Time enters in. I have a copy of a VHS tape, internal to JD, in which the CEO was communicating to upper management the cost of quality - warranty due to design and manufacturing errors was eating their profits. This topic starts with JD as best. At that time, I was in management at Case-IH. Our marketing group dis extensive research comparing our quality vs Deere, component subsection by subsection (engine vs engine, transmission vs transmission and so on). Very large expenditures visiting farmers, paying farmers to keep records. Info of course never leaked. We’d get a chuckle out of word through grapevine contradicting what we really knew from behind the scenes. Prior to that, I worked for Allis-Chalmers. Every year a group met with customers who agreed to keep detailed info of every part replaced during the year, downtime hours, etc. they would get paid with incentives - trips to farm shows, etc. Before Internet and some of the customers lauding the reliability of xxx combine was so great when we knew we screwed up. Farm mag articles, always opinions, were often laughable to us when they bragged of something where we knew we screwed up. Then on to Caterpillar when developing our skid steer, we bought multiple samples of competitors and ran them for thousands of hours under our guidance finding reliability that was horrifying compared to anything Cat produced at the time - low bar to meet putting our skid steer into production but also finding that low bar not so easy to achieve at the price. Manufacturers have a much better picture of where they sit in comparison, and we count on brand loyalty to boost our quality level. Unless we really screw up, customers don’t like to brag to their neighbors how much they’ve spent on repairs, or why they suddenly traded a piece of equipment. Worst is getting neighbors tractor at their retirement auction knowing how good it was, as talked about at the coffee shop, only to find it’s a disaster. Now retired, I’ve got a couple of those shining stars in my fleet.
