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Kai_Mao on 25 August 2017
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sethnintendo said:
Kai_Mao said:

I didn't mean to compare, just saying that Nintendo can't do everything.

Since you say you work at contract manufacturing, how does the process work? How does a company just put out like 5 million units at once (for example) as a first shipment?

Well there is obviously a ramp up time.  I'm sure the decision to go forward with the SNES was made sometime last year when it became obvious to Nintendo that their was high demand from their retro consoles/games.  I'm sure it is probably the same board being used that was used for the NES Classic (which it is kind of funny that the processing power of the board is better than the 3DS). 

So what has changed?  Basically just the outside plastic shell which I'm sure the molds were complete on those within a small time frame. 

New product you have protoruns (prototypes) to try and work all the kinks out but since the board probably didn't change then there is no need for protoruns unless they changed contract companies, moved it to a different factory or expanded it to multiple factories.  They could expand it to more contract manufacturers (there are shit load such as Foxconn, Flex, Jabil, etc).  This board probably is very basic and easy to produce compared to other boards such as some server boards so expanding it to multiple factories shouldn't be too hard and protoruns at those factories would be less than a few weeks considering the board isn't that complex.  If the board was complex or new design then a protorun can last months or even up to a year trying to work the kinks out but that isn't the case for this instance.

After protoruns are done they then go into a ramp up mode.  That can follow with working 24/7 using either 2 or 3 shifts.  This ramp up mode can go a few months or more but if I had to guess they should have been in full production mode by no later than early Spring of this year.  They should have millions of these produced by now. 

Then they probably produced millions but it still sold out whether it be bots, actual customers, or what not. how much in the millions do you think they should've made?

Not trying to sound ignorant or dismissive, just trying to get an idea of how it works. Not saying Nintendo isn't in the wrong, but there's usually more to it. Guess saying it's a holiday item doesn't help matters as demand goes higher even if millions are made.