The RV Industry Death Spiral - A Series of Articles Worth Reading

[kowAlski631]

So, bottom line is that people want Rolls Royce quality for the price of a Nissan Versa. Not happening, people.

We were realistic with our expectations, knew we would probably need to do fixes ourselves, and knew we were buying a lifestyle. We've not regretted our purchase of our BH for a minute - even when there are problems.

Martha

 

[Bohemian]

I would also say

You don't get what the community won't demand.
The workers will not do any better than demanded and compensated. Poor performance criteria linked to pay yields substandard work. If workers complete their work poorly in a shortbday duebto piefe eork pay, this is what you get.

 

[brianlajoie]

Another way to think of it is: The space shuttle was built with an 88% success rate. That means a 12% failure rate was acceptable. We know that cost of failure for that program.

Put in perspective, I think there is an acceptable quality rate that the manufacturers have as long as they think that their customers generally agree. Since there are more trailers being built and sold, I would say this is the sustainable rate of acceptance.

 

[avvidclif]

What I think is funny is the writer of the article has been writing about the industry for abt 20 yrs and about 3 years ago he decided to get an RV and see what it was all about. Kinda like the design engineers. They design a product they never have used or will use.

 

[kowAlski631]

I would also say

You don't get what the community won't demand.
The workers will not do any better than demanded and compensated. Poor performance criteria linked to pay yields substandard work. If workers complete their work poorly in a shortbday duebto piefe eork pay, this is what you get.

Ya know, we didn't see that when we toured the factory and didn't find those results in our BH.

Martha

 

[JohnD]

I think the problem has two fronts . . .

1) Pay rates have gone down over the years, which takes the older generation of employees out of the market since they are used to making more money.

This also makes it harder to retain employees as they will move around from company to company for a .10 cent per hour pay raise.

2) It seems that nowadayz the work ethic is not the same as it once was . . . with lower pay there is not as much pride in the work provided.

Most of my extended family lives in the Elkhart area and almost all of them worked in the RV industry since the late 1950's.

Now, most of them have moved on to something else as they just couldn't make the living they were used to.