Price or Quality, Apparently You Cannot Have Both...

It's funny how two companies in the same line of business, separated by only 25 miles, can have such a diametrically opposed view of things. Having spent a fair bit of time out and about visiting clients recently it has become clear that there are two distinct camps that you can put most of the service operations market in the UK into.

One train of thought is that the market demands quality and service above all other considerations. The other is 100% confident that the product is a commodity and that price is the only thing that matters to it's customers.

What are we talking about? RP models of course, it's a debate that has been rumbling on since I first got involved with RP back in 96, there didn't seem to be any middle ground then and it seems that there still isn't.

Your choice if you buy RP seems to be good quality models at realistic prices or lumps of resin or sintered plastic at an ever decreasing price. 

Who is driving this? RP buyers with decreasing budgets, or RP bureaux with spare capacity, high targets and a rapacious desire to sell at any cost, and by any I mean the lowest. 

Some say that the only way the RP&M industry will continue to grow and continue be adopted by new users is if the product is of sufficient quality to be of use to the designer or do we put too much store in the finish, it is a prototype after all.....