$$$$ in action interesting

I heard from a friend who visited there (and bought a laptop) that Dell has an outlet at their headquarters where computers can be purchased for dirt cheap. When I'm ready to buy another computer I'll be headed over there for a road trip, or maybe when I get a little extra cash and have a slow weekend.

The Outlet Brick and Mortar store is closed, I believe. Has been for a few years from what I'm told.

140,000 to 150,000 notebook per day? Wow! I wonder what it's like near Christmas...

and back to college time. great find, really interesting.

The story says 140-150 thousand computers, not notebooks. The notebooks probably make up about a third of that 140-150 thousand, maybe a little more. Still a hell of alot of laptops made every stinking day. If that estimate is right, Dell sells approximately 55 millions computers a year, not including Christmas rush(which I'm sure adds another 10-20 million). For some reason I thought it would be more, but that's still alot of PC's.

Great read though! It's interesting to see what our notebooks go through before we get them. I wonder how many laptops those guys can assemble in a day? I'd think they could probably do 2-3 systems per hour(more for desktops), so maybe 24 in an 8 hour shift? If that's the case, and they sell say 50 thousand notebooks a day, they'd need about 700 workers(3 eight hour shifts) making them. Maybe they can do a few more an hour, they probably have all sorts of jigs and special tools to get everything done quickly. Even if they doubled it to 6, at 48 per shift they'd still need over 300 workers to pump them out. Interesting when you think about it. I wonder how many they really get done an hour?

Awesome pics!! Ever wonder how much that plane is worth when fully loaded up(including the worth of the plane itself)? I bet it's alot! I'm suprised Dell didn't put their logo on the plane? I would have thought they'd just buy the plane and make it their own? Maybe it's cheaper in the long run to charter it, I dunno. Cool pics either way!

Back in the 90's a 747-400 was going for about 140 million. Don't know what one is worth today. It is actually cheaper to charter than to buy/lease a aircraft like that. It takes a lot of support and overhead to operate an aircraft like that.

Great article and pictures.

Just to update your info, this is how much a new 747-400 Cargo costs in 2006 $ in Millions:

747-400/ -400ER Freighter 219.5 -- 247.0

And yes it is cheaper to charter a plane than own one. The person paying the charter fee doesn't have to worry about maintenence and making sure all the chacks are taken care of. Just to pre-flight a 747 takes about 8 hours and you have to pay the people to do that. After that it's cheaper to charter.

I'm a mechanic for a cargo airline, so I know a little bit about what you are talking about. Airplanes are not cheap. I have WORKED a 747-400 a little back in the early 90's. I'm still amazed at how big they are.

It doesn't take 8 hours to pre flight a 747. Airlines would be losing money left and right. When it lands, it takes about 30 minutes to unload pax and cargo. Cleaning and refueling takes another hour or so, the next crew jumps in and starts loading the FMS, doing preflight checks, etc. Loading pax and cargo for the return is another 30-45 minutes and out we go. Normally about 2-3 hours turnaround. Remember, a plane is not making money on the ground...

That sounds like Friedman from 'The World is Flat'.

Well, I really doubt Dell charters the wohle plane. China Airlines is probably the only Cargo division that flies the B744 from Malaysia to Tenessee, so they just load it up like regular cargo. Or I may never know. Just my thoughts on how Cargo Divisions usually are.

Why isn't this a sticky?