Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
Do you guys think/know for sure if there will be the possibility to configure yourself a model or will it be the 2(here in germany) pre-configured models only?
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I'm looking forward to that! Thanks, nutman!
If I were to buy a Z from Sony online, open it up, and not like the way the SSD is connected, could I still return it under the 30 return policy, or could Sony tell that I had opened up the laptop and, if so, would that void my ability to return it?
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The above is patently misleading.
What happens with assemble-to-order/configure-to-order (or CTO) models is that a 99% pre-assembled-in-Japan Z-series laptop in the specified color and containing the specified CPU and screen is brought forward and the "assembler in San Diego, CA" plugs in the customer-specified RAM and a couple of other configurations asked for by the customer, and out it goes to the end-customer, with a "Made in USA" tag now affixed to the product.
That is not "assembled in San Diego, CA" !
As in my explanation in one of my above posts, Subaru Imprezas are 100% assembled in Japan and the country of origin, of 100% of the parts, is Japan. But, if a customer, during the factory ordering process, asks for $20 wheel-locks to be added to the same $35,000 car, the wheel-locks don't get added, in the Japanese plant (Gunma, Japan) but gets added in at the port in the USA, when the $35,000 car lands at the US dock.
But strangely, what happens is that when the $20 wheel-locks (which came in with the car when it shipped over from Japan) are added to the $35,000 fully-Japanese-assembled car, the "Final Assembly" is now indicated as "Made in USA" as opposed to "Made in Japan". It would be patently misleading for someone to call this as "Made in USA", even though technically the final assembly of that $20 part, did happen in the USA, when the technician unscrewed 4 bolts and screwed in the wheel-locks in each one of the wheels. Makes sense ?
To sum up, the Z-series is one of the Sony models that is "Made in Japan". It does not matter whether it is a CTO model or whether it is a pre-configured model. The CTO option probably saves Sony some import taxes and such, by allowing them to technically classify the product as "Made in USA", even though from a practical standpoint, it was entirely assembled in Japan (except for a couple of "plug-ins" that got added on in San Diego). -
Exactly, and with one of the "Foreign components" being, a near fully-assembled Z-series laptop, imported in from Japan - ready for the couple of plug-ins to be added during the CTO process, before being shipped to the end-customer with the tag "Made in USA".
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Isn't the price still better than the current Vaio Z series? I mean even the base new Z notebook is better than the base current Z series at the starting price. No?
IMHO, even by upping specs to about $2,400, it is still way better than my current Vaio Z notebook that I paid for about $2,350 (price without docking station, extended ADH warranty, etc.) less than a year ago with the following specs:
Intel P9600 2.66GHz CPU
Premium Carbon Fiber lid
4GB (2x2GB) RAM
320GB 7,200rpm HDD
DVD burner
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
Standard battery
The rest standard... -
I'm very sure that the CTO models are fully assembled in the San Diego plant in CA with all of the notebook components/parts imported from other countries. I'm sure Nixon, who works at Sony, can give us a brief overview on this.
Given your logic of tax savings for Sony, isn't it cheaper to ship over all the components in bulk & assembled them from scratch? I don't mean to sound rude & I hope I do not offend any non-Americans but the thing is that it's not like us, Americans, are not able to assemble notebooks. Most of these things, even the assembly of cars as you mentioned, all go through assembly lines, with some minor tweaks here & there to conform to different specs. Furthermore, since you talk about saving some money on Sony's part, is it really cheaper to pay for labor doing the assembly in Japan than it is to do so here in the U.S.?
I doubt that is the case. If it is, then those Japanese car manufacturers such as Honda & Toyota wouldn't have wanted to build any car assembly plants (that only cater to the U.S. market) here in the U.S. at all.
Maybe I'm missing something. Which components/parts are even Made in USA? These days, isn't almost all the components/parts MADE in China? -
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Is the San Diego facility a highly specialized plant with the ability to do fine assembly of precision components ? Let me hazard a guess - no ! Assembling a product like the Z-series is not the same as slapping together some components in a Dell or HP desktop replacement type machine.
If you go through the way the Z is put together (the interviews with the developers and the multiple layers in which the fine components are packed into the VERY scarce real-estate) and the way the internals are assembled, there is a lot of "hands-on" in the highly specialized Japanese plant where the assembly is done, since a machine/robot simply will not be able to place the precision components into the highly restricted space and needs highly specialized human hands with precise attention to detail.
There is not even a remote chance in hell that they are going to bring in all of those miniaturized components separately into the country as a CKD (completely knocked down) kit and then re-do the precision assembly in a CTO assembly location like San Diego. You can take that to the bank !
Bottomline, in a CTO product, what kinds of choices are a customer allowed to make ? The RAM, the CPU, the type of screen and a couple of other bolt-on knick-knacks, that can be put together by removing a couple of screws at the back of the machine, and leave the rest of the machine un-touched. That itself should tell a very compelling story on what happens in San Diego.....you don't need Nixon to confirm that.
As a person who operates in a corporation where assemble-to-order, make-to-order, make-to-stock and the most complex of all, engineer-to-order type of manufacturing is practiced, I would say that in San Diego, they would be stocking some near-finished configurations of these laptops based on their internal sales forecasts on what will sell (eg. Z-series/F-series with non-HD screen and i5-540M CPU or Z-series with full-HD screen and i7-620M CPU etc), along with a separate inventory of the fast-moving bolt-on components like RAM etc and as soon as the CTO order comes through, a technician takes off a couple of screws and "plugs in" the choices asked for by the customer, followed by a secondary check done at a separate "QA" area, where they would scan through and make sure that the configuration of the finished product matches what was asked for by the customer, and then moves the product to shipping, with the "Made in USA" tag affixed.
New Z model with Intel Core i5 CPU
Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by exetlaios, Jan 2, 2010.
