No complaints here about Kodak's quality-except their Kodachrome labs. (Not Dwayne's) It got so bad at one point I stopped shooting Kodachrome until I found good independent processing.
A woman I used to work with had worked for Kodak for many years. She assembled copiers for a number of years. She told me that if the assembly manual was not open to the page related to the step being performed, it was grounds for immediate dismissal. No matter if a person had done the step thousands of times before.
Sounds draconian, but it demonstrates the disciplined approach to quality that Kodak was known for.
When I worked as a QA inspector I always drilled into trainees the need to always check the print, always check the paperwork-take nothing for granted. There was no guarantee a change notice would get to us.
So I understand completely why Kodak did things that way.
In the mid 70's I worked for a company that made aerospace electrical connectors. The products went into aircraft, missiles, etc., for the military, into commercial aircraft, and into the anti-lock braking systems of one of the major large truck manufacturers, and a standard line was offered as well. I was amazed and sometimes appalled at what went out of there.
One day I got wind of a large order that a new customer had made. The entire order had been rejected by that customer, with a detailed report of every defect and out of conformance condition found in the sample parts. Boxes of rejected parts were stacked in hallways outside the QC office, there were so many. They had never seen anything like that before.
The customer was Kodak. My company's solution? Don't sell to Kodak.
Made me proud to be a user of Kodak products.
I already had no pride in my company, so nothing changed there.