Caravan Quality-Assurance Program. Does the Manufacturer of Your Caravan have One???
The legal requirements for manufacturers of caravans and camper-trailers for ensuring full Compliance and high Quality, are exactlythesame as those for motor vehicles, aren't they???
Well, if chalk and cheese - and day and night - are exactly the same, then the answer is "yes".
However, they are not the same, no where nearit! That is the major reason why caravans and camper-trailers have so many problems, and why owners have so many complaints.
Compliance: Manufacturers of motor vehiclesmust have Approval from VSS (Vehicle Safety Standards) in Canberra to affix Compliance Plates to their vehicles. This is nota simple process. Before a motor vehicle model can be offered for sale in Australia, detailed credible documentation, proving that it complies with all applicable ADR's (Australian Design Rules), must be submitted to VSS for examination.
If the documentation is accepted as demonstrating full compliance, a comprehensive SUTI(Single Uniform Type Inspection) is conducted on a production vehicle, to confirm that the vehicle's ADR-related components do accurately match the documentation supplied. Approval is then granted to affix Compliance Plates to all vehicles of that specific model.
To be confident that no changes have been made, and that compliance continues, CoP (Conformity of Production) random audits are regularly conducted by VSS personnel.
Compliance: Manufacturers of caravans (and camper-trailers) can simply affix Trailer Plates to their vehicles, via the accepted scheme of "Self-Certification".
Quality: Manufacturers of motor vehicles are legally required to have a professional QSD (Quality System Documentation) program in place.
Quality: Manufacturers of caravans (and camper-trailers) have no such legal requirement.
The Aim of any Q-A (Quality Assurance) is to:
Best-ensure that all production products are fully "fit for the intended purpose", and comply with all applicable Laws and Standards, and with recognised engineering practices.
The Purposeof a Q-A program is to:
Assist the company in providing products and services of the highest quality
Ensure compliance with all applicable legal regulations, such as, for caravans, VSB1 and the ADRs
Help protect against litigation and recalls, by ensuring the company is not negligent.
The Intentof a Q-A program is to:
Do things right the firsttime, and have a zero-defects target.
Some Q-A programs aim to guarantee that all production units are exactly the same as the master sample.
This is fine, unless the "sample" has unknown "defects", in which case all production units will have the identical short-comings!
It is of fundamental importance that the Manufacturer displays a meaningful Quality Policy statement, that all employees are fully acquainted with.
The key elements of a Quality-Assurance program relate to:
PRODUCTS
Technical Drawings
Work Instructions
Materials
Specifications & Tolerances
PROCESSES
Equipment
Procedures
ADR / VSB1 Component Inspections
Capability
Reliability & maintenance
Quality planning & process-control plans
Stage - and Final - Inspection Check-Lists
PEOPLE
Skills & ability
Education & training
Responsibility & involvement
Effectiveness
For Caravan (and Camper-Trailer) Manufacturers, the four most-essential items for Compliance & Quality confidence are:
Technical Drawings:
Need to be neat professional CAD illustrations, clearly showing - with dimensions - where all components are to be located
Need to be provided for each basic operation, and not be cumbersome in an attempt to cover numerous operations
Accurate and durable templates need to be used for critical operations
Perspective (3-D) drawings can greatly assist in enabling operators to clearly visualise the "overall picture" of an operation
Work Instructions:
Need to be neat professional guide-lines, clearly showing - in numbered step points - how the particular manufacturing or assembling
operation is to be carried out, in a safe and correct manner
Need to be used (where applicable) in conjunction with the relevant Work Instruction
VSB1 Components Inspection:
While all in-coming components need to be inspected, prior to being released for production, special attention must be paid to all
components that are subject to VSB1 legal regulations, to ensure that they are fully-compliant, and that no changes have been made
Inspection Check-Lists:
Stage - Need to be a number of professional - YES / NO numbered - List of major "stage" operations, so that any fault can be detected, and
rectified, without it passing through the entire manufacturing process, thus causing a difficult and interrupting rectification
Final - Needs to be a comprehensive professional - YES / NO numbered - List covering all Compliance, Equipment functions, and Quality items
This should form the basis of a Pre-Delivery Inspection Check-List for a Dealer to complete, prior to handing-over the caravan to a Customer
It is vital that all Drawings, Work Instructions and Check-Lists:
Have the latestMaster Copy filed, with an Index, in the Quality-Control folder
Are up-to-date, approved, signed and dated - only - by the Production Manager / Engineer
Are protected by being laminated inside plastic sheets
Do not have any "notes" scribbled on them
Have allobsolete copies collected and removedfrom the manufacturing area
Have allVSB1-related issues high-lighted, to ensure continued compliance
Are clear and unambiguous, and are presented in a plain key-point format
The documents must be sufficient to enable any - suitably trained - (stand-in) operator to be able to under-take and complete a particular manufacturing
or assembling operation without having to "guess" about "how or what should I do next"?
This especially applies to operations - where allcaravans "need to be made exactly the same", such as:
Drilling holes and forming cut-outs in the body
Positioning lamps and reflectors
Lay-out of wiring, tubing and fittings
Using professional Check-Lists will greatly assist in ensuring that everyCustomer will receive a fully-compliant and high-quality Caravan!
One of the biggest issues that I have come across is the lack of ADR's covering caravans. There are very few and they relate pretty much to chassis related items such as brakes and running gear etc.
I have a friend who works in the Federal government's compliancing section for new vehicles in Canberra.
When I asked him about this, he said that it is something that they are very aware of but their political masters don't seem inclined to do anything about it.
So maybe we need to put some pressure on our local members.
One of the biggest issues that I have come across is the lack of ADR's covering caravans.
There are Vehicle Design Rules (VDR's) and Australian Standards (AS), which should ensure safe and reliable caravans, but unfortunately Caravan Manufacturers can't/won't comply - I was advised in (writing) by large manufacturer that Australian Standards are only recommendations.
__________________
Possum; AKA:- Ali El-Aziz Mohamed Gundawiathan
Sent from my imperial66 typewriter using carrier pigeon, message sticks and smoke signals.
The dealer is quite correct. The Australian Standards are only a recommendation to the mjnimum standard that should be achieved in a product UNLESS the standard forms part of a piece of legislation.
This is now often the case in the construction industry where the National Construction Code of Australia has been adopted by all States as the legislative framework for building and construction. That document references a large number of Australian Standards which in effect makes them a lawful requirement to be followed.
This should happen in the caravan industry in my opinion and there should be a great deal more governance on what is being put on our roads by some of these manufacturers.
I might add that if a matter goes to court and there is an Australian Standard covering the particular product, the manufacturer better hope that he has at the very least, tried to tick all the boxes in that standard with regards to the product being the subject of the court, as the courts take them quite seriously as being the benchmark minimum standard a product should achieve.
Greg1 is correct , unless and AS is called up in legislation as applying to xyz is only a recommendation to reflect what is in effect "best practice' at the time the standard was written.
In regard to quality assurance programs,,, there is one big flaw in the Australian market/industry and that flaw is you can buy programs off the web, HOWEVER if they are NOT IMPLEMENTED and reviewed at lease annually they are worthless.
Cheers
__________________
Why is it so? Professor Julius Sumner Miller, a profound influence on my life, who explained science to us on TV in the 60's.
