 Titus PulloI came, I saw, I slept
join:2004-06-26
kudos:1
 ·Embarq Now Centu..
| reply to russotto
Re: [iPhone] Hairline cracks in the new Iphone.... said by russotto:said by Titus Pullo:Once you've got what would be a 'gold' device (or whatever the F they call it nowadays), you run a small batch of a few thousand and distribute them to company people or dupes folks who sign some life-ending NDF or something, and you test the damn product for, at minimum, a few months and see what's up. Hell, do it in some foreign hole in the wall in an underground vault ... whatever. ROTFL. Obviously, a man with no experience at all with this sort of thing. This sort of stuff happens even if you test that first batch of thousands and it passes. (And neither I nor you know if Apple did so). After that first batch, materials get substituted (by the manufacturer), manufacturing steps get skipped, etc, QA gets skipped, etc. I'm guessing you're off the floor by now?
Good 
No, I don't have experience in manufacturing, that's true. But because the stories (and there are quite a number now re the cracks) involve white phones, I am left to deduce two things: either this has been a problem all along and the black phones hid the cracks, or the problem is unique to the white phones for whatever reason. If the latter, then there was no QA to begin with, eh?
Having said that, I do know one thing about manufacturing: the more you test the more problems you eliminate. Apple doesn't mass-test squat. Every *new* device is practically beta. It's their business model. Good or bad, whatever. Most of us would be dead if manufacturing processes that involved safety issues were handled as is this Chinese mafia shit!
And while I readily admit your reasons for problems such as this are perfectly valid, it sounds a bit like buck passing. They're Apple products. Period. I don't see the Chinese manufacturing plant's name on iPhones, so I don't expect folks will be in 'touch' with Chen Lee when and if it cracks.
As an aside, I've had both a lowly Genius and an Apple Inc. employee agree with me on this issue: closed development has led to increased QC problems with recent products. I don't know the exact reason. Maybe Chen Lee can tell us once his iPhone is connected ... 
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 The Dv8orJust call me Dong Suck Oh, M.D.Premium
join:2001-08-09
Denver, CO
1 edit | said by Titus Pullo:I don't see the Chinese manufacturing plant's name on iPhones, so I don't expect folks will be in 'touch' with Chen Lee when and if it cracks. They know EXACTLY where each phone came from because the serial number dictates what plant and what week the phone was produced. Just because YOU dont see a big label that says "Made in Ken Wei Plant in Shanghai" slapped across the back doesnt mean they dont have exact tracking of the source of each product.
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 DogfatherPremium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA
4 edits | reply to Titus Pullo
The change between prototyping and mass production will lead to discovered quality defects if for no other reason than the sheer quantity produced.
Quality issues change between prototyping, bucket runs and mass production. All 3 have different defect rates and show different defects. If you have a crack defect occurrence of 1 in 10,000 for example, if you only produce 1,000 or even 10,000 for internal testing purposes, 0 crack defective phones may be produced or the few that are get missed by the testers who are looking at interface and call performance. With tooling being fresh, quality is better at the beginning of a part run vs the end of a run so they may have never seen this until the issues turn up in the field.
Of course Apple is still responsible for the obvious defect in workmanship and should replace/repair these devices without hassle. |
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Titus PulloI came, I saw, I slept
join:2004-06-26
kudos:1 Reviews:
·Embarq Now Centu..
| reply to The Dv8or
said by The Dv8or:said by Titus Pullo:I don't see the Chinese manufacturing plant's name on iPhones, so I don't expect folks will be in 'touch' with Chen Lee when and if it cracks. They know EXACTLY where each phone came from because the serial number dictates what plant and what week the phone was produced. Just because YOU dont see a big label that says "Made in Ken Wei Plant in Shanghai" slapped across the back doesnt mean they dont have exact tracking of the source of each product. I realize that. I'm talking forest and you're talking trees. Everything is traceable - even where you bought your last six pack. My point is an accountability one with offshore manufacturing; people don't blame or call Chen Lee when their Chinese gadget is of faulty design (for whatever reason) they blame the company behind the logo. In this case a popular American one.
I honestly can't fathom how that point was lost or this hard to see?
Wow
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Titus PulloI came, I saw, I slept
join:2004-06-26
kudos:1 Reviews:
·Embarq Now Centu..
| reply to Dogfather
said by Dogfather:The change between prototyping and mass production will lead to discovered quality defects if for no other reason than the sheer quantity produced. Snip ... Of course Apple is still responsible for the obvious defect in workmanship and should replace/repair these devices without hassle. Good explanation. I see your point. But I still don't see, once you have what you think is THE final product, why some mechanical contraption that simulates use couldn't be in place.
Is that so far out? Some robot that holds the phone, lays it on a table; takes it in and out of a pocket; shakes it a little, etc. And does it however many 1000s of times for every so many 1000s of phones. I guess I'm not very manufacturing literate. At all.
My mind that says "make a billion dollars with the most popular cell phone on the planet" also says "find ways to test it a million ways to sunday so it doesn't F-up if we change the color"
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 wxbossThis is like Deja vu all over again.Premium
join:2005-01-30
Jacksonville, FL | I think most here agree with your view points. However, in a rapidly changing marketplace, I think the "speed to market' mindset overrides the QA measures that should be in place to ensure a quality (or relatively defect free) product. |
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DogfatherPremium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA | reply to Titus Pullo
You can't test every conceivable situation. And some of these issues are so rare that you can't test for them. Even if they could come up with a case cracking test, they would have to find the 1 phone in thousands that has the defect so they can identify it. They can't test every phone coming off the line. That is simply not possible, either fiscally or time-wise.
The best thing they can do is HAPPILY exchange the phone and then return the phone to the lab for the failure analysis. Then let the engineers fix the issue for future implementation. |
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