Originally shared by LulzBot
Today, we have some big news-- The LulzBot KITTAZ is now available for purchase on our store at LulzBot.com! The LulzBot KITTAZ 3D printer is an assembly required kit 3D printer built on the proven platform of the best-selling, fully assembled LulzBot TAZ. KITTAZ is an ideal tool for educators, hackers, and anyone that likes to make things.�
This 3D printer kit includes clear labeling and packaging by our team in Loveland, Colorado, USA for a streamlined assembly experience. To make your assembly even easier, we take care of the wire harnessing and crimping so you can start 3D printing sooner.�
Find out more about the LulzBot KITTAZ 3D printer kit by watching our product introduction video: http://youtu.be/Frpl1NQS2VU
That is a nice looking bot.
Very, Nice 
I’ve been impressed with extruded aluminum ever since I started installing 80/20 in storefronts years ago. Kittaz’s open-design is great for instruction and troubleshooting. Now, if the price is right…
it totally is. If you go on their site and poke around a bit the BOM with what it costs them to build it is in plain veiw. They are making money on it, but not much. Not much at all.
@Joe_Spanier Thanks, I will. I appreciate their openness.
@Joe_Spanier I’m not sure that $675/ea in profit is “not much”. Not unreasonable, but not low at all.
Also their BOM could use a lot of optimization - I hope that’s not their actual suppliers. Hint: If you’re using McMaster on a high-volume BOM, you’re doing it wrong.
@Tim_Elmore That’s gross, not net, they might be lucky to see half of that to the bottom line. Low is a realitive comparison. You guys seem to have done well with Kickstarter but most of the the new players that get funded don’t price their offerings to be sustainable for the business in that they can’t scale past one or two people as they don’t include real business costs. Among other things. The value add for this product is in reducing the learning curve and providing a support structure and piece of mind for the buyer. They can spend $900 and get frustrated and not finish the build or spend $1600 and have something they use and like. I think that’s pretty good value.
@Tim_Elmore you have to remember that doesnt factor in labor, overhead, operating costs etc. I bet actual profit seen is less than a couple hundred dollars. When looking at building printers out of your garage with your buddies that might be sustainable, but for a real company, with salaries and employees with benefits and marketing etc, its really not much. I was always taught by my small business friends if you aren’t making 100% profit on what you sell you are loosing money.
Not to mention, I priced building this kit in single part quantities as an individual a while back. Came out close to the retail cost of a full TAZ 4. If you buy this kit you win, hands down.
Oh, I definitely understand the difference between gross and net profit. I’ve been running Filastruder for a while now, and volumes are on par with Lulzbot. Labor is practically negligible with kits, maybe an hour total. I’m just saying it is a reasonable figure, not excessive, not low either.
@Tim_Elmore I’m familiar with what you are doing, hence my reference to your KS funding. My point stands that one can’t make a judgement if a margin is high or low based on anything but knowing the cost structure of the company. One companies volume relative to anyone else’s in and of itself is not relevant. What matters are the particulars of each situation. Which is greater in scope than the labor involved in fulfilling a kit. Having employees adds a entire dimension to the equation and when you get 10 or 20 of them it’s almost a full time gig just to manage the overhead of the employees.
When a startup is small, at only a few people the costs on the edges don’t seem to be that big. You can see all of the product and the few that work there in one room. Once you scale out it’s a different story. Once one gets the perspective of working in a much larger environment those costs become more apparent, greater and more critical to be factored into the cost model as a whole.
