One of the biggest hurdles for manufacturers to get past is when they get a brand new product up and running. It’s called the 1st Production. It’s a significant engineering and manufacturing challenge.
Alpine was not immune from these 1st production quality challenges. While it’s true, most manufacturing operations have policies to try and avoid quality failures. Alpine did too. But regardless of the pre-production testing, stuff happens.
One historical (and factual) story occurs when Alpine introduced its first preamp 7307 in 1980-81. It received testing accolades from the most reputable product review folks in the industry… but it had a hidden problem.
I tell this story in much greater detail in the upcoming DocuCast, but for now here’s a shortened version.
The customer… An Arizona “cowboy” with a new Ford Bronco wanted the “best sound system” he could find to impress his lady & his guy friends. After about a week of installation, his Bronco was ready.
The first part of his trip home was “mind-blowing”. Then his Willie Nelson tape started to fail. By the time he got home, the 7307 was completely not working! And – this happened 2 more times over the next few days.
he 4th time it happened, he jumped out of his Bronco, started drinking a few beers and with screwdriver in hand, decided he would take care of the problem… He pulled the 7307 out of the dash – and took aim with his 357 Magnum handgun and BANG! He shot it!
Yep true story… And so is this… Alpine’s President at Japan HQ learned of the situation and asked me to please find the radio. I did and sent it to him.
What I didn’t know is he had decided to use it as a powerful “example” to the Alpine engineering group of what “crazy Americans” could do if there is poor product quality. That very same radio is still on display (40 years later) in the Alpine Engineering Department as a legacy message to the engineering and design engineers. It sits there as a catalyst for the endless pursuit of “quality, regardless of cost”. This is but one of many company – and brand -shaping incidents that helped create the quality foundation that Alpine enjoys today.