Metal Suppliers Help Large Companies Reach Economies of Scale So That You Don't Have To

by John Vantine⁽³⁰⁾
http://www.johnvantine.com

Certain top-of-the-line metal suppliers are prepared to meet the needs of all types of customers, from large construction firms down to weekend craft hobbyists. These types of businesses allow customers to get the parts and materials they need in raw form. But many other resources and products are produced on an industrial level, at economies of scale that make them inaccessible to consumers except in the final form of mass-produced consumer goods. Which makes the story of 'The Toaster Project' all the more remarkable.

The Toaster Project was a quest to answer the question: "where do all the products that fill our lives come from?". British author Thomas Thwaites sought to answer this question by disassembling a store-bought toaster, identifying its key components, and then finding places where he could procure those components in raw form so as to make a completely new toaster by hand, from scratch.

The self-imposed restrictions of the project led Thwaites to take some pretty extreme measures. For example, in order to make the grilling element and the interior spring for popping a finished piece of toast, he needed steel. But he could not simply visit steel suppliers to buy those materials, since steel is an alloy of iron, and iron comes from iron ore. Staying true to the project, Thwaites personally mined iron ore and then smelted it in a home-size smelter, using instructions from a 16th century manual of metallurgy. He went to similarly great lengths to procure other materials for a toaster, such as plastic, mica, and nickel. All told, the project cost the equivalent of $1,800 - far more than the $6 he paid for the original, mass-produced toaster. And ultimately, the toaster worked for about 5 seconds before overheating and melting into an unusable lump of metal and plastic.

In the spirit of the toaster project, what are some other items composed out of metal that can be made by hand? Adherents of the Do It Yourself (DIY) movement pride themselves on making both common and specialized items by hand, often from base or raw materials. They've proven that many things can be made with steel that has not yet been mass manufactured into a consumer product. For example, successful DIY projects involving steel include tables, sculptures, decorative art, and functional home parts like railings, screens, and overhangs. These projects are a good example of how we don't have go as far as The Toaster Project in order to make useful items - we can visit our trusted metal suppliers and get the right parts and services there.

But let's face it - some things are just better made at economies of scale with industrial steel. For a good example, think back to the kitchen, which contains many utensils and cutlery made out of steel. Like the The Toaster Project, it would be inconvenient and implausible to make an entire set of utensils or a finely-sharpened chef's knife one at a time. So the next time you visit a metal supplier, think about The Toaster Project and how fortunate we are to have advanced goods made out of complex materials at affordable prices. Because of industrial metal suppliers, companies can make these goods so that you don't have to.

Metal suppliers are a crucial link in the chain between large-scale producers and consumers. One man's attempt to hand-make a toaster shows how important this link really is.

Article submitted Wednesday, February 08, 2012 & read 1 times.

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