>That would be a suprise indeed. I think that you have you don't have a full
>appreciation of the cost of a manufacturing plant or the nominal operation.

And i think you don't have a full appreciation of the manufacturing costs in
Asia. I think it has to be stressed that there are all sizes and shapes of
manufacturing operations, from the most expensive high-tech operations (with
huge start-up costs) to the most low-tech (consisting of massive amounts of
low cost labour and *a* wave soldering machine).

Million's of dollars in machinery!! USD50K per month for a loader!! not here
in many cases.. I tend to agree with Tony in that idle workers in *some*
cases is the largest cost for many manufacturers.

Last year i visited a factory in China that was busting out thousands of
circuits boards a week with not much more than a wave soldering machine.. i
admit it was decidedly low tech but it worked and the quality was great
(they were even doing some SMD).

Picture this 60 Chinese labourers (each being paid less than USD60 per
MONTH, USD60 is what the experienced girls were getting) sat in a long line
shoulder to shoulder, each has a single tub containing a single type of
component, next to them is a poorly photocopied PCB with a number of
component positions highlighted with a highlighter pen showing where they
should insert the component..

unpopulated PCB's are slid along a track (manually) the labourer inserts
their component and then slides to the next person, by the time the PCB
reaches the end it is fully populated.. it is then hand dipped into a solder
bath passed to the next labourer who trims the leads with an angle grinder
and neatly modified tile cutter blade.

The boards can now be checked for alignment problems, missing components
etc. if everything is OK it goes through the wave soldering machine. Each
board is then manually inspected with any necessary repair work being done.

In less than a morning they completed 500 sets of circuit boards (each set
consisting of 5 boards and average 80 pieces per board). Then swapped over
to another customer order which consists of issuing each labourer with a new
tub of components and a new photocopied page!! Voila manufacturing ala Asia
style.

If you find the right manufacturing partner Asia (or even Mexico i would
imagine) can fulfil manufacturing needs small, medium or large scale. Highly
integrated manufacturers just like their US counterparts are only interested
in volume manufacture, but manufacturers with much lower level of
integration are looking to employ their capacity no matter what volume.

Having your plant sat idle just because you are waiting for that elusive
customer with a production run of over 100000 items makes no business sense.

Kev.

--
Kevin Darch. )} )z +[!C Senior Technical Advisor.
kevin@aldareinvestments.com
Aldare Investments. www.aldareinvestments.com