Did anyone notice quality starting to free-fall, around the year 1987 ?

Question

Did anyone notice quality starting to free-fall, around the year 1987 ?

Answer 1

Chinese competition.

Answer 2

Yes. It's h**l to live long enough to see so much and have a pretty good memory.

Answer 3

The mid 1980s was pre-ISO 9000, and AS 1821, 1822 and 1823 were the certification standards applied.

Answer 4

In financial markets, Black Monday is the name given to Monday, October 19, 1987, when stock markets around the world 'crashed'.

Answer 5

The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster took place on January 28, 1986.

Answer 6

Being negative one at the time my intelligent observation of the diminishing quality of every good, both material and immaterial is much shorter than the past twenty one years but I've certainly noticed a great deal of unnecessary waste. It seems that nothing is made to last, more things are made of irreplaceable resources, absolutely pointless things are being mass produced, books like The Secret promoting a wave of mass hysteria to a simple shamanistic piece of wisdom known for millennia which I've no doubt over half the people have already thrown out. It seems that Brave New World was right about at least one side effect of overpopulation, or near overpopulation in our case. Unequal distribution of wealth and population in a world with unbelievable amounts of wealth and power has caused people to not really care about what they're making. It's my belief that in the anonymity of consumers to producers a sense of accomplishment and pride has been taken from craftsmen. And when you're getting paid under a dollar an hour to watch something roll by on an assembly line, is that surprising? How many things are no longer personal? Even making a shoe was once a fine profession, but how many cobblers do you see? There aren't very many master craftsmen in the world anymore, and I fear that the number will dwindle over the years until there are no more left, and everything is produced without care.

But that's only one reason, and there are many more. For example why go for personal standards when there are industry standards?  Why make a shirt to last when if it is worn out in two years they'll buy a new one, probably from the same store. Warranties are nice, but they don't make up for average goods flooding a market already full of them and it's not just a cliche that after the warranty is expired things start going wrong.

A BBA tells you how to make money and run a business, but it doesn't motivate compassion and respect for the consumer.

Answer 7

People think that what happens in the universe does not affect us here on this earth.  I tend to think otherwise.  In 1987 a supernova occurred called SN1987A.  It is in the link below.

Life itself is a mystery.  Perhaps what I think is true or not but any ones reason is as good as any one elses.  Right?

Answer 8

Some contract somewhere for a safety-critical system, where some customer agreed to a variation in a schedule, or ordered a supplier to go ahead with something known to be unfeasible.

Answer 9

Two crewmen from the Oberon class submarine HMAS OTAMA lost their lives, in heavy seas off the east coast of Australia, when OTAMA dived while they were still on the submarines casing. The two men were Able Seaman Hugh Markrow, and Seaman Damien Humphries. Despite an intensive air and sea search, neither body was ever recovered. A Board of Inquiry into the incident revealed that the two men had gone back onto the casing to secure loose equipment, after having been already checked off as coming inside the submarine’s pressure hull. Their absence was then not noticed for some time.

Answer 10

<<Tenix Defence Aerospace has a long association with military aircraft modification projects, having held continuous quality certifications since 1940 when Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation received RAAF Approved Firm status. Since then,quality accreditations gained have progressed through AS1821,AS3901 and ISO9001 certifications.

>>http://www.tenix.com/PDFLibrary/63.pdf>>

It's not either/or. You might and probably would want AS1821

still. Otherwise won't your quality have gone into freefall.