Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/09/24

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Ford & F1 Jaguar
From: leicagalpal at earthlink.net (Kit McChesney)
Date: Fri Sep 24 10:16:59 2004

Well, that's not exactly what I said, or meant, though I suppose you could
reverse my logic (if you find the logic logical) to suggest as much. I meant
that what is manufactured in Portugal is just as good as what is
manufactured in Germany; so I guess with that equation, you could say
Germany=Portugal/Portugal=Germany. If we think that the German Leica
manufacturing facility is the state of the art, then the Portugal factory is
as well, because it was designed/built and is part of Leica AG. The people
who work at Leica are Leica employees, regardless of their location or the
languages they speak. 

My objection to the post was the insinuation that somehow the workers in the
Portugal factory were substandard, or that the quality was substandard, or
that other unsavory idea, that Leica might be farming out the work to
Portugal because of some assumption that labor is less expensive there. I
think there are products manufactured in Portugal for reasons that have to
do with the products themselves and the type of equipment and facility that
is available in Portugal. Leica has simply located some parts of its
manufacturing operation there, and that's where certain parts are made.
Anyway, aren't we talking about the European Community? That would be like
saying that something made in California was inherently better than a
comparable item made in Maine, or somesuch. Silly.

Kit
-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+leicagalpal=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+leicagalpal=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Nathan Wajsman
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 10:07 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Ford & F1 Jaguar

Kit is right. There is nothing magic about German manufacturing these 
days. I have a friend who works for GM and has been involved in various 
GM subsidiaries around Europe, and he tells me that their German plants 
are *at best* average in terms of productivity and defect rates compared 
to those in other countries.

I think that part of Leica long-term survival strategy will be to 
terminate manufacturing in Solms and simply keep the HQ, R&D and design 
there.

Nathan

Kit McChesney wrote:

> Are we saying that people in Portugal aren't capable of creating quality
> products? Pul-eez. I'd find that more than a bit distasteful if I were a
> Portuguese LUGger. I find it so and I'm not from Portugal at all! 
> 
> There is no difference in quality between what is manufactured in Leica's
> Portugal facility, and what is manufactured in its German facilities.
> Portugal has been manufacturing some of the finest products in the Leica
> lineup for nearly, if not more than, thirty years. In fact, of the
> complaints I hear about Leica prodcuts, most of those are about products
> made in Germany, not in Portugal. Maybe that has more to do with the
> complainers than the actual products themselves. 
> 
> This kind of argument might have had some currency at one time, but now,
no.
> And go ahead and accuse me of being PC; I don't really care. Besides,
there
> are quite a few women working in the Portugal facility. So watch out! ;-)
> 
> Kit 
> 

-- 
Nathan Wajsman
Almere, The Netherlands

General photography: http://www.nathanfoto.com
Seville photography: http://www.fotosevilla.com


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Replies: Reply from DouglasMSharp at netscape.net (Douglas M. Sharp) ([Leica] Re: Ford & F1 Jaguar)
In reply to: Message from nathan.wajsman at planet.nl (Nathan Wajsman) ([Leica] Re: Ford & F1 Jaguar)