Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'refrigerator'.
Found 2 results
-
Muffinman called me and wanted me to ask...... "Are you keeping my winkie safe?" "Is it still on the refrigerator?" Ya know we love ya babe. Margaret
-
Folks the thing we are seeing with the toy industry is just the tip of the iceberg. In the 35 years I have worked, after four years in the military, most all of it has been in the Quality Assurance/Quality Control area of manufacturing. I spent over fifteen years for a company that made electric motors for the appliance industry with the last eight being the Corporate Quality Manager over four plants in three different states. Their product was the small motor usually used as the condensing fan motor in refrigerators, water coolers, coke machines, etc. When I left, they were producing 65,000 motors a week. Without naming names I will say that the largest customer's name started with a "W" and ended with an "L" and they made refrigerators and a lot of other appliances. At the time I left, the price of the OEM motor to them was about $7 each. If it was an aluminum frame motor, it was generally a fifteen year motor and if it was a cast iron frame motor, it was generally a twenty year motor. That means that under normal circumstances you did not have to replace that motor for about fifteen years at a cost of $75 to $100 bucks, if the refrigerator was still worth it. This included the service call. The motor sold to the general public for about $30 from a place like Granger. Several years ago, this famous customer decided they wanted to get motors from China and save a few buck on each refrigerator. Now the motor they are using is about a five year motor. Therefore, for them to save a couple of bucks, it would cost the average homeowner up to $200 to keep that refrigerator running over ten years. But then again, they are hoping that by five years you will want another new $1,500 or more refrigerator anyway. To put this into human perspective, the company I worked for had a plant that employed about 200 people (largest county employer) in one of the poorest counties in east Tennessee. This company had some of the most loyal employees that put out some of the best quality. The return rate on their motors was less than one tenth of one percent. That is less than one in a thousand, and historically half of those returns were customer induced problems. Now that plant is closed. After that company, I worked for a company that made aluminum and zinc castings. They also had three plants and then spent millions building a plant in Mexico. One of the castings they made was the case for the Tremeck six speed transmission that went onto the Corvette. They paid seventy cents per hour for labor to make parts for a transmission to go into a $60,000 car. That company ended up closing three plants including the one in Mexico. I have now been with a company that makes tank type water heaters for over four years. Now, almost everything that we use other than the tank and jacket comes from Mexico or China. The only reason they are still in the US is the physical size of a water heater. It absolutely breaks my heart to see what this country is doing with their manufacturing. One of these days it will be just one big service industry. RandyA
