4 ms·

> That's the cost of that part, being delivered to the assembly line, in bulk quantities, at a regular, predictable order cadence from the upstream supplier I

> That's the cost of that part, being delivered to the assembly line, in bulk quantities, at a regular, predictable order cadence from the upstream supplier I am not buting this reasoning - the assebly line costs money to run, worker's time and salaries need to be paid, quality control and warranty to be done. A part sold by itself needs none of those things. While you are taling to me about how difficult logistics of a $200 part justifies a 500% markup, i can buy a $3 led from China with free shipping. This doesnt add up

judge2020 5y ago
This is generally because USPS effectively subsidizes international shipment. The same $2 LED shipment might be $10 DHL (and free shipping isn’t free, the seller is making their margins with shipping costs included).
- adhesive_wombat 5y ago
  So you allow the manufacturer to charge for delivery (based, on, say, some average delivery cost for the weight, rather then allowing inflated S&H costs to be a new profit centre rewarding unreliable items). Or, if you really want to stamp down about it, you do not allow them to recoup delivery costs and that's their punishment for making an unreliable machine in the first place.
  - rootsudo 5y ago
    Yes, and in your perfect world - manufacturers know full in advance about part life? There are hundreds of parts that make up the build of material of an appliance. This means simply that parts won't ship and service is only done at approved manufacturer facilities. OH wait...
- rootsudo 5y ago
  Not anymore, Trump modified the EMS packet from china to USA thing to remove subsidies. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/trump-changes-terminal-dues-and-epacket-rates/573337/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/trump... This was 2018.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
ethbr0 5y ago
That assembly line's costs are amortized over the rate of production (high): that's the essence of mass manufacturing. > A part sold by itself needs none of those things. A part sold by itself needs so many more things! Where do you store it? How do you organize it there? How do you keep track of your inventory? How do you re-order new inventory? How much do you re-order? How long do you typically have to store? How do you source substitute suppliers when your original goes out of business? How do you QC stock? Etc. Etc. All of that for multiples of the part count that goes into a single model, because you sell more than one model. You can buy a $3 LED from China (see sibling comment for economics on free shipping) because you're buying the current model / whatever version they feel like giving you. "Part specs may be subject to variation" doesn't work so well with more complex systems.
- withinboredom 5y ago
  Wow, no one says you have to get a spare part to a customer tomorrow morning. Just grab one before it goes to assembly line, ship it with the actual completed machines to a distribution center where it will go to the customer from there. There's nothing "new," except at the beginning/end of the chain, just add a few more of those parts to the next order of them. If it will impact operations to take a few from the beginning, some of those spares will have to be delayed. That's ok, tell the customer 6-8 weeks to deliver a spare part. That was pretty standard shipping times when I was younger.
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    > Just grab one before it goes to assembly line, ship it with the actual completed machines to a distribution center So customers can only order replacement parts while assembly lines are currently doing production runs?
  - rootsudo 5y ago
    What if it's no longer being manufactured or on assembly line? HOw do you grab it before assembly line? And comingling parts with completed machines? Heh. You have no idea of the distribution chain of b2b retail goods vs b2c service repair and such. 6-8 weeks repair time is still common, especially nowadays.
logifail 5y ago
> i can buy a $3 led from China with free shipping International shipping is not even close to being a level playing field: "Arcane rules established by the 144-year-old Universal Postal Union make it possible for a Chinese e-retailer to send a package across the Pacific to a customer in the U.S. at a cost lower than what an American competitor would spend to ship the same item to a neighboring state"[0] [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-10-18/trump-is-right-on-china-s-postal-subsidy https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-10-18/trump-...
- saiya-jin 5y ago
  Interestingly, the same is valid for Europe - I got tons of shipping from Shenzen for free, and the item costed like 1$ (ie USB cables).
- sokoloff 5y ago
  That’s a 2018 article and EMS rules have materially changed since then.
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  I am not in US
  - kube-system 5y ago
    You’re probably in a country in the UPU.

judge2020 5y ago

This is generally because USPS effectively subsidizes international shipment. The same $2 LED shipment might be $10 DHL (and free shipping isn’t free, the seller is making their margins with shipping costs included).

adhesive_wombat 5y ago
So you allow the manufacturer to charge for delivery (based, on, say, some average delivery cost for the weight, rather then allowing inflated S&H costs to be a new profit centre rewarding unreliable items). Or, if you really want to stamp down about it, you do not allow them to recoup delivery costs and that's their punishment for making an unreliable machine in the first place.
- rootsudo 5y ago
  Yes, and in your perfect world - manufacturers know full in advance about part life? There are hundreds of parts that make up the build of material of an appliance. This means simply that parts won't ship and service is only done at approved manufacturer facilities. OH wait...
rootsudo 5y ago
Not anymore, Trump modified the EMS packet from china to USA thing to remove subsidies. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/trump-changes-terminal-dues-and-epacket-rates/573337/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/trump... This was 2018.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

ethbr0 5y ago

That assembly line's costs are amortized over the rate of production (high): that's the essence of mass manufacturing. > A part sold by itself needs none of those things. A part sold by itself needs so many more things! Where do you store it? How do you organize it there? How do you keep track of your inventory? How do you re-order new inventory? How much do you re-order? How long do you typically have to store? How do you source substitute suppliers when your original goes out of business? How do you QC stock? Etc. Etc. All of that for multiples of the part count that goes into a single model, because you sell more than one model. You can buy a $3 LED from China (see sibling comment for economics on free shipping) because you're buying the current model / whatever version they feel like giving you. "Part specs may be subject to variation" doesn't work so well with more complex systems.

withinboredom 5y ago
Wow, no one says you have to get a spare part to a customer tomorrow morning. Just grab one before it goes to assembly line, ship it with the actual completed machines to a distribution center where it will go to the customer from there. There's nothing "new," except at the beginning/end of the chain, just add a few more of those parts to the next order of them. If it will impact operations to take a few from the beginning, some of those spares will have to be delayed. That's ok, tell the customer 6-8 weeks to deliver a spare part. That was pretty standard shipping times when I was younger.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  > Just grab one before it goes to assembly line, ship it with the actual completed machines to a distribution center So customers can only order replacement parts while assembly lines are currently doing production runs?
- rootsudo 5y ago
  What if it's no longer being manufactured or on assembly line? HOw do you grab it before assembly line? And comingling parts with completed machines? Heh. You have no idea of the distribution chain of b2b retail goods vs b2c service repair and such. 6-8 weeks repair time is still common, especially nowadays.

logifail 5y ago

> i can buy a $3 led from China with free shipping International shipping is not even close to being a level playing field: "Arcane rules established by the 144-year-old Universal Postal Union make it possible for a Chinese e-retailer to send a package across the Pacific to a customer in the U.S. at a cost lower than what an American competitor would spend to ship the same item to a neighboring state"[0] [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-10-18/trump-is-right-on-china-s-postal-subsidy https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-10-18/trump-...

saiya-jin 5y ago
Interestingly, the same is valid for Europe - I got tons of shipping from Shenzen for free, and the item costed like 1$ (ie USB cables).
sokoloff 5y ago
That’s a 2018 article and EMS rules have materially changed since then.
ClumsyPilot 5y ago
I am not in US
- kube-system 5y ago
  You’re probably in a country in the UPU.