Quality control concerns

[RomanyLife]

Jim is a GREAT guy. Answered the phone when I called and got our new RW on the road the next day when it was stuck in a storage lot waiting for a driver. We will never forget that. Super nice, helpful.

[Bogey3025]

Good to know!! We are praying that they can get our 36RL on the road as soon as it's completed, I now have faith that Jim will make that happen.

[Rosey]

Update on our "defective" Overhead kitchen Island low voltage light fixture that we noticed on our PDI ( One lamp bulb (left) wouldn't work). After agreeing to replace the fixture myself instead of hauling the Redwood back to the dealer , I finally received the new replacement from Crossroads. Yep ! Just as I suspected all along when I dropped the " defective" fixture down to gain access to the wires.......whoever installed it at the factory didn't make sure that ALL OF THE WIRES WERE HOOKED UP INTO THE WIRE NUTS! I find this totally inexcusable. How the heck can someone being paid to install a light fixture not connect all of the wires & then test it before "moving on" to the next unit ? Hope someone from Redwood (Christian ?) sees this post. Needless to say I'm returning the "new replacement" to the dealer so that they can return it to Crossroads to be used for the next frustrated customer.

[ChristianM]

Originally Posted by Rosey

Update on our "defective" Overhead kitchen Island low voltage light fixture that we noticed on our PDI ( One lamp bulb (left) wouldn't work). After agreeing to replace the fixture myself instead of hauling the Redwood back to the dealer , I finally received the new replacement from Crossroads. Yep ! Just as I suspected all along when I dropped the " defective" fixture down to gain access to the wires.......whoever installed it at the factory didn't make sure that ALL OF THE WIRES WERE HOOKED UP INTO THE WIRE NUTS! I find this totally inexcusable. How the heck can someone being paid to install a light fixture not connect all of the wires & then test it before "moving on" to the next unit ? Hope someone from Redwood (Christian ?) sees this post. Needless to say I'm returning the "new replacement" to the dealer so that they can return it to Crossroads to be used for the next frustrated customer.

Seeing this, noting it, and am disappointed that you've had so many frustrations! Believe me, we are passing these issues along and many conversations will be taking place at this year's owners rally to see how we can make this whole process less frustrating and FAR more efficient. I've contacted you privately to see if there's anything I can do to help from this point forward.

Thanks!

[Bogey3025]

Wow, there is no way one or two people will be able to make the difference that is so badly needed in their quality control department, but comforting to know that they are "trying"!! I sit and worry about all of the possible issues that "could" be advoided BEFORE ours heads out to the dealer for delivery. One of the local news stations is working on a pretty good size story about RV living, from purchase to travel. A friend is currently working on the research...he asked if he could do our walk through with us, I told him no. I'm hoping everything goes well. The power of positive thinking.

[Bogey3025]

Originally Posted by 0nTheRoad

There have been many posts over the past several months discussing the Quality Control of Redwood manufacturing so during one of my recent conversations with Jim Lazzarino, the General Manager of Redwood, we discussed this topic. He in return prepared the following to discuss what Redwood is doing to address this growing area of concern...

Chuck
Here are the systems we have put in place to continue to improve Redwood's quality. Please remember that some of these were already in place but after the owners rally we had in August, we added some more checks. Also remember, a unit recently purchased on a dealers lot may have been built before these changes. Lastly, we will never claim to have arrived in this area because we feel quality is something we need to always be striving to get better at.

1. All units, before going to the next station at the plant have to be signed off by a team leader.

2. If a unit goes to the station with a challenge from the previous station, the leader from that station is called to inspect and repair the deviation.

3. Once a week the Plant Manager meets with all his team leads to discuss recurring challenges and talk about ways to improve as a team.

4. When units are at the end of the line they ALL get a full system check by two employees that are not part of the production team.

5. When units are done, before they are sent to paint, they are inspected one more time by a neutral party, these systems include Redwood, Sequoia, and Cypress.

6. Two days a week the G.M. walks the line, unscheduled, to look for quality challenges.

7. Every Wednesday at 7am the Plant Manager, GM, and quality inspector pick a random unit and do an audit from top to bottom looking for imperfections. The Quality inspector sends a list to the team. The GM, Plant Manager & Quality manager track concerns and make sure they are not recurring . On this day GM & Plant Mgr. also meet with the production team to discuss areas of concern and how to make us better.

8. When units come back from paint, which takes ten business days, they go to final finish were they go through a white glove inspection and are prepared for shipping.

8. Two units a week are picked randomly from our corporate office and checked out in our new corporate service center. These units are then rain bay tested.

9. Starting in May all units built will be rain bay tested.

10. When units show up to a dealer there is a Dealer Acceptance Form they fill out that allow us to see where we might need improvement. The Plant Manager & General Manager read these looking for areas to improve.

