Shower rail water leak

[Indy Tim]

We took our maiden voyage with our 2020 Reflection 320MKS this last week. We found the bathroom floor wet after showing. After a review it become apparent that no caulking was added to the bottom rail where it meets the side rail. My wife fixed it by calking this area. I called GD to request the D seal for the bedroom slide (another issue) and commented on the water leak. The customer service rep. indicated this is a known issue and has been highlighted to production but sometimes they have untrained workers who miss the calking in this area. Then he said we can't shut the line down because we don't have people trained to catch these things. Wow! I don't know which is worse, them putting people in the production line who are not trained or admitting production is more important than the customer. I've searched this forum and this has been an issue for some time. This should be an embarrassment to GD. I had higher expectations of the Quality of a $55K coach. I guess I should have stayed with my 2005 Keystone Cougar.

Tim

[geotex1]

Welcome Tim. Put things in perspective - nothing manufactured is perfect. Not one thing. I speak from professional experience. Take for example the automotive industry - larger, higher volume, more technical, more technological advanced, yet there is the Technical Service Bulletin and recalls of every single automotive manufacturer regardless of price point. Now, the point about untrained workers is absolutely a problem! I would shut any one of my lines down for a day stand-down to correct that. The quantity of product produced versus cost of post-production correction would not make financial sense. Maybe not for GD. However, if you kept your receipt and took pictures, they'd reimburse your material cost.

[Indy Tim]

I'm a Quality Manager in the aviation industry, we are not perfect but when you have a problem that has been known for years and has not been corrected, that points to a ineffective root cause and corrective action system. I'll document the non-conformance send a Corrective Action Request (CAR)to Don Clark and see how Quality conscious the leadership is. I guess the 250+ point quality check doesn't check the shower for leaks. As we all know, you can't inspect Quality into the product.

Tim

[Indy Tim]

I'm a Quality Manager in the aviation industry, we are not perfect but when you have a problem that has been known for years and has not been corrected, that points to a ineffective root cause and corrective action system. I'll document the non-conformance send a Corrective Action Request (CAR)to Don Clark and see how Quality conscious the leadership is. I guess the 250+ point quality check doesn't check the shower for leaks. As we all know, you can't inspect Quality into the product.

Tim

[geotex1]

Oh, no doubt, except the RV industry runs production based on a piecework model. They then rely on end-of-assembly inspection to catch every defect, and to do so with too few inspectors for the volume... Visit the factories with a QMP eye and you will be very disappointed until you go to the ultra high-end lines where they produce low double digit number of builds a year.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending it in any way, but I am saying it exists in everything manufactured whether you are charging 100s of millions like Boeing or 10s of thousands on campers, boats, vehicles, ag equipment, etc. We as an entire world have accepted lower quality (Germans too) by promoting mass production through cheaper raws, cheaper, therefore less skilled, labor, and because we do not hold onto items like we used to (i.e., we turnover vehicles, homes, appliances, etc. at a 400% faster rate than just 4 decades ago). Some would argue that Toyota and Hyundai/Kia bucked this until you actually know the workings of Hoshin Kanri. Very loosely, it's just improving profitability and guaranteeing long-term revenue stream. Right now, the mass produced RV industry has no threat like either of those automakers had...

Now this is too businesslike when we're really supposed to be using these things to leave that behind!