Quality Control - Why it Matters

How we ensure that our quality is great

Factually, there are many aspects to arriving at a final product that is of the highest quality level. Let's take a look at some of them:

• Design process: That's right, the design process from the start has a massive effect on the quality of the final product. That's why LRS equipment is designed from the ground up by extremely experienced design engineers that have been creating electronic designs since back in the early 90's or before. Creating a perfect design is not easy, but bearing in mind that LRS invented the guest or customer pager back in 1993, you could say that they have probably some of the best designs today all originating from their core business. But the designs today extend in to so many more high-tech areas and LRS has many patents that the products available now far exceed those original designs.
  
  
• Component quality: It would be pointless to develop incredible designs and then choose low quality components to create the product. Thankfully LRS only uses the highest quality (and the latest technology devices) components to create the final product.
  
  
• Manufacturing process: Most readers will think of the manufacturing process today being equal between companies, but that certainly is not the case. LRS products use the very latest manufacturing equipment for SMT (surface mounted technology) components and the accuracy and overall quality of the finished main boards and other components are second to none. It's one reason why here in the UK we only see a 0.3% failure rate in general on any of these products. This is a very low rate of failure equating to around one in over three thousand units that have any issue when they arrive in the UK from production.
  
  
• Quality Control Assessment: In the UK, we examine carefully every single device that arrives from production. We check every aspect of the product using specialised equipment and then proceed to custom program everything for exacting customer needs. These QA checks in the UK wheedle out that one in three thousand failures from production so they never leave LRS UK. It takes over three months to generate even a small box of components for return to the USA. That alone is a testament to the quality levels that we see and help to create in our company.
  
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But what about other suppliers?

Simply the biggest problem stems from customers that will scour the internet looking for a 'paging  system' or they may visit Amazon or eBay in search of a solution. And there really are substantial quantities of products out there. Unfortunately, it's almost like a 'perfect storm'. Let's face it, often, someone in the market to buy is NOT an expert of wireless paging systems. And many of the purported solutions are often lacking the quality that they need to operate a restaurant or for other important communications for example.

Lets examine the area of quality from some companies

Simply looking at pictures on the internet does not offer much indication about the quality of the product on offer. Even when there are 'money back guarantees' specified by the seller, that's no real indication of decent quality, but rather a great selling tool for many. So let's examine the same basic criteria that we used above for LRS products.

• The Design: Some companies out there do have quality designs, but knowing which ones might prove difficult. There is no doubt that the design of any product is a main contributor to quality. But what do you really know about the company offering the product for sale? and what about the original manufacturer and the design process? Simply looking online shows so many companies. Have you ever noticed that the majority of Far East companies rarely talk about their ability to design products? Without that ability from the originating company, you might well have a product that can never operate properly because of design flaws, and that's far more common than you might think.
  
  Making a design for customer paging for example, requires a high transmitter output that can operate over a good range, but most of the cheap Chinese products out there remain really low output (10 milli-watts) so they have little chance of actually working as you want them to. Its all about design, but their design criteria is often flawed because they introduce making the units for the 'lowest price' rather than developing a design up to a high standard with adequate output.
  
  
• The components: Component quality has a direct bearing on the final price of the product for sale. If you use really cheap components (many do) then it is possible to make cheap products. We have even heard of companies using 'sweepings' (products that have literally fell to the floor in component manufacture) to save money. Those sort of components might work now or for a short while, but they have a tendency to have problems that only show up later after the product has been used. Your chance of knowing what the components quality is, or the originating source of those components is zero. It's rather like walking a tightrope with a blindfold on... you might well fall.
  
  
• Manufacturing: Many years ago the author used to visit many Far East suppliers of electronic equipment. Indeed he even owned part of a manufacturing company so he had extensive experience in that field. He will tell you about 'manufacturers' of products that he personally saw using incredibly bad techniques of manufacture with resulting massive failures after production. Those failures (as they are today) were often either quickly and cheaply repaired then offered for sale to unsuspecting customers, or, were sold off to other Far East companies really cheaply as 'non working' so that others could repair the units and sell them as if they were manufacturers in their own right. In fact many of those companies called themselves manufacturers. On one occasion the author visited four 'different' manufacturers at the same premises and with the same people! Just the sign outside changed! Of course, in any case you get inferior often bodged products being sold. The giveaway often is the purchase price.
  
  
• QA process: By now you might have some idea about products for sale from some suppliers or manufacturers from China and the far east. Quality assurance and checks can often be completely out of the question (because of cost), or that if the unit works just once then they offer it for sale. As a buyer of that level of equipment the worst part is that you will know, but it will be most likely after you bought it and maybe days, weeks or months later the equipment stops working. Worse still, the seller or maker are nowhere to be seen, or even worse, they ask you to ship it to China for a repair! The shipping alone might be higher than the original cost of the equipment.
  
  

It should be at this point pretty clear that there is only one way of buying quality... and that there is little chance of reliable quality equipment for a very low cost. The number of customers that we talk to that had previously bought (for example) paging systems for something like £99.00 for a 20 pager customer system you would not believe. They tell us about their experiences from when they bought their low cost Chinese equipment, and importantly they confirm why they are calling us - to place an order!

Quality is often inferred, but in reality its uncommon. Buy products from trusted manufacturers like LRS UK and you may well have a solution that lasts for many more years than you can imagine. We have continuing customers with systems over 15 years old that continue to operate flawlessly.