Originally Posted by Hank49
You're the expert. But I look at my Pioneer 27 and my kid's school backpacks....material wise, there can't be a huge difference in price. The Pioneer is heavier material, has a bladder....that leaks in my case, and the fittings for the inflator and dump releases. The backpacks have multiple compartments and zippers and padded shoulder straps etc. The Pioneer was over $300. $150 will get a very nice backpack.
If you cranked out 4000 wings per day, it would drop your production cost. That's all I'm saying.
There are very few things that can't be automated. The issue is the cost of doing it. The short answer is that where there exists sufficient volumes to support automation, you design the product for automated processes. Often, trying to automate a process designed as a manual process is little more than expensive folly but you still might be surprised at times. Assumming adequate volumes, there is almost always an elegant solution available to one of sufficient talent and imagination.
There are some products/oporations well suited to "cheap labor" however, I have seen MANY moved to points of low labor cost only because it was easy for someone with no talent to come up with.
In one case, I spent a couple of million automating two Eaton switch lines (products some said couldn't be automated, BTW). Shortly after the automation was up and running, they closed the plant moved it to Mexico. The automation now sits down there in a corner replaced with a bunch of people. Guess what they saved by moving? NOTHING. It takes them 10 times the number of people to do the same thing and they get no return on the cost to automate in the first place.
You're the expert. But I look at my Pioneer 27 and my kid's school backpacks....material wise, there can't be a huge difference in price. The Pioneer is heavier material, has a bladder....that leaks in my case, and the fittings for the inflator and dump releases. The backpacks have multiple compartments and zippers and padded shoulder straps etc. The Pioneer was over $300. $150 will get a very nice backpack.
If you cranked out 4000 wings per day, it would drop your production cost. That's all I'm saying.
Larger volumes would allow some cost savings, but not at much as you might expect.
Sewing and RF welding and of course final assembly are highly manual operations.
That's why these industries have largely migrated to points of lower labor cost. If it was possible to automate these functions then economies of scale would be easier to realize.
Tobin
There are very few things that can't be automated. The issue is the cost of doing it. The short answer is that where there exists sufficient volumes to support automation, you design the product for automated processes. Often, trying to automate a process designed as a manual process is little more than expensive folly but you still might be surprised at times. Assumming adequate volumes, there is almost always an elegant solution available to one of sufficient talent and imagination.
There are some products/oporations well suited to "cheap labor" however, I have seen MANY moved to points of low labor cost only because it was easy for someone with no talent to come up with.
In one case, I spent a couple of million automating two Eaton switch lines (products some said couldn't be automated, BTW). Shortly after the automation was up and running, they closed the plant moved it to Mexico. The automation now sits down there in a corner replaced with a bunch of people. Guess what they saved by moving? NOTHING. It takes them 10 times the number of people to do the same thing and they get no return on the cost to automate in the first place.