Here in cape town, we have a real problem with rejects of factory products, something i intend to do something about. i think the only reason we still get orders is because we are so cheap and located in such a good place globally that it is cheaper to send things via ship to other customer places, and, stores here would be easy to get a hold of if it comes to quick deals and such. i am sure it has nothing to do with the climate and food industry, where owners come for a holiday every now and then! Okay, this quality thing, we make a lot of rejects, so, is it the quality letting is slip, the quality being optimistic, or the factory workers fault? let's say that it is both of their faults, as, there are too many rejects and there is no sieving them out. So, we need to make better quality goods. this means more cleaning of apparatus, so that the products do not get defects from collected alterations or changes in the molds. this would mean cleaning and re-cleaning, to save money in the end with the net income. if the molds were clean, and more was spent on hygiene for the machines, they would produce perfect goods, yes? Then, the equipment needs to be upgraded regularly. this would mean that, as cape town is not really into maintenance, as i do not see adverts for this in the paper or magazines, there needs to be more supply of new equipment, the problem is from where? the nearest supplier of this would be europe, as that is what we use here, yes? this means that there needs to be a bulk buy of new equipment and storage for it locally, so that they may be swapped and be maintained properly instead of being maintained on the fly, with some worker barking that they need to meet their targets, so hurry the heck up! for example, a new nozzle could be placed on 'glue guns' so that the glue does not lead to dry spots in the glue before it sets, yes? Things like this will make the quality of the products better, but what about the quality being filtered through? this would mean that, without clearing things while people are working, there will be another twenty minutes at the end of the day for quality checking, so that they are also not doing it on the fly, yes? All these things, and many more that may become apparent to the managers and maintenance crews could help save money and maybe even produce more of the goods for the sake of their livelihood.
So, what do you make and what is the nature of the rejects? Are the rejacts caught by QC or your customers?
With the state of equipment being what it is, with no new manufacturers coming out, there is a lag in the manufacturing of tooling and parts for machines. this means that the waiting period of fixing machines would be lagging, as getting new ones would take so long. So, the solution is simple; fix and upgrade them yourselves. there are many engineers in each country, and, they can easily download plans for machines and equipment and do it themselves, with a few commonly available things around the third world. like, if the machine has got a broken part from abuse, they could build a new part or repair it, of course.
So, we know that the factory production can be made to a more reliable standard by fixing the little things of the machines. honestly, there is a case separating the circuit boards and engines from the outside world, then there are the little things that can be replaced, yes? this means that by cleaning the 'thin plastic pipes' of the machine, like that deliver 'component style ingredients' to the main machine, of course. Now, how do we know when it is time to repair the machines? this would be down to where there is 'a part rotation' to the machines, and, then the parts can be repaired and hung up waiting for the next lot to be cleaned by the tool room. this would be where these toolmakers, that often would just idle - don't ask me where i get this from - and would instead make sure the parts are clean for use the next time, of course. But, why not manufacture your own moulds and machines? then you could make new ones whenever you like, of course. for the mould, it would be a case of using a blow torch, not for the finished look of the bought tool, but a customized mould for the parts you are making, of course. Then, for the machines, like dye cast machines in auto engineering, you could easily build a 'machine' for that. maybe if you were to take the previous machine, the bought one imported from somewhere, then you could observe the general mechanics of the machine and replicate it to your specified criteria, where the machine is based on what you have and what is in the market, but honed for this specific type of function, of course. To manufacture these quickly and cheaply, the engineering department - who know how to do these things because it says so on their degrees - would be able to use a panel beater and a hard ware store's equipment to manufacture them, along with a liquid nitrogen cast, that will not melt, and, will be able to give general shapes to the working parts, of course. getting the nitrogen to get into the right shape can be done with placing the metal cores of the moulds inside the nitrogen, to keep them in place while the part is made.
i don't know if it's a world trend, but lately I've been noticing assorted items are faulty or badly designed. For example I bought a bicycle but it uses 3 different lengths of spokes that differ by only a couple of millimetres and look almost identical, so how the heck are we supposed to tell which is which when replacing a bust spoke on a dark rainy night in the middle of nowhere? And I bought a toaster but it's a flop because the top half-inch of bread slices stick out the top and don't get toasted, crazy! I bought a small digital camera but it's too fancy and fiddly to use! Then I bought a small metal cashbox but the lock is ludicrously designed and you might think you've locked it when you haven't! Next I bought a new keyboard for my computer, but the letters on the keys are beginning to flake off after just a month! I bought a pair of size 8 shoes but even though they were marked 'size 8', they're more like size 6 and I can't get them on! Then I bought a couple of pairs of pants but they made my legs itch because they're made of some artificial fibre, so I bought some cotton-heavy ones but the colours ran on the first washing! Next up were some pairs of "easy grip" socks that were supposed not to leave construction rings round your ankles, but they did! Last week I bought a new replacement cashbox of a different design to the duff one, but guess what?- The lock is faulty and badly designed on this one too...groan...
