quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:

quote:

So they delivered 600,000 good masks? Way to go indeed.

There is absolutely no way one should view a 40% failure rate in a positive light in view of the targeted use of these.

What if the alternative is no mask on your face whatsoever?

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
Ensigmatic, lots of experts in dealing with them, disagree...

From my, very limited, experience in dealing with Han, I cannot see them ever being reliable.

Note I qualified my assertion with "providing good quality control is maintained."

Apple is a good example. Some of the best-made mobile hardware available. Pretty much all made in China. But you can bet your bottom dollar Apple has their people on-site keeping a very close eye on every step.

This "keeping a close eye" has to extend to suppliers.

(I'm supplying the following from memory. I may have a couple details wrong.)

There is a company that devised a new anchor they claimed held better than any other on a variety of seabeds. And it did. Eventually a copy-cat came along. The original company's line was "the other guys' is a cheap knock-off." Only problem was: Owners of newer product from the original company started reporting disquieting failures of their anchors.

Eventually a sailor with metallurgy skills and equipment ran some tests. Lo and behold: The original company's anchors were not made of the steel they were claiming they were. It was a major scandal in the boating world. West Marine, a major distributor of the brand, ended-up replacing or refunding for untold thousands of the product.

What had happened? Unbeknownst to their customers, the original manufacturer had decided to make a buck or two more by outsourcing manufacture to China. They sent their top QC guy and a couple others to manage production to ensure quality would be maintained. Nonetheless, somewhere along the line somebody substituted for the steel they were supposed to use a steel that was almost, but not quite as good. Looked and behaved the same during manufacture. Welded the same. Didn't behave the same in hard use, though.

It never occurred to the company somebody would pull such a stunt, so it hadn't occurred to them they'd need to QC materials with metallurgic testing on an ongoing basis to ensure they were getting what they were supposed to get.