Re: [A-List] Why I Love the Sony Corporation

[Leigh Meyers <the.buffalo.in.the.midst@xxxxxxxxx>]

Apparently someone @ Sony still takes W. Edwards Deming's principals to 
heart.

It takes more than SQA/SQC, Mil-Spec 415d and ISO-9001 to produce 
quality, it takes teamwork by people who feel that they are stakeholders 
in whatever is being done.

The returns & warranty management people at Sony talk to customer 
services management, and they ALL have access to production records... 
they kept track of the parts they were putting in which unit when.

That's what I noticed years ago about Japanese cars.

At the time, with Detroit cars, you didn't want to buy a Monday or 
Friday car, and Wednesday... 'hump-day' cars were a gamble too. Any 
other day of the week, you were liable to find the random coke bottle 
welded in a door panel or somesuch.

With Japanese cars, if there was a defective turn signal switch or 
something, it appeared in thousands of cars produced at the same time, 
sometimes across a range of models that used the same part.

It sounds bad, but it's soooo easy to find and repair the affected units.

It's been a few years since I worked for Seagate, and I watched them 
toss the SQA and SQC out the window when things didn't work more times 
than I cared to for the amount of time I spent inspecting and spec-ing  
machine shop parts for them.

They talked about Deming's principals, but I never saw them act. It was 
just talk.

W. Edwards Deming... Smart guy... Too bad the net impact of rapid 
industrialization on Japanese society, perhaps industrialization in any 
way, damaged the fabric of the society.

FWIW, I spent years with a pair of Koss Pro-4AA headphones on my ears, 
and still spend a fair amount of time using them.

They are fully guaranteed for defects AND incidental damage for the 
original owner's life. If the cord gets intermittent, they replace it. 
Got the mix up too loud and blow a speaker? They replace it. Silicone 
earpad blowout? They replace it. Lifetime guarantee.

That's a recommendation, if anyone needs a pair of headphones that are 
the equivalent of putting a pair of high quality studio monitor speakers 
to their ears for under ... $70.

Mine cost $49.95 from J&R Music in New York via internet.

That's right... about the same price as consumer junk.

They don't look pretty, and they weigh a ton, but they sure sound good.

Hmmm... I wonder how many people DON'T want their headphones to sound 
good for the money, but want them to be light and pretty?

Leigh