European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 14, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 16 the stars and stripes the decline of excellence the stars and stripes Page 17 editors note is the i n i e i made in  getting a Little frayed around or edges have american made products indeed declined in Quality and excellence Are they not making them like they used to to sonic extent the answer is yes. But to the questions Why who is to blame and what to do about it the answers arc not As simple by Bernard Gavzer a staff writer is  perhaps somewhere someplace in the great stretches of the United states a housewife who has t been reduced to tears As water gushed from a defective washing machine or As she watched the to give up and die during a morning soap opera what s happening does t that Good old Label made in the  still stand for the Best that Money can buy does it All mean that excellence has somehow vaporized in a Short circuit which cannot be found or corrected no no a thousand times no. In fact faster and faster the Amer ican Genius for production punches out everything from baby toys to pads for Moon landings. Making. Selling. Buy ing. The air of America is shimmer with the heat of a Busy thriving driving nation producing the finest Quality of goods. To its glory it can Send submarines under icecaps use satellites to relay stars and stripes Mary Neth editor sights and sounds make cars and planes that destroy distance produce clothe that never need pressing and replenish the Ever changing storehouse of appliances that take the work out of work. But despite the grand things and the glory there is a margin that does t make the Grade. A Fleet of air planes is grounded be cause of trouble with a Rod in a Hydraulic valve millions of automobiles Are called Back to the plants because of potential defects relating to safety tens of thousands of Large screen color to sets have to be modified after the Dis covery of potential danger of radiation leaks Plant construction comes to a halt because of defective components in a Generator. Etc. Etc. Who is responsible How does this happen what is the Price paid for defective Ness the manufacturer blames it on the Blue Collar work. No Pride. No sense of  worker looks toward the executive suite and claims to see the trouble there. Men who take shortcuts for profit look the other Way rather than see bad design ignore Quality control. If there is a referee in this argument it might be the expert in Quality control. Frank Nixon who had such a Post with Rolls Koyce limited says 80 per cent of the blame lies on the head of management. Says Nixon operator controllable defects of Quality that is of in Plant Manu facture account for no More than about 20 percent. The remainder Are management controllable. That is they undue to inadequate specifications de sign requirements which cannot be met. Unsuitable equipment bad planning in sufficient training and so  but says William Sternburg a re search scientist with Ria at print us. . America produces an enormous amount of goods that perform perfectly Well. Defects Are a relatively Small portion and even with the Best it is possible to run across a  press mainly no one would make a tiling hut can Hurt others through Iii is. But plenty of bad prod is there a Best Money can buy ? Betty Furness used to do to commercials now her pitch is for Consumers. Acts do. The . Public health service reports that faulty heating devices cause 125,000 injuries a year stoves Power mowers and washing machines 100, 000 and electrical Extension cords 30,000. Thousands of court suits Are the re sult. About 20 years ago Only a few product liability cases were filed annually. In 1963, it was about 50,000. We Esti mate the rate now at More than 100, 000," says the american trial lawyers assn., Watertown mass. Product liability suits Are based on the claim there was a defect in the product when it left the manufacturer and that this was the cause of the injury which occurred while the product was being used in a reasonably foreseeable Man Ner. The breadth of such cases gives some measure of the Range of defective Ness. A court in Illinois affirmed a $65,000 judgment for a baby burned because of a fire caused by a defective Metal Vaporizer a Wisconsin woman received $4,250 for injuries received because of a Short circuit in a washing machine a shoe dealer was held liable in the death of a child who suffered a fatal infection from a Blister allegedly caused by a wrinkle in the lining of a shoe a woman who was pregnant received$25,000 because the Back of an alumni num Kitchen chair came off due to the use of the wrong Type of screws causing her to fall and sustain injuries which led to the premature birth of he child. To some observers this Ali is the product of Good times. The Economy is up men Are at work salesmen rewriting orders Consumers Are after goods. The hungry demand for goods has producers operating in High gear and sometimes the Price for High vol ume is Sho Diness or defective Ness with the Hope that someone Down the line will catch the aberration. Itofe time Tim government Pip to who Pon keep Lon term 60aban an expert with the us u of Commerce sees this As i of what he feels is a new in the United states. We have a roman  god Rome. It is As though Wear Ujj 1 camping in our world and will move on. So Why make Sunn thin i last More than one night Why build tomorrow or for handing Dow i to g children if the toaster does t 2why fool with repairs toss it Ajjan buy  Joseph Juran a consultant who has the reputation As the grand old Man of Quality control says there is u National irritation and disenchantment because More and Niobe people Are exposed to things which can fail. The develop ment of Power assisted products Suchias Home appliances has outpaced the rate at which we Are Able to solve problems. Even the Ordinary Bloke to Day has a menagerie of appliances Andi d confidentially say that less than 1 per cent of the population has any idea at All on How to Deal with then. I m an electrical Engineer and i con fess that if my i i failed i would t dare open it. I d Call a Serviceman an then i d worry whether he actually knew much More than i  As an example of what can Hap pen when it comes to repairs. Con Sumers Union of it. Vernon . A nonprofit watchdog for the consumer placed 20 to sets with identical trouble a bad tube in each in 29 Homes. Tubes and parts were marked with invisible Ink. Of 20 repairmen Only three made the Correct repairs at an average reasonable Price of $ for replaced tube and labor. Nine made unnecessary tube replacements two said sets had to be taken into their shops and others found a multitude of unnecessary