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 LEGO Company / LEGO Direct / 406
  Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
HOW TO DO BULK SALES IN THE 21st CENTURY ~~~...~~~ Be prepared, this is long... I hope you find it is worth reading. I think it is time we stopped guessing what The LEGO Group's real costs are. None of us know; period. Some people with actual TLC (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general) ! 
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
(...) Ian, I think you started off on the right premise--we're all guessing. But then you go on to assert that your scheme would be cost-effective. What makes you so sure? You've set forth a tidy scheme, but the numbers are still an unknown. Can be (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
Ian Sinclair <sinclair@cadvision.com> wrote in message news:3963efd5.607927...ion.com... HOW TO DO BULK SALES IN THE 21st CENTURY ~~~...~~~ Be prepared, this is long... I hope you find it is worth reading. I think it is time we stopped guessing (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
Erik, you raise many excellent points. I outlined the core idea, the plan is in the details. Some thoughts on what you have said. (...) Erik, if TLC has production lines than currently run unmanned, there is no reason a different organization of (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
(...) Opps... Thanks Geoffrey. It was late, I have no other excuse. <ICS> (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
Ian Sinclair <sinclair@cadvision.com> wrote in message news:39643b6f.527169...ion.com... (...) Maybe that is the case, but I've seen one report that the facilities they use are fed from a set of huge silos containing raw ABS materials in different (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
(...) I would guess that you are correct. I, and other people (IIRC), have gotten parts with swirls of other colors in them, which leads me to believe that they don't hand clean them between runs. Mine is a pretty nifty brick, actually, and I'd love (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
(...) I think they do a little bit of post molding finishing. I'm pretty sure I read about this in one of the books. Depending on the cost to do this (which almost certainly changes over time), they may finish some parts and not others. (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
Legoland California has a factory tour which provide a lot of insights into the production. The video in the waiting lines is long about 15-20 minutes and has company history, commericals, and factory clips. Inside contains a working molding machine (...) (24 years ago, 6-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
(...) I'm sure that there is a feed system of pellets (most likely) to each injection machine. Probably one gravity tube, that can possibly have different colors fed into it. (...) Possibly, it would be nice to know. As some have said we often get (...) (24 years ago, 8-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
(...) This sounds like one of the few things that could stop the flow of ABS, though I doubt it's cleaned inside very often. (...) I totally agree. The unknown here seems to be how many pieces must go through a mold before the new color completely (...) (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
Tom McDonald <radiotitan@yanospamhoo.com> wrote in message news:FxEoJG.Aq2@lugnet.com... (...) though (...) be (...) injection (...) through (...) Or do they have newer machines that simply flush out the old color with a bit of compressed air or (...) (24 years ago, 9-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
(...) I disagree. Consider the example of mold tooling that was built to the same form factor for the same machine. To change from one to the other requires merely a substitution of the tooling and a change in settings for amount of plastic to (...) (24 years ago, 10-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
(...) factor for (...) to (...) That may be, but when I worked in the plastic part plant, and I changed material and colors numerous times when I was a Utility, a color change merely required a dumping of the material from the hopper, blowing it out (...) (24 years ago, 10-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
(...) Maybe. I dunno. I guess I would ask not how much *labor* was involved, but rather, how much time transpired while the machine was out of production. In your description, for example, the bull time to bring the new mold from storage has no (...) (24 years ago, 10-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
(...) You are just right. Actually there is a term SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Dies) extensively used in Total Quality terminology, which covers many methods to decrease the time consumed during die changes down to below 10 minute barrier (...) (24 years ago, 11-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
(...) If you don't already have it, buy The Ultimate LEGO Book. Then read pages 32-37. Brian (24 years ago, 12-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
I didn't know there was a Lego book. Would Chapters carry it, or do I have to order it from LEGO? (...) (24 years ago, 12-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
I've never heard of Chapters, but the the book should be available at book stores like Waldon's, B. Dalton, and the like. If they don't have it they can probably order it. I'm pretty sure I've seen it at some online retailer's web sites as well. (...) (24 years ago, 12-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
Chapters is a big Canadian book store that has real life locations and a website at www.chapters.ca. I went there to look up the LEGO book, and they can get it! (...) to (...) pages (...) (24 years ago, 12-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)
 
  Re: Bulk Sales in the 21st Century
 
(...) The ISBN is 0-7894-4691-X for the Ultimate LEGO Book. Published in the USA by DK Publishing Inc. Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley. Just an FYI for those looking for it. Mike All other themes are just spare parts for Castle! (24 years ago, 14-Jul-00, to lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.general)

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