Bachmann/Kader Buys Sanda Kan

[wm3798]

I would think that the quality of the design has as much to do with the finished product as anything... garbage in garbage out.  You wouldn't have glue blobs on the windows if the windows are press-fit like Atlas, you would'nt have wavy covered hopper roofs if they're designed to be more stable with an extra rib underneath...
Now, painting and finishing, that's going to be influenced by the application, but again, if the artwork and/or masking tooling isn't well designed, it's going to show up on the back end.

Does Atlas have all of its tooling designed overseas?  I thought they had more control over it than that...
Lee

[TrainCat2]

I think they do Lee. Remember that Cory was just over there for several weeks not to long ago.

[wm3798]

Huh... and he never sent me a post card... Harumph.

Lee

[TrainCat2]

Erik,

Who was your rep at Sanda Kan? I've been talking with Sun Yau over there since Dave Ferrari introduced him to me at Anahiem. He's pretty upbeat about things, but no one really knows what will happen next.

[tom mann]

Check this out:

http://howmodeltrainsaremade.com/about.html

[John]

which one is the glue blob guy?

[Erik W]

Erik,

Who was your rep at Sanda Kan? I've been talking with Sun Yau over there since Dave Ferrari introduced him to me at Anahiem. He's pretty upbeat about things, but no one really knows what will happen next.

Bob,

Yeah Sun Yau was the guy I exclusively worked with.  We'd shoot back and forth probably 20 to 40 emails a day, every day.  In my opinion Sun is a stand up guy and an example of what is good about the "new" China.  Next time you correspond, tell him Erik Welch, formerly of InterMountain says hello.

Lee,

This is just a guess but I think Cory, Rob and Paul do a lot of the design work in house but let the Chinese engineers work out the details of how the molds are cut.  Meaning The Atlas crew are probably hands on with what they want out of the mold but leave it up to the Chinese as to how to cut the mold.

Erik

[wm3798]

That makes sense.  Atlas has had a really good record to date, so my guess would be the local staff has a lot to do with the outcome.
Lee

[Walkercolt]

Two brother I know from the shop work with Sanda Kan on making Westinghouse brand alarm clocks. Sanda Kan molds the outsides, then sends it to another plant where the "works" go in. These are $5 cheapie alarm clocks you can get at any big box store, and are probably marketed under a dozen more brands. The brothers are Chinese born here. The things they have told me about getting QC and getting things right would be funny, if they weren't true. A plant manager in the US that screws up may get fired. In China, the manager, his family and friends may "dissapper". It is a cultural taboo for most Asian people to admit they made a mistake or don't understand something. To admit it to a Westerner, is the ulitimate humiliation. Atlas has an excellent "contact man" from the Chinese Gov't. When Cory or Paul go to the plant, this man is always with you. Having a good "contact" is two-thirds of doing business in China, just like it was 60 years ago in Japan. They can make some extreamly good products, but maintaining QC is often an uphill battle. The Chinese want to use a tool, die, machining tool until it's WORN-OUT, not just out of "spec". Why? Because they have few people who can make those exspensive things, and fewer still engineers compared to the HUGE common labor pool they have. The Chinese can have ten-thousand (or a 100,000) people using hand files to make the back of an alarm clock fit into the front, easier(and cheaper) than making a new die. This works for some things, but not for others. Doesn't work well on N-scale model trains. The Chinese Gov't has a "plan" to train ten million engineers a year for the next ten years, and that will be a drop in the bucket of what they need. Saw that on PBS the other night. Considering it takes most automakers 200-300 engineers to design, test, and make the tooling for a new car, can you see how difficult things can be in China?

[Robbman]

Wow.... I mean... wow... if you'll excuse me I need to turn my computer off and clean all the BS out of it...

[Sokramiketes]

Wow.... I mean... wow... if you'll excuse me I need to turn my computer off and clean all the BS out of it...

 

[wes_sutton]

The Chinese can have ten-thousand (or a 100,000) people using hand files to make the back of an alarm clock fit into the front, easier(and cheaper) than making a new die.

I did wonder how they built those magnificent stadia for the Olympic Games?

Wes

[James Costello]

I did wonder how they built those magnificent stadia for the Olympic Games?
Wes

lol... Australian engineering ;D

[Walkercolt]

With millions of people doing hand labor. Read what I said, not what you think I said. Compared to the US, China has no engineers. Look in your yellow pages. If you live where your phone book is more than an inch thick, there will be pages of engineers of different kinds. In the new SWBC book in Tulsa there are 42 pages of engineers. A fraction of what there were in the 80's, when there were 50+ pages of petroleum engineers, alone. Those were independant engineers. Cities Service in Tulsa alone, employed over 3500 engineers in the downtown buildings, plus the ones that worked on rigs and in the field. The Chinese can do very high precision work very well, but that's not the norm. It wasn't for the Japanese when I was a child. Japanese toys were cheaper, but they were poorly made. In the '50's, the Japanese made some good cameras, but they made alot of junk, too. Remember the Miranda? But the Japanese spent the 50's training engineers, good ones. Now, in many fields, the Japanese are world leaders in design. Even the DOD uses Japanese engineers for some projects that are ultra-secret national security items. The Chinese want to copy the Japanese in that area, but they also want the mass manufacturing to feed billions of empty bellies. They have plenty of those.

[Robbman]

Somebody needs to call the CDC before this ignorance epidemic spreads... I can't, becuase now I have to clean my house of all the BS that just flooded over into it...