problems. Charges were As High As $31.30. There is a Dollar Cost. Too. But what it is can Only be ,uue.v-, at. Says William r. Pabst or. Of the naval Ord Nance systems command in washing ton . The measurement of defect Riveness in meaningful economic terms is very nearly  but there Are clues to its dimensions. The records of Large scale buyers seas the department of defence Ami n general services administration Otic some yardstick. J. J. Riordan. Director for Quality and reliability Assurance in the office Secretary of defense says Proe Meimi come to about $25 billion a  includes hardware food. Uling and so on he says. We been rejecting 5 per cent Winch co to about $1,25 billion in i  suppliers have to meet our w " Lions it is to be assumed  5 Lake special cure. But stlll1lll� t,., 1 per cent that does t make the would anticipate that things Asame and certainly no a cider Foi thu m div dual  j five per cent of the Lissell n product comes .0 about $40 . I would say much depends upon of definition of defect uhf in is a. J. N. Berrettoni Al my St n re apartment of statistics tense Oil by Servo University in lev Han. Defective Ness one Means a a. A Complete failure to a f ill. 1 engineering Ami design a f1 l per would estimate it us i Rohl 9 cent of the cjn1 tins would i billion. L  is tick. I of it Feola to has come face Tumi bub in the darkness when to goes out. It always seems uni the bulb that was just rut in. The annual style change in aulos his an implied Statt mini that a Model makes the 1%7 on-1 ill r new car starts declining in value Theno ment it is driven from the dealer. J automatically depreciates anywhere irom $400  s Rioidan feels planned of Discence has not been thoroughly examined. I personally believe the Light bulb has a planned life and could easily live  obsolescence is one indicator. So is the Cost of maintenance the volume of seconds and irregulars the frequency if repair the record of recalls. T another reflection is in the increase in numbers of people who have expert nce with things that Don t live up to expectation and complain loudly to anyone who la listen. President Johnson Laking notice of this appointed Betty Urness to do some listening As head f the president s committee on con Sumer interests. And rep. Benjamin Rosenthal new York Democrat lib eral wants to go several Steps further and create a department of consumer affairs which would be like another Side of the Commerce dept. Betty Furness is one complainer. Ill like others she has the advantage lot having her Gripe heard. My bus band and i were in California she recalls. We rented a car and the Accel Lerator came off. So we promptly got another and the door handle fell off. Hat is just not Good enough. The con Sumer in America deserves  the general services administration which is a Large scale shopper for government goods reported 24 different defects in a procurement of half ton trucks ranging from exposed electrical body wiring to a shift lever guard that could injure the Driver s hand. We spend a great Deal of our time uselessly or wastefully because of fail lure. Any time you have to go Back because something that should have been done has t been done there is an erosion of time says William Palmer la new Jersey Quality control consultant now engaged in promotion of standards for the laundry and dry cleaning Indus ones. A new car now May take the equivalent of one whole week of work ing time to get it into satisfactory con  there Are those who feel that unless serious defects Are corrected the society May move toward a different concept of obtaining things. Instead of own ing an automobile for instance a per son would buy a number of hours or Miles of trouble free travelling k Vir c conditioner would t be owned nut the maker would instead agree to deliver a number of hours of 70-Degreei temperature. Of More immediate consequence Etc let moves taken by consumer Union and by rep. Rosenthal. Consumes Union has brought suit to Force the ibis at min stration to reveal re iils ft11of hear a aids cd � 8 nce a taxpayers paid for theists they should have Access to the s5s�" 1� Pulde them toward Haig the beset on lne Market. Rosen k ,al1 pro act information from defined National Bureau of standards 22. E depth and so on Ade Avail Fri in the Federal government own la negligence by inform us about of Ems Wlch to has bendable and  Park . Does a t come the Hall big nil a de in the .a."-a8  been some experts see poem a being Hurt a foreign Trade 5ons?v us8 Wil am Palmer. A nos Honda Sushl a Amiya. Sny. Hitachi Naa ulu t Toyota they re Jupa 4v Waffle Irons Are put through paces by lab Man at Consumers Union a nonprofit watchdog for Public. I mave a too Kwh a j went to but for it ithe popu ctr now company As testing of products at Consumers Union has turned up Many deficiencies in goods. Nese exports making massive inroads into american markets and squeezing american products in foreign markets. They re very competitive products combined with very High Quality Assurance. Not always deluxe necessarily but with very High performance  unless definite and positive Steps Are taken says Riordan. Problems of immense social magnitude await America. He states we Are committed to enor Mously expensive space programs and i do not believe they can be Success fully achieved unless we have a National environment that is conducive to Quaty  one of his first orders of business for a depart ment of consumer affairs would be to look into the intentional making of things so that they become obsolete in a planned period of time. Consumers Union considers one Index of defective Ness to be the amount and frequency of repair. It gives re pair rate experience with various products particularly automobiles. But no projection is possible that would give the picture nationally. However rior Dan says maintenance costs must be considered a reflection of defective Ness and to give some idea of the enormity of it the defense department spends $17 billion a year on  while the catalogue of faulty things can go on and on Joseph Juran says that to do something about the Situa Tion we should concentrate on the vital few rather than the trivial  Betty fruness the onetime lady huckster on to sometimes new equip ment reaches the Market much too Early before the bugs Are ironed nut and proper Quality control measures have been  As the evidence comes in. There seems Little doubt says Consumers Union that a color to set can be a very Chancy thing indeed. Too Many of our own test sets have come with defects. The volume of complaints from readers is great enough for us to state that the color to buyer should be especially on guard. Of All types of products Only autos generate More