Olin Lathrop wrote:
>> We've been working with this CM since 2003. There are very strong
>> economic incentives to stay with them. Periodically, we request quotes
>> from other companies, and they always come back higher.
>
> But you have to consider the cost on your end to deal with these guys too.
> Think about how much time (=$$) you have already spent with this slotted
> hole silliness.

Surprisingly, not that much, actually. :)


> You'd have to be getting one heck of a deal

We are.


> or have very
> high volumes for that to still come out ahead compared to a manufacturer
> with slightly higher price but much lower hassle level.

There's also the "cost of entry" factor that I mentioned in the previous 
post, that needs to be considered.


> When I switched from a Chinese manufacturer to Djula, my overall cost went
> down even though Djula's price per unit was a bit higher.

How do you know this? Is this a gut feeling you get, or have you actually 
crunched the numbers?

This is a real question. The hardest thing about doing these sorts of 
estimates, is that a lot of times, the data is simply not available. How do 
you convert "ease of communication" to US dollars?


> Think about your
> total cost in time to manage the production process, wasted time due to
> ambiguous communication, cost of dead units you either have to eat or
> repair, etc, and the production price by itself is no longer a good
> indicator.

We got quotes from Djula a couple of times. Of course, my opinion is 
subjective, but at this time the difference was enough for us to justify 
staying with out current CM.

Vitaliy


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