Quote:
Originally Posted by Kube
It actually does cost more to hold tolerances tighter.
You've all heard of the military paying $600 for a hammer that you and I can buy at Lowes for $15.
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I worked at North Island Naval Air Station where the $600 hammer, ash trays and toilet seats were manufactured. The cost had little to do with tolerances. 95% of the costs were for overhead. These items had to be designed, approved by engineering, tooling made, material ordered and a learning curve out in the production shops. For low quantities, cost would eat you up.
If you were to make one hammer in your shop, it would cost you allot more too. And in the long run, quality pays not costs. It costs just as much to make a defective part in a mass production scenario as a good one and the defective part gets scraped at major cost to the manufacturer. We learned that from Dr. Edwards Deming and Japan.