Purchase/Prebuild - What's the difference?

[Andrew]

We actually discussed plans for building an entire FIRST robot drive platform and selling to FIRST teams within the $3500 limit and mainly using FIRST kit parts.

<R68> Additional Parts must be generally available from suppliers such that any other FIRST team, if it so desires, may also obtain them at the same price. (A specific device fabricated by a team from non-2004 Kit materials does not have to be available to others, however, the materials it is made from must be available to other teams.)

You would have to make this option available to over 1000 teams and you would have to fill the orders, probably by week three of the build phase.

The interpretation that I apply to this has to do with the word "obtain." If I place an order, but the parts are not made available to me before the end of the build phase, I would have to say that, retroactively, I could not "obtain" these parts, whereas other teams could. Hence, all teams that did get these parts would be in violation of this rule and have to remove them.

We ran into this problem in the bad, old Small Parts daze. In the last couple of years, FIRST had to open up the rules to allow equivalent suppliers since not all teams could "obtain" the same set of parts from SPI when stock ran out.

We calculated the amount of machining time necessary to make this happen, the cost of materials which we would have to have on hand, the number of CNC machines and fixtures which would be required, etc. The up front investment was going to be significant.

The other option was to pre-build and store inventory. Either way, you're talking about a large initial investment.

If FIRST changed the rules so that a minor redesign was required, the cost associated with either trashed inventory or retooling during the build phase was extremely high. Also, how much inventory? You might get 1000 orders or you might get 50.

So, from a business plan stand-point, this kind of company doesn't make any sense. It is almost guaranteed to result in either an inability to fill all orders or a large loss. Even if not in every year, certainly in some years.

The chances of making a profit at this, without fore-knowledge from FIRST, are slim.

Now, if the company were separate from any team, you might negotiate with FIRST for some up front information to make this work. However, if any member of this hypothetical company were part of a FIRST team, the conflict of interest would be extreme.

It would be similar to the situation where Innovation FIRST might field a team engineered by IFI personnel.

And hey, we already have the situation where "insiders to FIRST" are making "bolt on robot parts." It's the kit gearbox!

In short, if a company, run by FIRST-ers with an existing team, were to market a product, they would need to satisfy up to 1000 orders with a very short delivery time. This either requires either inventory or very large manufacturing capabilities.

The other option, teams building modules for each other, was already covered under the "manufacturing alliance" debate.