From: Jim Williams (JIM@paramountind.com)
Date: Tue Oct 15 2002 - 23:32:06 EEST
Sheba?
Not sure what "fungible" is but RPSB's who's pricing is based on a commodity
business model are like a fungus to the product development industry and to
the RP industry. Perhaps that's what you intended to say? You can be a
craftsman using RP as a tool and be competitive.
RP is a tool to produce parts to support the product design and engineering
process. Hopefully we'll realize it's expansion into the manufacturing
mainstream. Certainly their are other creative ways to apply this tool. In
some of these applications quality may not be an issue. Best served RP
makes parts that prove-out the designer's theory. To think that one SLS
machine, and their human counterpart, works the same as another is wishful
thinking, and naive. Us who own/operate RP equipment prove that every day.
These investments are not plug and play, or shake and bake!
The variable of prices in the RP industry are as pervasive as are high
standards of quality. Those customers who choose price as their deciding
factor, all the time, invariably will find the best intended value of a good
quality product design validation model eludes them. Models, a.k.a.
prototypes, are intended to verify and validate a designer's design-intent
whether it be fit, function, product performance or pattern application. If
we, the model making industry, produce prototypes that fall short of these
objectives, then we as an industry loose credibility. Reliable and
consistent quality does have a price. In an un-regulated commodity market
place where industry standards of quality are elusive, if existent at all,
price becomes the only common denominator. p.s. China has adopted and
conquered this particular battle particularly where human labor is required.
I remain optimistic those RPSB'rs who have adopted a low price business
model will discover as every cheap romantic has discovered, that one date
doesn't necessarily get you another dance. Question is: can we afford to
sit on the side lines and watch the bottom fishers. Unlikely. Rather we'll
price ourselves to be profitable, build capital to replace/expand and stay
in the game long term. Every good business person knows the numbers and
positions themselves accordingly.
........ I gleefully watch as the bottom fishers turn on themselves and eat
each others lunch.
Regards,
Jim Williams
|-----Original Message-----
|From: Bathsheba Grossman [ mailto:sheba@bathsheba.com
<mailto:sheba@bathsheba.com> ]
|Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 1:46 PM
|To: 'Rp-Ml (E-mail)
|Subject: RE: Price idea for a resin/plastic model
|
|
|On Tue, 15 Oct 2002, Billett Mike wrote:
|> However, an observation rather than a moan... whilst I understand
|> that the complexity of the part and accuracy we require will steer
|> the cost of the model, also that I was extremely vauge about my
|> description of the part. I have recieved "ball park" figures ranging
|> from $275 USD to $6000 USD! Quite a spread wouldn't you say?
|
|On the high side, but wide spreads do seem to be typical of the field.
|Just the other day I had a model quoted by several companies - in each
|case exactly the same part, built with the same machine, without any
|postprocessing - and got back figures ranging from $450 to over $1200.
|
|One has the feeling that many RP users are not price-conscious, and
|that as a result some companies operate in fantasy-land.
|
|All one can do is avoid them and hope the market shakes down
|eventually. It's all very well for situations where there is a lot of
|craftsmanship, but in cases where build hours are a fungible commodity
|- any working machine is as good as any other - sooner or later a
|market rate should emerge.
|
|-Sheba
|--
|Bathsheba Grossman
|(831) 429-8224
|Sculpting geometry
|bathsheba.com
|Creative prototyping
|protoshape.com
|
|
|For more information about the rp-ml, see http://rapid.lpt.fi/rp-ml/
<http://rapid.lpt.fi/rp-ml/>
|
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://rapid.lpt.fi/rp-ml/
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