Using customers for Quality Control

[Parksy]

Manufacturers such as Swift and Bailey have participated in forums and have benefited as a result of this participation.

Dealers might be on slightly shakier ground because a buyers contract of sale is with the dealer rather than the manufacturer so they will naturally be much more guarded as far as caravan forums are concerned.

With the rapid growth of instant mass communication we can only hope that the very real power which the internet has given to us as consumers will eventually force standards to become more acceptable all around but as has been rightly pointed out we as the customer are often reluctant to complain in order to receive what we are entitled to expect, fit for purpose products which are worth the ever increasing amounts of money that we pay for them.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Nick,

I do not think you can interpret the manufactures silence as being indicative of anything, other than they do not want to join in the discussion at this level.

For some reason some companies (and I am not just referring to caravan based companies) do not wish to make a big thing out of achieving accreditation, personally I think that is a shame, but it is their choice.

One of the main reasons for a business to consider the ISO route, is to make the business more attractive to new customers. I'm not referring to the retail customer but to commercial organisations where as part of their QA procedures they look more preferentially for suppliers who have ISO 9000 accreditation as it defines a minimum level of performance.

The general public are not so fussy, so small retailers have little need for accreditation, especially as it does not come cheaply. Whilst the actual accreditation is quite expensive, it does not mean that retailers can't use the principals behind ISO 9000, some do, but they can't claim accreditation.

An auto garage wanted to be able to invoice a national company for minor repair work it was doing on some cars and vans from a local depot. The large company would not put the garage onto its approved supplier list unless it could be externally audited by the national company or if it had ISO9001 accreditation. (The garage did get paid through the local managers discretional fund)

The garage wanted to know if it was worth becoming ISO accredited. If it was just to service the one company depot, No, but after some research it found that on the industrial estate it was based nearby, there were some 5 large companies, that expressed an interest in being able to use the garage but only if it was ISO or QS accredited. On that basis it was worth the effort, and now it enjoys regular work from the estate, as well as its retail customers.

Part of ISO 9000, requires the company gets evidence of customer satisfaction, and from that it has found that the general level of satisfaction with its service has improved as the company has more fully embraced the ISO9000 ethos.

So it is unlikely that a solo caravan dealership will be ISO accredited, as there is little scope for the business to get corporate contracts to make it worth it, but dealerships with multiple depots may have gone down the ISO route for reasons of internal trading between depots.

 

[readcaravans]

a very interesting topic and makes interesting reading. hot potato.

i have to say, as a dealer, that generally new caravans are good. but there are occasions when a caravan is far from perfect, or is even bad workmanship and simply damaged direct from the factory.

at reads there is really 4 stages of checking happening between the caravan arriving with us and it being driven away from us.

No1 when caravan is delivered, an internal and external visual inspection is completed. any minor defects or shortages are reported and to be rectified during pdi ie loose trims, cupboards/drawers/doors misaligned. then there are 3 types of major repair. ones which can be repaired us and ones which cant and external damage. the ones which can be repaired will have a warranty claim made within 48hrs and repaired, ones which cant or is external damage will be rejected.

No2 pdi. this is were we find other problems with appliances, services and systems ie electrics, gas, fresh water and waste water etc. we also complete another more critical inspection, visual and operational of furniture, doors drawers etc. again these faults are repaired before collection.

No3 cleaning. we are very lucky that our team of cleaners also look for visual problems when cleaning and will report them back. sometimes minor things can be overlooked or simply missed at pdi so the cleaning stage also allows another different pair of eyes to visually inspect.

No4 pre-handover. this is done by the salesman in our case. they also inspect the caravan to make sure everything is ok for their customer before the official handover to the customer.

then there is the official handover to the customer and given our 4 stages of checking, there should be nothing wrong at all.

if at any point during the final 3 stages, we find anything we are not happy about and cannot rectify to a satisfactory standard within the time we have before collection, we liaise direct with the customer. if is purely a matter of time and waiting for parts to rectify faults, we ask for more time and postpone the collection were possible.

i hope this helps shed a little light on the matter, from a dealers point of view.

 

[readcaravans]

wow that is a long response LOL

 

[Andrew_374383565]

Sorry to have taken so long to comment .....been away in France

Really good to have a dealer on board with this topic.....Within the dealer network is there a recognised system in place, or do you work from individual plans?

Thankyou for joining in on this topic

 

[readcaravans]

i cannot coment on how other companies operate and their procedures. all i know is that every dealer should have a checking in procedure and a pdi procedure.

 

[readcaravans]

i cannot comment for other dealers. all i know is that they will have their own checking in procedure and a pdi procedure. some will be good, some not as good.

 

[Andrew_374383565]

Hi Thanks for that.........hopefully the trade will standardise one day, as it stands the public are at the mercy of the dealers, good or bad.........you are clearly ahead of the business and one of the only ones brave enough to come forward....thankyou

 

[Andrew_374383565]

Hi........does anyone out there have any experience of product recall and the role of VOSA...........

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Andrew,

see

http://www.transportoffice.gov.uk/crt/doitonline/bl/help/voluntaryrecallsystem.htm
I'm guessing that your wondering if VOSA could be used to do a recall for the caravan windows, an I think it is highly unlikely because their remit is for the running gear safety of a vehicle, or a safety feature.

Unless the window problem constituted a safety hazard I don't think VOSA would have any scope to help.

 

[Andrew_374383565]

Hi John..........thankyou...I ask because Burstner reported the delamination of their windows to VOSA....Regards Andrew