long day

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by rcflame

I don't know if Redwoods quality control is any different than many of the others. In 2002 we bought a Montana Big Sky, in 2006 a Carriage Carri-lite, our Redwood in 2012. We have actually had fewer problems with the Redwood than the other two. I think they all have problems. Anything except structural is really the problem of the component manufacturer and not directly related to Redwood. I think one of the problems with them all is that the pencil pushers and money counters are interested in the bottom line. Their push is to get the product out so the workers are forced to put more into quantity than quality.

X2
Folks said montana would go under from warranty work, instead they survived the recession over high quality units and maintained #1 in sales over a decade.

Quality control does not seem to be the key to success in the RV industry. Ask Teton or Carriage.

[lwg]

Originally Posted by Dave&Ginny

I understand your concerns but Redwood still has the best floor plans out there with the GK being one of them.Â* Having the top ( and start-up)guys being shown the door isn't good but it's not the death of the product either.Â*

In my opinion Redwood has 2 main problems and if they fix these it will go real far in producing a better product.

#1 Either eliminate the Quality Control person that has been sleeping on the job or teach a whole bunch of people real fast how to care about their work.

#2 Loose the "Falcon Fit" idea and get better suspension systems or else more options.Â* As in all industries, they have to get the best supplier instead of only using the "Thor" step children.

#3 Buy back some of the older trailers that have been well used and maintained, take them apart and see where they wore the worst.Â* Fix those problem areas on the new trailers and do this all over again in 2 years.

My take from 30,000 feet.

A changing of the guard is almost always imminent when a company changes hands. This is just about the only way to effectively change a culture. I've seen it first hand too many times. Change the leadership and everyone else will either fall in line or leave, either way problem solved from a management perspective. Not saying I agree with this principle as the only horse I have in this race is my trailer, but it works.

Regarding quality it seems to me that the RV industry relies heavily on the dealerships which are essentially worse than any used car dealership I've ever seen. It all comes down to money and labor costs. The cold reality is that probably fewer than 50% of buyers out there complain about things, especially openly as evidence through the number of members on this forum. There's really no incentive to produce a "perfect" product nor would it would be cost effective. You could easily spend 40-80 additional hours on each of our trailer making them perfect. Multiply that 80 hours times about $30-40/hour (think taxes and benefits along with salary) and that number easily tops an additional $3,000 to the cost of goods for this product. The margins are surprisingly slim for the dealers on these after their costs, take away an additional $3,000 and they might just decide to sell another product in place of the Redwood.

Just my thoughts from a business standpoint.


BTW, I love your idea #3. However being in a position where I always feel like I can do my job better, the reality is I don't have the time, manpower or management backing to do so in most instances. I work on the business side of IT for a point of reference.

[homeguy]

We were at a Redwood dealer in Massachusetts a couple of weeks ago. They only had 1 coach on the lot and told us that they be dropping the line. Too many QC issues for them.







In reference to IWG's comment about the $3000, I think most people would pay the extra $3000 for a coach that does not have holes drilled on the roof and not fixed. Or for trim that does not fall off. Not to mention all the other things that have been so easily overlooked before leaving the factory.



I have no sour grapes at all from Redwood as we have not had 1 issue with ours, knock on wood. We would buy another in a heartbeat and probably will in a couple more years.

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by homeguy

We were at a Redwood dealer in Massachusetts a couple of weeks ago. They only had 1 coach on the lot and told us that they be dropping the line. Too many QC issues for them.

wow, are they striving to be the Maytag Repairman? Why would they care, just more work for them, and I'm sure they aren't just concerned for the consumer

Maybe a little bit of sour grapes for reasons unknown. Had a similar statement from our local Montana dealer and when I asked the rep at a show he recalibrated me. The Dealer lost Montana due to continuous poor sales.

[Dave&Ginny]

Originally Posted by atom ant

wow, are they striving to be the Maytag Repairman? Why would they care, just more work for them, and I'm sure they aren't just concerned for the consumer

Maybe a little bit of sour grapes for reasons unknown. Had a similar statement from our local Montana dealer and when I asked the rep at a show he recalibrated me. The Dealer lost Montana due to continuous poor sales.

It's my understand that a dealership could loose the right to sell for advertising super low prices.