We have heard it since long that components and spares for MNC products sold in India are sourced illegally (or perhaps a better term is “Jugaad”) from company manufacturing units itself. The vast manufacturing hubs that China houses are not new to controversies. People returning from China have claimed to me that you can get replica of any gadget at less than half the price and yet give the same finishing and features as the original company product. But this LA Times report takes things to another level.
The report cites one Bunnie Huang of Chumby Industries who came across a tricky situation while handling a hand-held manufacturing. Apparently a whole lot of Kingston cards that Chumby had sourced turned out to be defective, and Kingston refused to accept the same for returns. Given the large investment in sourcing a few thousand cards, Bunnie decided to investigate.
His conclusions: Some of the cards he found were probably produced using the same manufacturing equipment as the certified goods. But the similarities end there. Huang describes the phenomenon of “ghost shifts” at some factories, where a rogue worker during off hours may run off a few batches of chips using materials that had been rejected as defective by the day shift, or purchased as second-grade parts from legitimate manufacturers such as Samsung or Toshiba.
What makes things even more tricky is that Kingston made a u-turn and accepted to replace all the defective cards. Of-course there are things that don’t add up, but enough to give the industry a spicy conspiracy theory. We shall update if there is any more findings in the case.
You can read Bunnie Huang original post highlighting the issue and research here.
