This has been an interesting thread. Following the thread's title closely,
we all seem to be focusing on the cost.
But people willingly pay much more for a bicycle than for a pair of shoes,
much more for an automobile than a bicycle, and some jump up again for an
airplane over an automobile. It depends not only on the cost but on the
benefits derived too. I don't think we can say much about the cost of RP
without assessing the benefits also. Without the amazing benefits RP has
brought, we would all be going "RP barefoot," to stretch this metaphor a bit.
As a start on this cost-benefit discussion, I have written a column, "Make
Time-to-Market Technologies a Bottom-Line Issue," that will appear in the
next (April) issue of Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) magazine, page 78.
I'd be interested to see if others have thoughts in the cost-benefit
direction, because this could help up get out of the "barefoot" mentality.
This is not to say that I do not support a $20K machine. I just think we
will get there much faster if we focus more on the business benefits that
these machines can bring.
Regards,
Preston Smith CMC
New Product Dynamics tel: +1 (503) 248-0900
Portland, Oregon USA fax: +1 (503) 294-1192
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