Why You Tend to See Multiple Iterations of the Same Product

[lightning2000]

Hi,
We were going to address this subject in one of our upcoming articles on our web site, but thought it might help if I touch upon the subject here so you can better understand the marketplace as it applies to some manufacturers.

One of the principal reasons you tend to see multiple iterations of the same vehicle/aircraft has to do with economies of scale, particularly when it comes to smaller scale items like a 1:72 scale Sherman or Tiger I. In other words, its far cheaper for a manufacturer to produce, say, 10,000 pieces of a particular vehicle/aircraft at one time than it would be to only produce, say, 2,000 pieces, then go back and produce another 2,000 pieces.

After the entire runs comes off the casting and assembly line, the manufacturer will allocate, say, 2,000 piece lots from the original batch of 10,000 vehicles, to be painted up in different patterns. As the first lot reaches the marketplace, the manufacturer is already hard at work completing the rest of the production run in other patterns, which end up being phased into the marketplace at varying intervals, probably extending out no more than six months.

With the larger scale vehicles/planes this type of marketing strategy probably doesnt hold true, since its far harder to keep those types of quantities on hand for extended periods of time. Instead, the per piece production run is probably far higher, with follow-on versions released over the course of several years to recoup engineering, tooling and production costs.

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.net