This post reminds us that any point on rules we may make here runs the risk of becoming moot in less than a month with the 2007 kickoff. That said, and since all we have as precedence are the 2006 rules, I’d like to point out the following:
Quote:
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COTS – A “Commercial, Off-The-Shelf” COMPONENT or MECHANISM, in it’s unaltered, unmodified state. A COTS item must be a standard (i.e. not custom order) part commonly available from the VENDOR, available from a non-team source, and available to all teams for purchase.
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Clearly the ’06 rule does not consider components or mechanisms supplied by a team source to be Consumer Off The Shelf. There’s a very good reason for the exclusion. I hope we do not see the COTS definition change in that regard.
If a team were allowed to manufacture COTS components for sale to other teams, they would naturally be expected to build an inventory during the off-season. All the other teams who wished to buy them would have to place an order and wait for shipment. The manufacturing team, on the other hand, would have instant access, which would give them a considerable advantage in the six-week build period. More yet, the component that they would have had to reproduce each year could be reused because of its COTS status, which again would save a bunch of build time. Even if they never sold a single one, they could save days or weeks each year. Worse yet (and I’m not even remotely suggesting that anyone would do so, only that they could) would be that the manufacturing team could put the price of the component high enough to decrease demand, which, as anyone who’s taken Economics-101 knows, would have the same effect as limiting supply.
So, even though FIRST should encourage creating resources for "under served" teams, they should continue to guard against heading down a slippery slope.