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<blockquote data-quote="John Roberts" data-source="post: 116086" data-attributes="member: 126">Re: New QSC Product - TouchMixWhen I started working at Peavey in the mid-&#039;80s there was still enough fat on the pig, that I could include product content (with cost) that remained mostly invisible to the end user. I included some internal features to keep myself happy. By the end of my time there, the competition had tightened the screws to the point that sharp pencils were out, and I learned first hand how long it takes to fly to China. :-( The general rule of thumb is that any cost inside a product that is not seen and valued by the end user at POS (point of sale) can create a competitive price disadvantage in the marketplace that hurts sales when competitors do not spend that hidden money. This can be especially difficult for design engineers with high personal standards. For another related anecdote I once signed an ECN (engineering change notice) to approve using a better performance capacitor dielectric in a passive crossover used inside a loudspeaker. 99.9% of the customers would never appreciate this subtle and mostly secret quality improvement, and that engineer&#039;s own boss refused to sign the ECN because it would have increased the BOM cost of the product $0.10-$0.20, making him look bad to the big boss. Me I was willing to piss away my limited political capital, even when it wasn&#039;t my area of direct engineering responsibility, because I appreciated how a few cents worth of parts cost increase can actually make the product better. IMO it was the right thing to do.&nbsp;&nbsp; I have always been a value kind of guy, and well executed value products are under appreciated IMO. While some value products are just cheap. There is huge pressure from the sharp pencil crowd to make products so cheap they don&#039;t work properly. YMMVJR</blockquote>

[QUOTE="John Roberts, post: 116086, member: 126"] Re: New QSC Product - TouchMix When I started working at Peavey in the mid-'80s there was still enough fat on the pig, that I could include product content (with cost) that remained mostly invisible to the end user. I included some internal features to keep myself happy. By the end of my time there, the competition had tightened the screws to the point that sharp pencils were out, and I learned first hand how long it takes to fly to China. :-( The general rule of thumb is that any cost inside a product that is not seen and valued by the end user at POS (point of sale) can create a competitive price disadvantage in the marketplace that hurts sales when competitors do not spend that hidden money. This can be especially difficult for design engineers with high personal standards. For another related anecdote I once signed an ECN (engineering change notice) to approve using a better performance capacitor dielectric in a passive crossover used inside a loudspeaker. 99.9% of the customers would never appreciate this subtle and mostly secret quality improvement, and that engineer's own boss refused to sign the ECN because it would have increased the BOM cost of the product $0.10-$0.20, making him look bad to the big boss. Me I was willing to piss away my limited political capital, even when it wasn't my area of direct engineering responsibility, because I appreciated how a few cents worth of parts cost increase can actually make the product better. IMO it was the right thing to do. I have always been a value kind of guy, and well executed value products are under appreciated IMO. While some value products are just cheap. There is huge pressure from the sharp pencil crowd to make products so cheap they don't work properly. YMMV JR [/QUOTE]

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