Looney Labs Icehouse Mailing list Archive

Re: [Icehouse] Made in the USA?

  • From"Elliott C. Evans" <eeyore@xxxxxxxx>
  • DateSat, 28 Jan 2006 10:17:01 -0500

Kristin Looney wrote:
Who wants to try to convince us to stick to our principles?

It seems to me like you have not explored all your options. From over
here, it seems that you are saying, "We want to sell our products like
this, in packages that look like this, and have stickers on them like
this, but it costs too much."

Have you gone to US manufacturers with the bare minimum requirements
for a stash of Icehouse pieces (15 pyramids, 5 each in three sizes)
and asked them, "What's the cheapest way we can manufacture and
package this?"

I agree, the plastic stash tubes are very cool, but they introduce
all kinds of other factors that are driving your costs up. You're
paying people to cut sprue, count pieces, stack pieces, pack tubes,
etcetera. If costs are becoming a major concern, perhaps a radical
rethink in packaging could save you from a rethink in location?

For instance, last I heard the plan was to make the kind of mold that
produces sprueless pieces, five at a time (meaning, three molds).
This solves some of your problems, but not all of them. Have you
considered making a mold that produces an entire stash of pieces at
once, and then leaving them on the sprue? It would mean that boxing
up an IceTowers set would be putting 5 objects in each box instead of
61 objects. Single stashes could be blister-packed.

I don't know if this is the best idea (It's not as cool as the tubes,
I know), but it is another idea. There is probably a *better* idea out
there that would decrease your costs significantly without having to
move manufacturing abroad.

If you do decide to go abroad, please consider Eastern Europe instead
of China. The PEZ dispensers from Slovenia are of consistently higher
quality than the ones from China.

--
Elliott C. "Eeyore" Evans                              eeyore@xxxxxxxx

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