A very interesting article on product / system engineering / design and the importance of [international safety] standards.
From the Wall Street Journal:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-samsung-must-do-to-win-back-our-trust-1476218021?tesla=y
Read on and be appalled:
- There is no mandatory safety standard (in the US, in the EU) for mobile devices and since things could really catch fire (for instance on a plane) maybe there should be
- Sometimes the standards do exist but are not mandatory
- For some countries who deems a component or a phone all together suitable for a certain purpose is the company that produces it (really?)
- Components are subcontracted and due tot the secrecy involved (trade secrets are... secret), one company might not know what exactly is incorporating into its design (e.g. Batteries are certified / labeled by other companies; are all suppliers the same? Are all lots the same?)
- The problems can either come from hardware, or software but in the end, it doesn't really matter. Sometimes the recall chain is not giving you/collecting you the much needed information which is input for rework. This was a problem for Samsung (in the US) because it does not have a distribution chain in the US unlike Apple
- A compliance statements (the CE marking for instance) is just a statement by the manufacturer indicating they [think they] are compliant. Nobody checks it [before going into market - of course it will be checked after "something" goes wrong]. In fact most of the times there are no requirements for compliance testing (which is a different and safer thing, because some independent entity is analysing your work product)
- The fact that there is no word for re-recall: Because it rarely happens at such a scale, Samsung stopped the production (!). Nobody would trust on a recall of the recall. How many recalls would it take for Samsung to produce something that works properly as most products work (in terms of catching fire)?
The bottom line:
- Samsung shares are going down. There's talks of 15 K M EUR of losses.
- But worst than that: There's the image / reputation thing... Once lost it typically is like... Virginity.
So what do you think on the lack of process (and international standards) on product
/ system design? Is it a bore or is it much needed? We carry those things on the pocket of our trousers. Into planes. We are giving it to our kids...
