I began marketing LEDs at www.prudentrver.com in 2006 when I met a young man who had come out of Intel and understood the importance of quality in electronics products. He had developed a new approach to creating LED lighting that worked in RVs, but it was a bit expensive.
We had a few discussions along the line of should we sacrifice quality for price. I said, "NO! We should stress the quality of our products, and if our prices were higher than the competition, we will just have to explain why." Kelly agreed.
Over the years Kelly developed several new LED products to replace incandescent and halogen bulbs in RVs. I served as his test bed for most of these, and together we learned what makes a good LED and what results in a bad LED. Most of it turns out to be quality, both of construction and of consistency of production.
The early attempts by our competition to "knock-off" our products were miserable failures. They did not understand what we had learned about the RV environment and the need for power and voltage control in a supposed-12-volt environment. People brought these cheaper parts to me and asked me to replace them when they failed. I did, but I charged the full amount needed to pay for a good product of our design.
More recently, we have run into problems of consistency. We qualified a great product from the Far East. Though it was a bit clunky in design, it had the right kind of voltage controls and good LEDs. We began the process of bringing the new product into the market here in the US. Then, for some reason, our supplier decided he could change the LED chip without even telling us what he was doing. The resultant product was a different color and gave a different appearance. It was a totally unacceptable product. We are now faced with effectively discontinuing the product until we can find a suitable replacement for our supplier.
Why do I tell you this? Because the key to good LEDs is more than a cheap price. It is a matter of searching for a good supplier who will remain faithful to providing the quality and consistency needed to give the market a good product. We have our successes, and sometimes, we have our disappointments.
Where we can, we build our stuff here in the USA because here we can control the quality and consistency. When we deal with off-shore suppliers, we must devote a significant amount of time ensuring they meet our quality standards. It is the difference between good and bad product.
Sam Penny
the Prudent RVer
If you want to include quality control plan for your company or project, few important steps should be taken. This looks like a simple process but it need a lot of commitment from everyone and follow-up.
Posted by: Matt | May 01, 2011 at 11:00 PM