[time-nuts] Re: Materials for a Rubidium Standard

[Lux, Jim]

On 9/3/23 7:20 AM, Bob Camp via time-nuts wrote:
> Hi
>
> It is not uncommon for outfits to make some of the parts themselves. Not everybody
> makes the same decisions, but they all do a fair amount of “local fab” on this or that.
> They also may custom tool “captive” sources for some parts.
>
> Next up is the simple issue of bulk buying. When you are buying a thousand parts a
> month for years, you get a *much* better deal than somebody going out to buy one
> or two pieces. Indeed, a lot of OEM’s won’t even return your emails unless you are buying
> above some "may thousands of dollars worth a year” kind of level.
>
> There really isn’t a lot of market for some of these parts at retail ( Digikey, Mouser ….).
> That also makes finding a purchasing channel a bit fun. eBay is an alternative, however
> you often really don’t know what you are getting.
>
> Best guess:
>
> That very basic Telecom Rb you see on eBay for $120 likely sells in high volume $800
> brand new.In low volume it may be $1500. The BOM probably is above $300, even for the guy
> making them in volume. That’s on a simple device with nothing exotic (like lasers) in it.  If the
> BOM goes up by 2 to 4X as you go to “one piece” that’s not totally out of the likely range.
>
> Bob


A rule of thumb in small scale (<100 units) manufacturing is that the 
retail price is 5x to 10x the cost of the Bill of Materials.

So that low volume $1500 Rb might have 150-300 in parts, counting on the 
fact that some of those parts are high volume and inexpensive. If you 
have to buy them all individually, it could easily be double or 5x the 
unit price.  For example, 10 MHz OCXOs are fairly inexpensive, but if 
you need some unique frequency, with tight tolerances, your oscillators 
will be a lot more expensive,  But order several hundred (over some 
years, even) and the per unit cost comes down a lot.