[TML] Personal Armor Noise was Re: Current USAF fleet

[Tom B]

Fair enough.

But I'd like to point out one thing: The difference has NOTHING (ish)
to do with the method of production. It has to do with the definition
of good enough. For mass production, most of the time, the acceptable
definition of good enough is 'fills requirement X to specification Y'.
For the craftsman, the definition of good enough (in the ideal case)
is 'fills requirement X to specification Z'.

The difference between spec Y and spec Z is that spec Z includes
(theoretically) and spec Y excludes (again, theoretically):
- no reference to cost or time
- some sort of aesthetic or artistic judgment of merit
- the idea of producing a 'quality' product
- possibly the idea of long term reputation attached to the work

However, nothing precludes mass production from having designers who
apply a significant sense of artistic or aesthetic judgement, a
producing company that acknowledges the need for long term reputation,
and who understands 'quality' is a key concept in high valuation. I
will cite the computer chip industry in this category. They engage in
mass production but if any sizable number of chips from a line fail or
fail to perform well, their company gets a very black eye and it has
large implications. They are very concerned about such things and
spent exhorbant amounts making sure (or trying to) that this is not
the case.

Additionally, even most 'craftsmen' in the real world (we'll
distinguish them from 'artists' in this instance) have to acknowledge
cost/time concerns. Major architectural developments, production of
jewellry, production of hand crafted weapons, etc. all tend to have
some sort of concept of time/money in their creation. It isn't the
only consideration, but don't fool yourself that it isn't a
consideration. Some few artistic purists (the artists by my
definition) have either the willingness to suffer economic downturn
(suffer for art) or the money to afford not to produce very
frequently, but these are the rarest of cases.

I think that although you can argue that hand-crafting without focus
on time or cost and with utmost attention to quality, aesthetics and
so on will produce something better than mass production which lacks
those, there are plenty of sorts of mass production that come with
quality and aesthetics and most craftsmen aren't truly immune to
considerations of time and cost. Thus it isn't at all a clear
distinction to me.

On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 2:26 PM, Jerry W Barrington
<jerry.barrington at gmail.com> wrote:
>  I specifically *didn't* restrict the tools.  I said "Using the *same*
>  technology".  In that factory, we had our own mold building shop.  We even
>  built molds for *other* molders, because our reputation was that good.  Most
>  of the molds *were* one-off.  Some were built in some quantity, to fill that
>  48 slot mold and others.  But even making 50 of 1 thing isn't truly
>  mass-producing.  It took a great deal of individual attention to each one.
>  Mass production tends to "run on automatic".