Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/09/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Larry, I can't comment on your statistic, although I have Quality training and experience. I don't know if you could make a valid generalisation comparing such a broad range of operators though. Maybe the figures might get skewed at each end of the precision scale! But the video of course only touches one small portion of the process as the major sub-assemblies are mated and testing started. You are seeing nothing from the Portugal plant manufacture nor from Jenoptik where the Kodak sensors are married to their boards. Compare the advantages/disadvantages of the design and assembly philosophies for Japanese mass produced lenses and the hand assembled Leica ones, for example. Certainly you cannot achieve 0 error rate with either method. I think fair to say that most Leica customers will prefer the Leica product. I think it is a bit bit tough maybe to suggest that the customers are the test department, certainly based on anecdotal evidence from this on-line group (or others). Stefan said that M production has been consistent at 10,000 to 12,000 cameras annually. You could make your own guesses at return rates if you wanted. Certainly Leica admits that they have learnt from the M8 design and production. Let's see how the new camera fares once it is available in quantity? Leica Camera AG right now is completely committed to the new M and the S2. The M8 is discontinued all together. Leica considers that used M8's are the entry path for new customers into M photography (plus a trickle of M7/MP's into the Asian market).The lens ranges obviously for M especially and S totally will thrive or fail on the viability of those bodies. Clearly the company's fortunes will be affected by both. 2009/9/15 Lawrence Zeitlin <lrzeitlin at gmail.com> > Vick wrote: > > 2009/9/14 Vick Ko <vick.ko at sympatico.ca> > > > See the video about the M9 at Solms? > > > http://www.luminous-landscape.com/videos/m9-video.shtml > - - - - - - > The video of the M9 assembly may explain some of the reliability and > malfunction problems associated with the M8 when it was introduced. > Assembly > seems to be mostly a hands on process carried out by skilled personnel. > Production engineers have long known that even trained product assemblers > have an error rate of approximately .001. It doesn't matter whether they > are > German, Japanese, or even Mexican. Assuming that there are at least 100 > critical manual operations in assembling, adjusting and inspecting an M8 or > M9, an estimated overall bad camera rate might be .1. If Leica sold 5000 M8 > cameras, 500 might be unsatisfactory and would have to be returned for > repairs. For most consumer products, manufacturers simply compensate for > the > return rate by slightly inflating their costs to cover the price of > replacement products. It is often cheaper than elaborate quality control > and > investment in special purpose automated production equipment. Leica does > not > make enough cameras to justify an automated production line so they should > substitite extensive testing of each unit. Unfortunately, as has been > elaborated in the LUG, the Leica consumer is the testing department. "Don't > be the first by whom the new is tried, or last to cast the old aside." Wait > until the M9.1. > > Larry Z > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > -- Cheers Geoff The new LEICA M9 Passion for perfect pictures. http://www.m.leica-camera.com http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/gh/ http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman