parrotheada1a
Resident Pitmaster
Manufacturer's secret #1:
Even the largest companies are in constant fear of everything. Competitors, government regulation, public opinion, you name it. I've never worked for a company (and I've worked for some big ones) that was so comfortable with its position that it thought itself invincible.
I can add to that. Something that goes along with regulation & specifications. Our company has been ISO compliant since I've been there. Not too big a deal, ISO has become a global thing. Three years ago, we got certified compliant for AS... aka aerospace. We had to go through what my boss called 'the death march of approval' to get it. In more than one instance we were sent document revisions to stuff that we never got in the first place..... Leaving the woman in charge of this blizzard of paper saying WTF is going on with you people. Now that we have it, it looks great on the wall. But I dread getting an AS spec job because it means doing loads of extra paperwork that I really need like a hole in the head. Therin lies another secret. Documentation is a nice thing as long as it doesn't affect the bottom line.