a186@mindlink.UUCP (Harvey Taylor) (07/25/90)
[ The Lineater is alive & well by the look of some posts lately... In the course of Seagate flaming sessions past, several more or less solid facts have come to light. 0) Some people have had no problem with Seagate drives. 1) Many people have had problems with stiction in Seagate drives. 2) Seagate has sold a hell of a lot of drives. [The argument of percentages is often voiced; ie. because of Seagate's large volume, there are many more bad Seagate drives out there just cause there are so many more Seagate drives out there. This is true as far as it goes but #3.] 3) Nobody has authoritative independent stats on actual MTBF for all (or most) HDrive manufacturers. 4) Some slight inkling that there might be something funny going on with Seagate drives is indicated by things like Jameco dropping the line for MiniScribe. If we consider for a while the notion that Seagate drives are steamed donkey dung, it might be worthwhile to ask what it is about the company & their way of doing business that has caused this. Levels of quality are indicative of manufacturing method, Quality Control methods, company philosophy, the target market, required and expected profit margins, degree of automation, at least. (any MBAs in the crowd? That's just off the top of my head.) Question #0: What might be the other relevant factors? There was a Sunday supplement type article on Seagate, excerpted from the Washington Post, published in the Vancouver Sun (June 30/90). ---begin-synopsis--- ASIA'S TASKMASTER:HOW ONE U.S. COMPANY DRIVES EMPLOYEES ======================================================= SWEATSHOPS by Evelyn Richards. ---------- IT'S ONLY LOGICAL TO USE ASIAN WORKERS -- THEY GET 50 CENTS AN HOUR The article begins with a description of 3000 young `conscientious and compliant' Thai women coming on shift; 3000 pairs of eyes and hands begin the `arduous task of screwing, fastening and bending thin wires under the small lens of a microscope.' Alan Shugart, the Chairman of Seagate says "In Thailand there is a lot of close work under microscopes. It is pretty tough to find people in the U.S. to do that kind of work." The article continues, "Shugart's blunt conclusion might make many people cringe, particularly considering that his Asian employees earn as little as 50 cents an hour. But it is by recognizing these kinds of stark, though controversial distinctions that Seagate believes it and a handful of other U.S. competitors have remained the undisputed world leaders in the fast growing $7 billion market for compact hard disk drives ..." The article goes on to describe Seagate as a company with "their highly paid, highly educated employees in the U.S., and deposit a lopsided proportion of their manufacturing in SouthEast Asia". A description of the highly competitive HD market. Prices dropping 20% a year. David Mitchell the President, runs Seagate "with an iron grip, determined to wring every last cent out of operating costs." The article continues "Its fixation on cost cutting made Seagate a fine match for Singapore..." "...the company has mushroomed into Singapore's largest private employer, with 12,400 workers." "Other companies followed in rapid succession, making Singapore the disk drive capital of the world, the producer of 70 percent of the world's supply of hard disk drives for desktop computers." James McCoy the chairman of Maxtor says, "You can do business in the disk drive industry in Singapore in a more compact and streamlined manner than anywhere else in the world." There follows a description of the workers, sitting facing each other across three by three foot tables, rarely speaking. "One American Seagate manager described them as `mini-robots,' then was cautioned by an aide to display more sensitivity." The cultural and dietary differences of the workers cause some problems. Albert Sim, a Seagate human resources director says "Our focus is trying to be number one, as a result, there is not a lot of attention paid to human development." Some years staff turnover has been 40%. There is a problem getting enough workers. The cost of business is increasing in Singapore; double digit pay rate increases, child care reimbursements, free medical care school allowances for workers children, recruitment bonuses etc. Meanwhile in Bangkok, Thailand there are lots of local workers, but the basic services are erratic; no waterworks, electricity failing frequently. Not to mention which the minimum wage has been boosted three times in 18 months. There is a bit of a bio on Shugart; 59, started at IBM, red Porsche, drinks wine, involved in Shugart Associates and a couple other disk drive companies. "and he has little patience for academic consultants who think they know disk drives." "They have little patience for his ideas either. For the most part, the consultants and a growing body of business executives consider the disk drives love affair with remote manufacturing a quick fix that diverts attention from more substantial savings that can be derived from better product design and better management." Robert Hayes a Harvard Business School professor specializing in manufacturing says "There was a logic [to offshore manufacturing] that was fairly compelling 15 or 20 years ago...The logic has evaporated." "Companies are absolutely blinded by the apparent labour savings...But they don't look at the waste." The article concludes, "Seagate managers, on the contrary shun automation, saying it would impair the company's ability to quickly change products." As a final shot, Alan Shugart says to his academic critics who say there are better ways to be competitive than going overseas "My answer to them is they've never tried it." ---end-synopsis--- I read somewhere recently about the Next factory, which can produce a filled & soldered motherboard untouched by human hands every 20 seconds or so, and I can't help but wonder: Question #1: Does anybody know a HD maker who uses comparably advanced levels of automation? Question #2: Anybody got actual stats on hard drive sales? Question #3: Anybody got actual MTBF stats on a range of hard drive manufacturers? <-Harvey "Blessed are the skeptical, for they have made backups." - some ad Harvey Taylor Meta Media Productions uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!Harvey_Taylor a186@mindlink.UUCP