I seem to have been bitten! - Sorry - I don't think I made my point very
clear.

I was trying to point out the $4+ (US ?)estimate of the previous message was
somewhat inflated from my viewpoint.
Also I was trying to indicate that _standard_ components (commonly used
resistors, capacitors LM324's etc. which are used in a number of different
products) are so cheap that it is generally a cheaper option to use them
rather than a more expensive single component bought in especially for a
single product. This I think is your point also.

I am fully aware of the costs of procurement, inventory, kitting &
production - along with time to market and second sourcing questions.
Possibly I am overstating the case on the basis of the simple items I spend
most of my time working on but provided the PCB area requirement doesn't
increase to the point where we get less PCBs / panel the cost of a handful
of _standard_ parts is virtually nil.

Richard

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dennis Plunkett [mailto:dennis@RDD.NECA.NEC.COM.AU]
> Sent: Thursday, July 15, 1999 12:28 PM
> To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: Re: Sigma Delta Converter
>
>
> At 11:46 15/07/99 +1200, you wrote:
> >I shouldn't comment on prices but for SMD
> >I'd guess at $US1.18 for LM324, 9 resistors, 3 caps & a
> zener - (or $NZ2.40
> >max) overall cost very dependent on pcb size, shape etc.
> >
> >Displays, PCB, connectors and metalwork are the major cost
> items. Standard
> >electronic component costs are pretty well negligable by comparison.
> >
> >
> >Of course if you buy everything from RS......
> >
> >By the way - what temperature are you running at. We have
> had to change to
> >LM224s to meet high temperature requirements (and we pay more as a
> >consequance).
> >
>
> Rubbish!
> The cost of any component is always to be considered. It
> seems that you may
> be stuck in a less than 1000 production run world.
> It is the total cost of the electronic components that has to
> be cinsidered
> including the cost of one off components, size and other formfactot
> problems that such may induce incluing manufacture and test
> cost. If an IC
> costs $14 and the sperate components cost $2.40 (This
> indicates that you
> have not had real exposure to large scale production), then
> one can expect
> that the other costs including kitting storage and procurment will add
> arounf %10, or $.24 for one case and $1.4 for the otehr case.
> This is then
> altered by teh cost to manufacture $.02 per component, say
> $15.42 and $2.9,
> then add the test cost (Around 40% of the manufatured cost
> (Complete) and
> one can see that the componsnt cost is signifficant. To this
> assume that
> the otehr compents eg metal work etc increase by %1, so if
> the case cost
> $20 and the PCB $10, and packaging $3, the extra cost is now
> $6.2 vs $15.42
> add test cost. I think that the difference is still large,
> around 1/2 the
> cost.
> Take this to the extrame with good component buying, and you
> can save the
> company over $1M per year
>
> Dennis
>