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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!petrus!karn
From: karn@petrus.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: What's Heathkit coming to? Heathassembled?
Message-ID: <256@petrus.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 14-Jan-85 17:57:05 EST
Article-I.D.: petrus.256
Posted: Mon Jan 14 17:57:05 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Jan-85 02:29:36 EST
References: <7180@brl-tgr.ARPA> <1080@ulysses.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc
Lines: 17

> Remember that the economics of kits have changed.  In the days of tubes
> and hand-wiring, there was a considerable savings in labor to be had
> by building a kit.  These days, what with automated part placement and
> wave soldering, final assembly costs comparatively little -- but writing
> and testing an instruction manual still costs a lot.

This is very true. The most cost-effective kits are those that still require
a lot of manual labor to assemble, either in a factory or at home.
A good example is the Heath H-19 terminal; the digital board came
preassembled but the kitbuilder built the monitor board (lots of large
discrete components) and put all the subassemblies together. This seems
to be an optimal practice, although one generally competes for the value
of his time with workers in Hong Kong or Singapore, not the US.

Phil