I find these statements pretty instructive also:
"When I was in the factory, Dennis and I went over some numbers. To make one model of our HO scale Budd "Park" Series dome-observation car takes about 7.5 hours of work, from start to finish. This is the most complex passenger car model we've done to date. The factory pay is roughly 11 RMB (Chinese currency) per hour including labour-associated costs. That means that to make that Park Car cost, in labour, about 82 RMB. This equals $12.90 CAD (Canadian dollars). That does not include tooling costs, material costs, or overhead costs. That is just for labour.
Now let's take that 7.5 hours of labour and bring it over to North America. Here in Ontario, an assembly worker who has the skills to paint, print and assemble a model of this complexity would cost a minimum of $17 per hour. That HO scale Park Car has just cost $127.50 for assembly and decorating."
"So, if we want to bring production to North America, our options are as follows:
- Make a barely-detailed model that can be produced in about an hour. The trouble is, then who will pay $99.95 for it? You'd need to charge that much to make your costs back.
- Make a kit. I don't know of any injection-moulded kit that is as complex or has as many parts as our "Park" Series cars. And, unfortunately, the vast majority of model railroaders don't have the time to build an entire fleet of kits, especially when there are ready-to-run alternatives. That means we would never sell enough kits to even cover our tooling costs."
Rusty
