RVs on an assembly line

[spock123]

I just don’t see robots putting RV’s together. There are just to many ways for little problems. Plus I don’t see a RV made in any other country and shipped here. The big two are going to keep pumping out RV’s and people are going to keep buying them. Maybe when a recession comes the industry will slow down but the quality won’t get any better. The choice is yours buy a camper that probably has a few problems or stay in motels. The problem with motels is who slept there last night. Of the five campers I have had, four have been great and one a polecat.

[dcheatwood]

Originally Posted by hshaynes

I watched, with great interest, the other night a special on the Ford River Rouge truck plant. Ford produces a truck every 53 minutes. Most likely could not do that with an RV. However, if you had the acreage and money, a line would be feasable and I think the RV coming off the line could be competively priced and could be a fairly solid unit. As ithers have said, simplify plumbing chases and wiring chases. Stick with one or two frames and send parts to areas of the line only when needed. Pre assemble some items in other areas of the plant. Plant would be required to be multi layered.
Many ideas proposed above are excellent and would work.

While at the FROG rally a couple years ago I toured the rockwood plant. I had a fifth wheel but they we're making tts this day. The young workers ran, literally ran, back and forth from supply areas to the TTs and moved so fast. They completed 22 (twenty two) 35' triple slide, 2 a/c travel trailers in an 8 hour shift, starting from axles on a frame. I saw immediately why quality was down. Every tt that rolled out had red tape all over it where inspectors had marked problem areas. Then a crew came along behind them doing repairs. It was crazy but interesting to watch.

[catskat]

Originally Posted by aceinspp

And another way to put folks out of a job. I'd say more training for folks and closer QC inspections of all phases o f the build. Later RJD

I agree completely, additional training and make QC step-up their inspections.
I have seen things wrong or incomplete arrive at the dealer that are completely visible, just nobody looked. Unfortunately the millennials are to blame for the huge rise in sales, which means that the factories are just going to squirt them out as fast as they can, because the end will come and things will slow back down to where they should be. When the millennials figure out they just purchased a new RV and there is no place to camp, they will flood the market with used units. Just my opinion.

[superglide]

As a retired manufacturing professional with quality and operations experience I offer my take on QC. The real notion of quality control is appropriately called process control. You cannot have one person build and the next person inspect quality into the build. That said there are many good ideas floated here. The path to quality in the build must include a plan for quality, a process or means for attainment of quality, and a means for real time feedback on actual quality attained. My experience with quality success confirms that the variations in workers is less the issue than is the design and deployment of the manufacturing processes. For the worker this means; fully define what is required, train and equip the worker properly in order to reach that definition, provide for accountability.
Quality Control is a responsibility for manufacturing. Quality Assurance is a function to serves and facilitates manufacturing in attainment of desired results. No inspector is going to give us quality since they do not produce anything!

[Tblt44]

Q.C. only catches the problem after.
People need to take pride in what they do.
If they are paid in piece work that's a big problem
Pay the people a fair wage and give them the time needed to do the job right the first time.
Weed out the bad apples when Q.C. does catch a problem.

[spock123]

Originally Posted by Tblt44

Q.C. only catches the problem after.

People need to take pride in what they do.

If they are paid in piece work that's a big problem

Pay the people a fair wage and give them the time needed to do the job right the first time.

Weed out the bad apples when Q.C. does catch a problem.

Weed out the bad apples, by that I guess you mean people. When I was last in Goshen everywhere we went were signs begging peoples to work. Cedar Creek does have a stable work force. I think the biggest problem is trying to build to many campers in a day. The Amish doesn’t like to work overtime and they only want to work four days a week. When I was last at the factory the plant manager told me they were going to slow the line down some. At the factory at Cedar Creek the Amish only want to work four days a week. Last year they were working on Friday. You need a happy workforce. The Amish like to work ten hours a day or there about and not work on Friday. The farms come first, the Amish don’t want to build campers all there life

[RACarvalho]

Originally Posted by superglide

No inspector is going to give us quality since they do not produce anything!

Exactly.
But even the Japanese example is a witnessing that even a good quality SYSTEM (not only inspection) have its limits.
You go to Ford website and there are 54 different F150 that you can buy. You go to Toyota website and there are 3 maybe 4 versions of the Tundra that you can buy. So while the general consensus is that Toyota have a better quality, this is not completely a function of a better quality system per see but it is achieved with a huge contribution of doing the same thing all the time every time....
The number of different campers that those companies put forward is really impressive and all that change over also contributes to variance you like it or not. Everything can improve but all being considered, to me, it is really impressive the low number of quality problems that Rockwood, for example, have.

[sramidon]

We were told while having warranty repair work done, the RV manufacturers use to pay for quality work. Now they pay per piece. So the emphasis is how many pieces can a person get done to get the most reward regardless of how slipshod. Sad that these companies don’t care about quality.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by catskat

Unfortunately the millennials are to blame for the huge rise in sales, which means that the factories are just going to squirt them out as fast as they can, because the end will come and things will slow back down to where they should be. When the millennials figure out they just purchased a new RV and there is no place to camp, they will flood the market with used units. Just my opinion.

I think you're blaming the wrong group.
It's retiring baby boomers that are buying the majority of RVs.
RVing isn't popular with millenials. Look at the percentage of them still living with their parents.
They don't have the income to afford one.

[spock123]

I worked by piece work for a long time, I made more money to work harder. I worked in a furniture factory for eight years making recliners. We worked on a line doing the same thing every day. I then worked loading hogs on a truck, paid by the hog. That was a long time ago, seventeen years ago. I was very good and very fast