Welcome to Jaguar Engineering! If one believes the "Total
Quality Management" scheme, and I do, Jaguar's problems are
obvious. They've never completed the TQM circle. That is,
Jaguar cars have done some wonderful, sexy engineering. This
data was forwarded along to the tooling and production
departments who made the cars. Marketing and sales sold them
to schmucks like us who said "Wow!". That's where it stopped.
The Japanese manufacturers have done the same. HOWEVER, they
remembered to TALK TO THEIR CUSTOMERS and RE-ENGINEER the
problems out of the system! Don't get me wrong, I'm not
Japan PRAISING or BASHING. I'm learning from them (after they
learned from us). If you get a chance, look at the outside
door handles on an Jaguar XJS. Pick any XJS - they're all the
same. The insert where you place your fingers is tilted in
toward the car just enough for the handle to hold water. Nice
place for a pool of water wouldn't you say? And then there is
the rust that goes with the water. Would that be tolerated
at Toyota? That same handle is on all cars from 1976 to
today. I know this is just one example but there are hundreds
of others that could have been 're-engineered' out of the cars
over the years. I mean, with 40+ years experience you would
think Lucas would learn how to make a switch that would last
longer than 4 days! Actually, I purchased a Lucas low tension
lead for the distributor of my XJ6 only to discover that it
was DEFECTIVE FROM THE PACKAGE!
I've ranted and raved but I believe in TQM and the quality that
is built into an evolving design. If you want a wonderful
task, implement this process as you restore an older car.
Engineer into the process 'better than original' quality. This
might offend the purists and shouldn't be done on a concours
car. But if you intend to drive your LBC, give it some thought.
And Scott, I LOVE working on my Jags too!!!
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Richard O. Lindsay / __ __ __ __
Senior Research Scientist / / /_/ /_ / / /_/ /_/
Amoco Production Research / / / / /_/ /_/ / / / \
/ /_/
/
Irresponsible rantings of the author alone. Any resemblance
to persons living or dead is just luck. May cause drowsiness.
Alcohol may intensify this effect. Pay no attention to the
man behind the curtain.
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