Replies to post #75566 on Trans-Pacific Aerospace Company Inc. (fka TPAC)

[brucedale]

now I see your point. Because they are making parts for someone else, to someone else's design then somehow those don't count. But if you look at anyone's bearing catalog, they all make parts that are someone else's design. The design is from Boeing, or SAE, or Airbus and so forth. Bearing makers are like most other machine shops. Someone gives them a blueprint and they make the parts. Like guys in the construction business, they may make houses, but they make them from someone else's blueprints. Does that mean that they really are not homebuilders? An architect designs the house. He doesn't build it. A structural engineer reviews the plans and makes changes. A draftsman prepares the blueprints. A contractor builds the home. A kitchen guy installs cabinets, etc. But are you saying that the guy who builds the house isn't making anything or that because it isn't his design it somehow negates his work. It seems that TPAC is on the same playing field as all the other bearing manufacturers or makers or whatever you want to call them. To me, that's all that matters. Can they make whatever and can they ship whatever and can they get paid for whatever it is that they do? If they can then who cares what we all call it? If they can't then it is all a farce. Time will tell.

[brucedale]

Well I hope it's not $5000. I am in aerospace. I get a print from the customer. I estimate labor, non-recurring costs, tooling, engineering, raw material, cutters needed, indirect labor, SG&A and so forth. I then give the customer a price. He either accepts it or rejects it. I build profit into it. If I am building it off of his blueprint, it is actually cheaper for me to do it that way because I don't have to develop and test the part to see if it works. I just have to "MITTFBP" (make it to the f'ing blueprint). If he is only building in a $5000 profit on a $100k order then he has a serious problem. But do you know what his profit is? Do you know that it is only $5000? According to the business plan it should be in the neighborhood of 70% gross profit. So his net profit should be around 35-50%. Not bad if you can get the work.
This is a tough business to enter and even more tough to do it from offshore. If they can pull it off in this short of a time period (yes, in aerospace 6 years is a short time) and be successful then they will accomplish something unprecedented. I think they still have work to do to get to where it is successful. But putting a few bucks onto it and waiting to see what happens is not unreasonable in my eyes. If they are right then it will be a good return. If they aren't then I haven't lost a lot.