On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 07:42:14PM +0300, Margus Männik scripsit: > Graydon wrote: >> Attaching the metal plate is a labour-intensive step. If they can >> avoid that, it's probably a good boost to the margin. > > Well... no. In US or Western Europe it would be really cheaper to > "hire" a robot. In rest of the world, low-paid human with screwdriver > is MUCH cheaper than screwdriving machinery. I've worked for years in > mobile phone assembly plant (it's LOTS of screwing) and seen many > production cost calculations. Don't forget, that Pentax lenses are > made (not even in Eastern Europe but) in Vietnam.
That's the Vietnamese plant with the dire QA issues, no? It's not just screwing things together, that's getting optical tolerances while screwing things together. I'm sure your right about the cost of straight-up assembly, but it's pretty clear they've got issues with "assembly done right". A moulded in flange is likely cheaper than attaching the metal flange correctly. -- Graydon -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
