If you think you actually have control over this, collectively or not, you're unblissfully deluded. 😎
Only the large number of people doing what is average has any control, but they don't see it. Too busy looking at their own wishes without any consideration for what is good overall.
Self gain, a kind of greed.
Self gain, a kind of greed.
If you are going to do that I would suggest not getting *too* greedy, and fly under the radar. If what you’re doing moves the needle on the stock exchange too much, somebody (bigger) might take notice and shorten your life expectancy.
I have been finding making security products, with annual production of some units now going past 5,000 units a year, it is much less expensive to produce them locally. A similar competitive model made in China wholesales for just under $100.00. My build cost is much lower.
I also have popped up on the component manufacturers’ radar as my quantity purchases are considered significant for US manufacturers.
The downside is that to produce the products the machinery I use has a replacement cost of over $300,000.
As I price my products to compete with the imported ones, that machinery cost is covered.
There are other U.S. products similar to mine that are much less expensive. However similar is not the same! Users who have tested the products find mine far better. (There is a reason the other products are cheaper, they don’t really do the same thing.)
One of the modern tenets of capitalism is you price products based on what the market values them not at cost plus a percentage. There are always folks who want the lowest price. The folks who market to them also generally have the lowest quality. Not a surprise tradeoff. The problem in marketing is many products that appear similar are assumed to be of similar quality.
In simple terms I do lose security product sales to quite crappy products. In one case my security microphone that has a stainless steel case, signal processing, especially low noise and isolated balanced outputs is compared to units that are just an electret condenser capsule (under $2!) wired to a 3.5 mm stereo connector selling at 1/3 the price.
I also have popped up on the component manufacturers’ radar as my quantity purchases are considered significant for US manufacturers.
The downside is that to produce the products the machinery I use has a replacement cost of over $300,000.
As I price my products to compete with the imported ones, that machinery cost is covered.
There are other U.S. products similar to mine that are much less expensive. However similar is not the same! Users who have tested the products find mine far better. (There is a reason the other products are cheaper, they don’t really do the same thing.)
One of the modern tenets of capitalism is you price products based on what the market values them not at cost plus a percentage. There are always folks who want the lowest price. The folks who market to them also generally have the lowest quality. Not a surprise tradeoff. The problem in marketing is many products that appear similar are assumed to be of similar quality.
In simple terms I do lose security product sales to quite crappy products. In one case my security microphone that has a stainless steel case, signal processing, especially low noise and isolated balanced outputs is compared to units that are just an electret condenser capsule (under $2!) wired to a 3.5 mm stereo connector selling at 1/3 the price.
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Perhaps because the $2 capsule is good enough for the vast majority of buyers on the market?
Which could mean your business plan for the security microphone, regarding the target market/users, was poor to start with. Not that I want to defend the junk products made in certain Asian countries, but they may have a more realistic expectation regarding the markets they are addressing.
@simon7000, Okay, well you're talking apples and oranges. Legitimate comparisons aren't scams. However you bring up a very important issue...products masquerading as the real thing. Plenty of examples out there.
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The $2 capsule is usually already included in many of the TV cameras. When it is sold for just under $100 to some folks thinking it is an improvement is what gets interesting.
However I do sell more security microphones to professional users than do the cheap guys.
The largest specifiers of the products insist on my stuff. The big issue is legal liability. A microphone that doesn’t properly pickup the sounds will be bad news in court unless it is the best one available.
It all got started when there was a prison riot. One fellow on camera appeared to be egging the rioters on. The microphone recorded he was telling them to go back to their cells. Seems that every similar security system now is adding microphones. As mine is recognized as the best and the liability for using anything but the best is great, mine sells quite well.
As the actual electret capsules are only made by a few folks I have a good understanding of my market share. I also understand what to change if any competitor matches my unit’s performance. That is in addition to my patent protection.
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Indeed - at that sort of low volume (low in this context is probably 10 - 10000) it's often cheaper and much mode cost effective to manufacture in UK, EU, USA.
One of the biggest differences was always low Chinese labour costs, as everything becomes automated it's just down to ROI in the machinery investment. At the millions plus level, the Chinese still have that covered.
Or, for things that are still labour related like injection mould tools, still a lot cheaper, albeit less than is used to be as Chinese labour rates rise.
With things manufactured locally, you get the great advantage of much quicker delivery, easier to keep on top of quality control, and much easier if you have production variants.
And with the shutdowns in some Chinese factories due to energy shortages, at the moment, that's another advantage!
So your business is solid, has the right market and sales are good. What was your complaint about the $2 capsules on the market, then?
I've seen and helped design a few products with a sales volume less than 10K units/year that are successful on the domestic market despite the labor cost disadvantage of western countries. They all target small but stable niche markets where the design does not need cutting edge technology but cannot be trivially duplicated, and the customer does have a strong incentive to seek quality and support. The controller board of fire extinguishing systems, as example. The production volume is high enough to keep the business going but not so high to trigger big China-based companies that may be able to engineer a product of comparable quality. And it probably would still be a hard sell for them due to the support issue. By the way, at my current employer, I don't see the slow business issue described by Nigel on post #1, but quite the opposite. It's hard to guess if the customers are stockpiling in fear of further supply chain disruptions, but this year seems to bring unusually good sales.
One not so small issue in how China has a competitive advantages is shipping costs; it costs me $20 to bring my PCBs from Shenzhen with an almost overnight courier (2 days, actually) while the same courier in NA wants to charge me $80 for the same package (weight, size) from Denver, CO.
Word is, the Chinese govt. is subsidizing the shipping costs of exported goods, which would be unfair, but I am not entirely convinced. I suspect the couriers are overcharging obscene amounts on the NA market. And they do it because there is no real competition in NA, on the business market. Residential shippings are just collateral damage that nobody cares about. So the courier greed is helping shooting ourselves in the foot.
Word is, the Chinese govt. is subsidizing the shipping costs of exported goods, which would be unfair, but I am not entirely convinced. I suspect the couriers are overcharging obscene amounts on the NA market. And they do it because there is no real competition in NA, on the business market. Residential shippings are just collateral damage that nobody cares about. So the courier greed is helping shooting ourselves in the foot.
What I understand is that years ago the USPS contracted with Chinese Post to forward packages from CN within the US for a percentage of the shipping the CN companies charged.
So the only thing CN needed to do was to charge low shipping and USPS was subsidizing them!
Jan
I have a soft spot for arm - I used to code arm 2/3/610/710 assembler at university. I suppose it depends if you can implement using arm embedded in marker style components (pi/odroid/feather etc).