Switzerland has built its post-WWII industry on the basis of extreme precision and quality standards. So much so, that the term "Swiss Made" or "Made in Switzerland" became THE benchmark in manufacturing standards. Of course, the quality came at a premium, being expensive prices.

But this was all before CNC/CAD, and other 3-letter acronyms came along. Computer precision has permitted other countries with lower labour costs to meet, if not come close enough to, Swiss quality at a fraction of the cost.

And are the Swiss maintaining their quality standards, or are they starting to cut corners in order to remain competitive?

Hi litespeed - I'm not sure on the scope of your question, but did you also intend that "quality" also mean the approach to things in general, or just with respect to manufacturing?

During discussions with Swiss I've often had the feeling that they somehow think they are invincible, and everything done in or within Switzerland will automatically be of a high standard, infallible, etc. They can often draw these conclusions without knowing a single thing about the particular industry they are talking about - it seems to be more like a deep-rooted emotion.

But just as in other countries, humans make mistakes. I did find it difficult to believe when a few years ago they had to completely dig up the new tram tracks around the mail station in Zurich because they discovered that the new trams couldn't pass each other - surely something which should have been factored into the design work? The cost to the taxpayer and the inconvenience to the commuters was not insignificant.

Whenever one of these huge examples of failure are brought to light it really does cause some gut-wrenching soul searching for many Swiss because it directly conflicts with their belief that it could never happen here.

Some other examples: the Swissair debacle, the Skyguide error that resulted in the collision of the passenger jet and the freight plane, the Crossair jet crash outside of Zurich (my friends were quick to point out that Crossair hired too many foreign pilots - the pilot turned out to be Swiss), the case of the heart transplant patient being given the wrong blood type (and the attempt by the hospital to cover it up). The list goes on and on.

I know this stuff goes on in other countries too - it's just that when people hold up a standard of perfection the reality can be difficult to swallow...

Good points mark. Sorry for not making it clear, but the scope of the question is not restricted to manufacturing, but also services such as hospitality, engineering, etc.

You are quite correct, I feel also that the current generation of Swiss have developed a complacency based on the achievements of the previous ones, allowing big mistakes to occur left, right and centre. And I have also experienced the " foreigner scapegoat" phenomenon, only to smile when the fault was found to be on the shoulders of a native.

A reputation of quality and precision is more fragile than the Swiss seem to believe, especially in this competitive world.

So whilst the rest of the world catches up, are the Swiss then actually falling back?

This conflict between the ideal of perfection and the reality could be why the suicide rate is the highest in the world.

http://www.mcdl.org/Stats/gnpsuicide.htm

I can understand why Japan are there (high shame culture) but if we are to believe that Swiss and Danish are the happy bunch that the researchers in the other thread tell us, why then are they also the highest suicide rates?

Could it be that if feel you measure up to the standard you feel happy, else youre at rock bottom?

Quality and precision seem to come at a high cost, not just financial.

Among the highest in Europe, or among the highest in the "developed" world, but most certainly not the highest in the world! (I think we did the Swiss suicide thing on a couple of other threads too).

But I note that nobody from skyguide or Swissair's management committed suicide. In Japan it would have been a different story

In my opinion, the problem is in the definition of perfection and in the definition of ideal.
I won't dig into religious views here.
But i do believe that perfection can not be achieved in all the things. Therefore, if you define it by doing all perfect, it can not be achieved at all.
But can be pursued, doing an effort each day to make things better than the last time or the day before.
For me, as a Technician, perfection is reached when we search for it constantly. And when we accept sometimes we screw up, accept our mistakes, try to fix them and do not repeat them.
And i believe you can't demand the same level of achievements of different people.
We are all different, ALL of us.
Even being gemel twins, raised in the same family, with the same food, clothing and education, and the same relationships and oportunities, the persons will be different. And as long as time passses by, their differences will increase.
The differences are not there to be disregarded nor levelled, but to be well used on the behalf of the society and the individual.
You can't demand a blind man to study interior designing, for example.
Nor a theoretical mathematician to run a marathon in less than 2 hours.
The problem as i see it is not the cost of quality and precision, but what do we as societies do with our claims of having gained them. Do we make the gap between those who can keep up and those who can't larger? Or do we use the advances to shorten it?
You can use titanium and electrical engines to make a barrier between an hemiplegic man and the rest, or you can use those same materials to build a wheel chair to allow that very same man to run at the speed of the rest.
Both actions will demand technical expertise. The society decides which decision will be taken, therefore deciding it's own future.
If you don't have diversity, you don't have choices.
And without choices, life looses all it's charm, curiosity disappears, each day becomes the same as the one before, you don't learn anything because actually there are no new days, just repetitions of the ones before. If life looses all it's charm, it also looses all it's meaning.
High evolved technical societies always get to a point where they have to stop and think what do they want to do next. Many paths lie ahead of them, and they did amazing things, technically speaking. But if they forget that the base of all those breakthroughs and achievemnets was human, if they forget that the objective of all those inventions and technical solutions was to make human relations easier and longer lasting, they loose their path. And loosing it, they end up in a dead end. As in dead, and as in end.