7 replies to this topic

[miata]

Maybe it's just me, but this story really rings alarm bells for me. If they do it on stuff that the Pentagon are buying, what hope for TV buyers?
http://www.smh.com.a...1110-1n83t.html .

If it's too off topic, please feel free to delete it.

[myrantz]

miata, on Nov 10 2011, 01:11 PM, said:

Maybe it's just me, but this story really rings alarm bells for me.

Buy Oz...

US sees China as a military threat, and yet the US military hardware is made of parts made in China? Defies common sense.. But if it's reported in the news, it must be real....

The US top brass must be worried if there's any trojan horse in their hardware right now... Will be interesting to see how a sino US war will unfold in the future..

[jliang70]

myrantz, on Nov 10 2011, 04:20 PM, said:

Buy Oz...

US sees China as a military threat, and yet the US military hardware is made of parts made in China? Defies common sense.. But if it's reported in the news, it must be real....

The US top brass must be worried if there's any trojan horse in their hardware right now... Will be interesting to see how a sino US war will unfold in the future..

There won't be a war between US and China because both side know it will be double whammy for both country if there is a full scale war between the two and such a war will only benefit country like Russia.

[miata]

I wasn't even thinking about war, I was thinking about people who buy  products in good faith, expecting consistent quality across the whole range of products. If the US Government can't get that, the everyday consumer has no chance!

[myrantz]

jliang70, on Nov 10 2011, 05:16 PM, said:

There won't be a war between US and China because both side know it will be double whammy for both country if there is a full scale war between the two and such a war will only benefit country like Russia.

Not when the US use weapons built with Chinese parts, and counterfeit ones at that..

Back in the days when Bill Gates show their new holographic logo for some OS, and said they are hard to counterfeit, the Chinese begin mass producing these logos 2-3 days later...

miata, on Nov 10 2011, 05:44 PM, said:

I wasn't even thinking about war, I was thinking about people who buy  products in good faith, expecting consistent quality across the whole range of products. If the US Government can't get that, the everyday consumer has no chance!

The first thing that came to my mind is war...   If US weapons system use parts from China, imagine the possibilities the Chinese spies have... A kill switch, a snoop switch.. Anything is possible...

TBH alot of the consumer products aren't really well built these days. Esp devices with firmware, they are buggy as hell.. I've long since accepted the fact - modern consumerism is all about disposable stuffs... Some even charge a premium price for a very poor quality product, esp in Australia...

Nothing's gonna change.. It's China today, may well be India tomorrow, or Africa next... The days of well built equipment that will last 20-30 years is well, 10-20 years ago ... Producers want to maximise profits, consumers want to minimise costs.... Something's gotta give, in most cases it's the equipment...

[graham johnson]

miata, on Nov 10 2011, 04:11 PM, said:

Maybe it's just me, but this story really rings alarm bells for me. If they do it on stuff that the Pentagon are buying, what hope for TV buyers?
http://www.smh.com.a...1110-1n83t.html .

If it's too off topic, please feel free to delete it.

I was working as a sales manager and a factory manager of a large US supplier of electronic parts for years. This subsutitution of parts has been happening for at least the last decade.

I routinely spoke to customers who had bought parts from outside normal supply lines only to find failures and below par performance of their finished articles.

They would then call us and ask for an explaination of why "our" parts had failed. We used to expend a massive amount of money investigsting the failures.

These sort of substitions are nothing short of theft. Some of the parts targetted for substitution are worth very good money. Many dollars in the case of power components with customers sent 20 cent parts as replacements.

The only protection is not to buy outside the established supply chain. Chasing parts around asia because of shortages or to save a few cents is usually how this happens. No tracability means likely substitution.

[DrP]

graham johnson, on Nov 24 2011, 06:45 AM, said:

I was working as a sales manager and a factory manager of a large US supplier of electronic parts for years. This subsutitution of parts has been happening for at least the last decade.

Tell me about it.  Order 100 ICs and get 100 16 pin DIPs with the labels sanded off that don't perform anything even remotely like the supposed part they are.  Talk of refunds or replacement with the correct part?  Not a chance.  "It was right when it left us".  I know of a few small technical outfits, my own included, that have been hit like that.  The manufacturers don't want to talk small change orders like this so you have no choice but to use an intermediate of some stage and that's where it all goes wrong.

[graham johnson]

DrP, on Nov 24 2011, 08:02 AM, said:

Tell me about it.  Order 100 ICs and get 100 16 pin DIPs with the labels sanded off that don't perform anything even remotely like the supposed part they are.  Talk of refunds or replacement with the correct part?  Not a chance.  "It was right when it left us".  I know of a few small technical outfits, my own included, that have been hit like that.  The manufacturers don't want to talk small change orders like this so you have no choice but to use an intermediate of some stage and that's where it all goes wrong.

I started in this industry in 1982, The shrinkage of the market in this time is staggering. What is a large order these days was something I wouldnt raise a sweat about back 20 years ago. Its a JOKE.

Arrow electronics is closing shop and talking their bat and ball and going back to the US. I expect that your order size now is worth chasing for many component suppliers that are left. At least you can have some supply tracability buying locally.

I left the industry 5 years ago when I could see the writing on the wall. I am happily working for myself now and usually give the electronics industry a quick look every now and then just to see who is left. Sadly NOT MANY COMPANIES OR PEOPLE I STILL KNOW.

Edited by graham johnson, 24 November 2011 - 04:33 PM.