Friday, January 2, 2015

Quality control, Chinese style . . .


As part of the ongoing AR-15 rebuild project, I'm preparing a number of red dot sights for mounting on rifles and carbines.  Below is a photograph of three identical sights, bought through the same vendor at the same time.  (I hasten to add that they're not any of the sights I reviewed in the linked article above - these were donated by another source.)  Notice anything about the quick-detach bases?  (My apologies for the mediocre image - it was snapped using a cellphone camera.)




One base has its quick-detach lever on the right, and two on the left.  One lever is moved forward to lock onto the Picatinny rail, and two are moved backwards;  and the two that move backwards are reversed, so that one curves inwards when locked while the other curves outwards.  Also, there are two different types of lever, each with locking buttons that 'unlock' in different ways.  There was clearly no attempt at uniformity when the levers, bases and sights were assembled.  It's as if someone tossed a bunch of parts into a room with a troop of monkeys, and told them to put everything together!

Oh, well . . . I guess that's Chinese quality control in action.  At least all the bases and sights actually work!




Peter

2 comments:

  1. I have a buddy that gets parts fabbed up over there. He said they try to do well and are very teachable. But it's almost like a 5th grade shop class. Not much (no) experience. They are cheap labor.

    Truthfully, I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of millennials did that. We are suffering thru the least loyal, least teachable, most self-confident workers I've ever seen. They drive our fleet vehicles, are supposed to report accidents, and don't. No repercussions either. The older, long term guys quit reporting them as well. So, not only are they poor performers, they are degrading the other workers. Does not bode well for any company.

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  2. Looks like Century International exported their toolroom business model to the Orient.

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