11. Once a month the GM is sent the top 5 Warranty issues so we can look for more area to improve quality.

12. The GM of Redwood stays in communication with the current owners. This is very important because it also allows us to hear what current concerns are.

13. The Owners Rally, once a year, also gives us a great chance to get ideas from Redwood owners on how to improve our product and stay the number 1 selling.

Jim Lazzarino
General Manager

I believe Redwood is tuned in to quality issues and is doing a very good job of addressing the issue. As Jim told me, things got really busy and things slipped...no more, we are taking quality very seriously now.

Unfortunately this is of little comfort to any owners out there who have had issues with their coaches but it is reassuring to hear that they are working on making the brand better.

The saving grace for owners who have had issues is that Redwood has an excellent warranty department and they really try to take care of production issues.

In closing, as stated by Jim, he and I speak frequently and I try to capture issues that I see popping up frequently.

I just saw this...Great information. Thanks for sharing. I will have this with us when we do our walkthrough. Again, thank you.

[DLRAKOWITZ]

Yeah I was given that speech as well and yes our new rw is miles ahead on quality over our previous rw. With that being said, rw still sent out our new trailer with issues to fix such as a vacuum not working, faulty clogged water connect for city, and a squeak in sub floor in front of shower for dealer to diagnose and fix. And yes this is a may built trailer. But still we absolutely love this trailer and all crossroads did to make this one fit our needs.

[GTXRAS]

Originally Posted by 0nTheRoad

There have been many posts over the past several months discussing the Quality Control of Redwood manufacturing so during one of my recent conversations with Jim Lazzarino, the General Manager of Redwood, we discussed this topic. He in return prepared the following to discuss what Redwood is doing to address this growing area of concern...

Chuck
Here are the systems we have put in place to continue to improve Redwood's quality. Please remember that some of these were already in place but after the owners rally we had in August, we added some more checks. Also remember, a unit recently purchased on a dealers lot may have been built before these changes. Lastly, we will never claim to have arrived in this area because we feel quality is something we need to always be striving to get better at.

1. All units, before going to the next station at the plant have to be signed off by a team leader.

2. If a unit goes to the station with a challenge from the previous station, the leader from that station is called to inspect and repair the deviation.

3. Once a week the Plant Manager meets with all his team leads to discuss recurring challenges and talk about ways to improve as a team.

4. When units are at the end of the line they ALL get a full system check by two employees that are not part of the production team.

5. When units are done, before they are sent to paint, they are inspected one more time by a neutral party, these systems include Redwood, Sequoia, and Cypress.

6. Two days a week the G.M. walks the line, unscheduled, to look for quality challenges.

7. Every Wednesday at 7am the Plant Manager, GM, and quality inspector pick a random unit and do an audit from top to bottom looking for imperfections. The Quality inspector sends a list to the team. The GM, Plant Manager & Quality manager track concerns and make sure they are not recurring . On this day GM & Plant Mgr. also meet with the production team to discuss areas of concern and how to make us better.

8. When units come back from paint, which takes ten business days, they go to final finish were they go through a white glove inspection and are prepared for shipping.

8. Two units a week are picked randomly from our corporate office and checked out in our new corporate service center. These units are then rain bay tested.

9. Starting in May all units built will be rain bay tested.

10. When units show up to a dealer there is a Dealer Acceptance Form they fill out that allow us to see where we might need improvement. The Plant Manager & General Manager read these looking for areas to improve.

11. Once a month the GM is sent the top 5 Warranty issues so we can look for more area to improve quality.

12. The GM of Redwood stays in communication with the current owners. This is very important because it also allows us to hear what current concerns are.

13. The Owners Rally, once a year, also gives us a great chance to get ideas from Redwood owners on how to improve our product and stay the number 1 selling.

Jim Lazzarino
General Manager

I believe Redwood is tuned in to quality issues and is doing a very good job of addressing the issue. As Jim told me, things got really busy and things slipped...no more, we are taking quality very seriously now.

Unfortunately this is of little comfort to any owners out there who have had issues with their coaches but it is reassuring to hear that they are working on making the brand better.

The saving grace for owners who have had issues is that Redwood has an excellent warranty department and they really try to take care of production issues.

In closing, as stated by Jim, he and I speak frequently and I try to capture issues that I see popping up frequently.

All I can say is Wow. Some/most of those steps were missed on ours. I guess some are better than none. Ours was completed 12/15/2014 and then went to paint. And no it did not sit on the dealers lot to picked over. We looked at it 1 hour after it was delivered and signed the papers.

Rick

[0nTheRoad]

I do believe that Redwood is trying to improve their QC issues. Jim assures me that the management of Redwood is taking quality seriously and making changes to stop the problems.

I hope the trend to improve continues...