Why is production volume so important?

It is always hard to bring a new product to market in a field where there are already serious players competing for market share. But how is it that they can bring their products to market at such low prices when for the average Joe initial production unit costs seem high?

Well it really is a volume game.

To take an extreme example; have a look at  some of the How it’s Made(www.howitismade.net, http://science.discovery.com/tv/how-its-made/) documentaries, the one’s on golf balls or ice lollies are good. From this you can see clearly the $100,000’s if not millions that has been invested in production line setup which leaves the golf ball only having a couple of people being involved in the whole process once the raw materials are ready. They are making millions of units on a line that probably never stops running churning out 1000’s of balls an hour.

So how do you get there?

Clearly it is not easy. You need to be making millions of units to sell millions, which you need to do to pay for the setup for millions of units! Setting up production for the first time needs a careful balance of investment and good planning to ensure the price works at the beginning and then potentially with greater investment later true mass production efficiencies can be made to enable you to compete with the big boys!

Products in shipping containers

Shipping goods around the world involves a wide variety of temperature and humidity variation. Particularly the journeys across the equator. Shipping containers are exposed to all of the elements. The goods inside need to be able to withstand the wide ranges of conditions. This has implications for the way goods are packed and the type of container chosen. It is not unusual for us to ship some rubber and plastic products in refrigerated containers from china to the EU during the summer months. The following study is one of the most comprehensive yet into the range of conditions experienced inside a container. If anyone has any questions then please let MotionTouch know.

Everyday items explained…

This video demonstrates the detail for how plastic bottles are manufactured.  Plastic manufacturing in this volume and to these tolerance requires high quality control throughout. The purity of the material and calibration of the machines are fundamental. Although we take plastic bottles for granted and they are now very “low tech” the innovation that it took in a variety of fields to get there was significant.