qrachel
Member
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2013
- Messages
- 468
- Reaction score
- 235
The Law Of Large Numbers and S&W Quality
Hi States: I'm really happy you are satisfied with S&W quality as many are including me, thought I'm a newbie. Your post got me to thinking so I thought I would share:
Following are some thoughts about others experiencing "bad guns from S&W." This goes to the heart of quality and what the good, the bad and the ugly look like to the consumer. I believe, except for a negligible number of customers, customers who report problems are to the best of their knowledge doing so out of genuine dissatisfaction with the product or service performing as advertised.
Given that assumption and the fact that I don't have any inside knowledge of S&W quality stats and further admit I haven't done any research that would pass peer review (lol); however, the anecdotal evidence is massive and back of the envelop calculations based upon sales and revenue suggest that production quality is worth being concerned about. I could easily see a 50-500K defects becoming potentially legitimate service/warranty issues over the past 10 years - how many were really reported, hmmm.
I'm not saying the above is so, but it's not hard to get to those numbers while being quite conservative in doing so. I'd bet that S&W is probably not a 6-Sigma company or close, and like most manufactures who do the warranty, quality, liability tradeoff they believe that good enough is just fine - BTW S&W has not been a financial star during this period. On the other hand, robust 6-Sigma companies seem to have margins, profits and satisfied customers that tend to ensure their long-term sustainability (S&W has been around a long time, but in the past few decades it has been a spotty financial performer).
Why is the quality discussion so important, because customers deeply appreciate the piece of mind and satisfaction that comes from owning/using high quality products. And for the record, first rate weapons are by-in-large moderately expensive and by their nature have failure modes that can be physically inconvenient to down right catastrophic.
That said, I really like the look, feel and action of S&W 686s, 617s and 629s. Will I buy another S&W? Yes, probably a 627 PC 357 sometime later this year, if I can find one. Would I go else where for the price point, or even 25-35% more, if there was a clear leader in quality for similar weapons . . . in a heart beat! And based upon casual comparisons including shooting, I did go else where when it came to a 45ACP. I bought a SIG P220 Equinox and shot S&W, Colt (2 models), Kimber and Sig side x side. There were two major reasons for my choice: 1) The fit/finish, feel and smoothness of the Sig, and 2) the potential to buy a higher quality firearm at a comparable price point. Admittedly, there is a high component of personal likes/dislikes here, but the two deciding factors were as stated.
I totally get the POV that people seem to complain a lot, and at the same time offer that limited personal experiences are often poor predictors of large population experiences in response to a given set of circumstances - Especially my own personal experiences as suitably large population predictors.
Take good care and enjoy your shooting,
Hi States: I'm really happy you are satisfied with S&W quality as many are including me, thought I'm a newbie. Your post got me to thinking so I thought I would share:
Following are some thoughts about others experiencing "bad guns from S&W." This goes to the heart of quality and what the good, the bad and the ugly look like to the consumer. I believe, except for a negligible number of customers, customers who report problems are to the best of their knowledge doing so out of genuine dissatisfaction with the product or service performing as advertised.
Given that assumption and the fact that I don't have any inside knowledge of S&W quality stats and further admit I haven't done any research that would pass peer review (lol); however, the anecdotal evidence is massive and back of the envelop calculations based upon sales and revenue suggest that production quality is worth being concerned about. I could easily see a 50-500K defects becoming potentially legitimate service/warranty issues over the past 10 years - how many were really reported, hmmm.
I'm not saying the above is so, but it's not hard to get to those numbers while being quite conservative in doing so. I'd bet that S&W is probably not a 6-Sigma company or close, and like most manufactures who do the warranty, quality, liability tradeoff they believe that good enough is just fine - BTW S&W has not been a financial star during this period. On the other hand, robust 6-Sigma companies seem to have margins, profits and satisfied customers that tend to ensure their long-term sustainability (S&W has been around a long time, but in the past few decades it has been a spotty financial performer).
Why is the quality discussion so important, because customers deeply appreciate the piece of mind and satisfaction that comes from owning/using high quality products. And for the record, first rate weapons are by-in-large moderately expensive and by their nature have failure modes that can be physically inconvenient to down right catastrophic.
That said, I really like the look, feel and action of S&W 686s, 617s and 629s. Will I buy another S&W? Yes, probably a 627 PC 357 sometime later this year, if I can find one. Would I go else where for the price point, or even 25-35% more, if there was a clear leader in quality for similar weapons . . . in a heart beat! And based upon casual comparisons including shooting, I did go else where when it came to a 45ACP. I bought a SIG P220 Equinox and shot S&W, Colt (2 models), Kimber and Sig side x side. There were two major reasons for my choice: 1) The fit/finish, feel and smoothness of the Sig, and 2) the potential to buy a higher quality firearm at a comparable price point. Admittedly, there is a high component of personal likes/dislikes here, but the two deciding factors were as stated.
I totally get the POV that people seem to complain a lot, and at the same time offer that limited personal experiences are often poor predictors of large population experiences in response to a given set of circumstances - Especially my own personal experiences as suitably large population predictors.
Take good care and enjoy your shooting,
