Low Costs Through Mass Production

All these parts and the parts from the previous page go into a Canon SureShot TELEmax Camera which you can find being sold for just $100! Did you guess $5,000 or $10,000? I would have!
I would LOVE to tour their factory and learn the details of how in the heck they can actually produce this complicated machine for such a price. Canon has to have spent a zillion dollars on automating the assembly line. It is more than likely one of those factories you hear about - full of robots working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - in the dark!

Hopefully, this economies of scale example gives you a better grasp of the cost reduction benefits we would expect with mass produced SkyTran vehicles, track and stations. We believe, that if we organize the production of SkyTran vehicles and spend serious money on advanced technology production machines that a cost of $3,000 each may even be conservative!

By the way, that skinny little tube makes the super bright burst of light for taking Flash Pictures. It is mounted in a chrome plated plastic reflector that intensifies the light toward the subject. The more I took this machine apart, the more I was just amazed at the engineering and quality that goes into it. Most beautiful is that all this magnificent technology is totally transparent to the user. Better yet, the user doesn't need to bother knowing zip about the technology. As far as the consumer is concerned, he just bought an inexpensive simple-to-use tool to create human remembrances!

The point of all this is to teach you that with modern factory automation techniques, a company can replicate and assemble complicated technical products for very low costs to the end user.  It takes a huge investment in hi-tech factory automation equipment and robots that can only be justified by correspondingly huge sales volume.  These "economies of scale" cannot be achieved by a company manufacturing 10 Light Rail train sets a year, but it can be achieved by a company making 100,000's of identical SkyTran vehicles per year!

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There is an interesting story behind this camera and how it became my perfect "Economies of Scale" example. Personally, I would never have even thought about buying one just to take it apart just to see what is inside of it (and besides I'm too cheap to waste money like that).

Well, my neighbor and good friend, Bob Johnson, a retired Major from the US Marines and I have been doing week long back pack trips in California's High Sierra mountains together since 1982. This past August while on a 6 day hike of the super beautiful Rae Lakes Loop trail (out of Sequoia National Park), Bob slipped while crossing one creek and fell in. He was instantly up and out of the water (even retired Marines have dangerously fast reactions), but his camera got wet and was no longer working.

The camera repair people told him it would be cheaper to just buy a new one than to even take it apart to start trying to fix it. Bob did just that - and gave me the ruined one. The point is that you may have noticed quite a few products exist nowadays that you just replace if they quit functioning. If this compact intelligent camera was not so superbly mass produced it could easily cost $1,000 and it would have been worth spending $200 to have it fixed - but not at $100.

Bob Johnson, Major US Marines, Ret. at the top of Glenn Pass 11,978 feet above sea level.
(Click on these thumbnails to see a larger view)

The rest of the gang at two miles plus above sea level (August 11,1997). Front row from the left - Mary Ann and Jim Gaebe, Michelle and Dad Doug Malewicki. Rear from the left - Richard Spera, Rory Barton, Steve Sanford (Official Trip Poet) and Bob.