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

[Greg Nokes]

A perfect example is in the end user computer industry. There are some  
'mass producers' (coff dell coff) that build a passable machine, but  
miss the boat on fit and finish. There are a small few that can  
produce a quality box with astectics and durability. I posit three  
levels mass market, mass production, and artisan produced.

Mass market is like ford or chevy. Not the best fit and finish, buy  
functional

Mass production is like BMW or Mercedies. Really nice.

Artisan is like a Rolls Royce. Perfect, and you pay for that

Sent from my iPhone

On May 4, 2008, at 1:35 PM, "Tom B" <kaladorn at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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".
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