Save-A-Boat - The Forum for Plastic Classic Rebuilds!

Here's a question for our friendly econ majors that haunt the site: Is it really necessary for Davis to use like 80 gauge wire for the leads on their mast head light? It's a $50 item?would the extra penny per light to use 14 gauge wire really throw off their profit margins???

I mean, I know that this thing only draws like .01 amps and so a single strand of wire is probably sufficient, but come on folks, we need to be able to actually attach the stupid thing to the main run up the mast.

Yipe, yipe, yipe! hehe

(Actually, I completely agree!)

Now imagine that you're a few decades older, have bad eyesight and arthritic hands.

I spent an hour the other day fixing one severely hacked "trim tab indicator" installation. Part of the challenge was that the wires were only about 3/4" long, as it seems it took a while to learn how to strip the insulation without cutting right through the angel-hair wire.

The procurement deparment probably queried the engineering department about the size of the wire required. The engineers happily looked up the size on the chart and replied with a definitive answer. The parts department was happy because the small wire takes up very little room on their shelves.

The people on the shop floor that actually work with the stuff are almost never consulted. (says a guy who lives on the shop floor...)

-Britton

bcooke wrote:The procurement deparment probably queried the engineering department about the size of the wire required. The engineers happily looked up the size on the chart and replied with a definitive answer. The parts department was happy because the small wire takes up very little room on their shelves.

Man, that rings so true. Sad. But true.

The manufacturing industry today seems to be all about maximizing profits for the company, even at the expense of quality or usability of the end product and without regard to the practicality of certain aspects of the product for the end user. As a result, penny-pinching changes are made to all products, many of which have clearly negative effects on the products' implementation for most users. But apparently those pennies add up for the manufacturing companies. Unfortunately, the buyer never seems to benefit from the manufacturer's cost savings, though--prices continue to rise despite these reductions in quality or practicality.

It's really too bad that dollars and profit have had such a sorry effect on all aspects of life. But to delve much deeper into this particular drain on society would be to enter prohibited waters here, so that's all I will say! I only wish the problem were limited to the Davis Megalight.