Reference no: EM132464471

You have decided to enter the retail 3D printing market. Customers will send you their computerized plans and you will "print" the 3D object. You research various options for a certain class of jobs and discover that the machines with the lowest upfront costs have more for your time in pre-processing the plans. Expensive machines have software that does most of that work for you. You have identified 3 options

Option 1: Purchase the Ultimaker for a cost of $4,499 and a per-unit processing cost of $7.50 per item.

Option 2: Purchase the BuilderPrenium for a cost of $6,499 and a per-unit processing cost of $5.00 per item.

Option 3: Purchase an ExOne S-Print for $9,999 and a per-unit processing cost of $3.00 per item.

The costs include all scheduled maintenance, material, and parts for a year and you realize that after a year you will need to replace the machine. You believe that you will sell 1500 items printed from this class of printers will sell them for a fixed price of $25.00.

Submit a crossover chart. This is the graph where you compare the cost of various process choices against the volume produced. The x-axis should have the quantity of printed items. The y-axis should have total cost. Each of the three options should be on the same graph. The graph should be scaled so it shows the lines cross.

Now its time to do some calculations. The breakeven volume between two options is the quantity were the costs are equal. It can be estimated with the crossover chart, where the lines cross.

What is the breakeven volume between option 1 and option 2? You should calculate this answer, but be sure you verify with your graph. Express as a whole number.