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With labor costs skyrocketing across the globe (for good reason) I sometimes wonder how long it will be until we get "flat-pack" electronics, i.e. where things
by macinjosh 3y ago
With labor costs skyrocketing across the globe (for good reason) I sometimes wonder how long it will be until we get "flat-pack" electronics, i.e. where things come largely disassembled and you must put it together before using. Framework is kinda heading in this direction with laptops.
- ansible 3y agoThe final assembly, while it doesn't cost nothing, isn't that expensive. What does cost more is final testing, to make sure all the components work together. It is cheaper to do that well at the end of the assembly process before starting packaging, than to deal with a high rate of returns. The testing done throughout the manufacturing process is a significant cost.
- 95014_refugee 3y agoFlat-pack furniture is not an efficiency due to the cost of assembly, but shipping, as furniture is mostly air. You will note that most flat-pack furniture designs somehow fit incredibly efficiently into cubic prisms that themselves fit suspiciously conveniently into standard shipping containers. By contrast, consider a modern smartphone. There is very little volume to be won by shipping it as parts, and there is greatly increased risk of customer dissatisfaction due to customers-at-large being clumsy, untrained, unequipped and unaccustomed to the assembly task. Just look at how popular it is to complain about assembling Ikea furniture, compare/contrast with e.g. PC assembly, and then scale that up...
- wmf 3y agoThe Framework DIY model is fully assembled at the factory, tested, burned in, then disassembled back into kit form.