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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BelowTheCrowd who wrote (31366)	7/12/1999 9:07:00 AM
From: Duker	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 70976

OT***Just need to vent on some more litigation rubbish: Worth pointing out another issue with the Honda vs. Capital Equipment argument. Cars have hit the point where the technological change from one year to the next is minimal. Tweak the sheet metal, tweak the engine design, capitalize on decades and tens (or hundreds) of millions of units of experience with the same basic technologies. Hard to do the same thing in an industry where many of the basic technologies, components and tools are obsoleted every three years ... ... the tradeoffs between reducing failures and 'warranty costs' can rear their ugly heads in the auto business as well ... take for instance a '79 Malibu involved in an accident in '93 ... and use as 'evidence' a memo dated '73 discussing these tradeoffs ... try this case in the 2nd or 3rd most liberal state in the Union and ... viola: $4.9 billion ... It amazes me that people actually produce and sell products of any kind in this country ... be they cigarettes or flashlights ... --Duker

To: BelowTheCrowd who wrote (31366)	7/12/1999 9:46:00 AM
From: Ian@SI	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 70976

Michael, I agree with much if not all of your post. At no time did I suggest to Richard that no product could ever be shipped unless it were beyond world class. Yet his response immediately went to the ridiculous assertion that military spec wasn't viable. On the other hand, your response indicated that continuous or breakthrough improvements are constantly being sought with "judgment calls" being required as to which improvements made most sense at a particular point in time. One philosophy, "Quality Costs" is guaranteed to lead to a company's demise; the other philosophy may not save a bad company but it will certainly raise the barrier for potential and actual competitors. In any case, it's semicon West week. Surely someone has something to say about AMAT. e.g. JM is on Squawk Box tomorrow. regards, Ian.