balmy 90-degrees here, and boy are my sweat
>glands happy!...hehehe
>
>But email ain't to talk about my how much I perspire, but about changing
>cultures. One of my "opportunities" as presented to me here is figuring out
>how to reduce costs (aren't we all trying to do that?).
>
>One of the things that I've noticed since I've been here, is that there is
>that everything is looked at through MIL-SPEC shaded glasses...and I've
found
>that boards we were building under IPC 610 class-II standards were being
>touched-up un-neccessarily. Things that are maybe only a process indicator,
>but acceptable, are being reworked. For one example, dull solder joints
that
>were caused because an active OA flux was left on longer than it should
have
>been before cleaning has made the joints look dull. QA won't accept the
board
>until all the solder joints are sparkling. I'll fix the problem about the
>operators leaving the flux on too long before washing the board, but you
>still don't need to touch every joint up! But I sure couldn't convince QA
of
>that...and so on it goes.
>
>Part of the history here is that they've always done MIL-SPEC work here,
and
>a lot of that work isn't as plentiful as it once was. One reason I fully
>believe is because of the costs associated with building product to that
>level of quality. At my last company we built product that was going on the
>space shuttle, but yet it only needed to meet 610 Class-II standards. It
>wasn't any guidance stuff or anything like that, but even NASA is relaxing
>things a bit.
>
>Class-II product is something new here, and I think I'm gonna have my hands
>full trying to get people out of that MIL-SPEC culture...it'll be hard to
>make any money doing things that way with the difference in the margins
>between MIL-SPEC and commercial class-II product..
>
>Any suggestions anybody?
>
>Thanks ya'll!
>
>-Steve Gregory-
>
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