If i can get a printer, assembler, and packaging automated - thats huge. No one in the market is doing this, and would let local bands and artists order small quantaties or single cds, but i realize i probably have to engineer a madman machine to get it working.
No one's doing it for a reason - because it doesn't make sense.
There's printers that will spit out thousands of CD's for you an hour without a problem. They'll print the CD's, and create the packaging.
Now what it seems like you want is a system to take the CD's, put it in the package, and shrink wrap it. The reason that's not automated yet is because it makes not sense to automate.
The labor cost to pick up a CD, place it in a case, and shrink wrap it is probably 30 seconds.
So 60 minutes / 30 seconds = 120 CD's per hour * 80% efficiency = 96 CD's per hour that an employee can package.
Your cost for an employee depends on where you set up your distribution location. Want to go ultra cheap? Set up in Mexico across the border from San Diego if your intent is U.S. distribution. Pay $4 per hour. Therefore $0.04 per CD in terms of packaging. If your market can't sustain a $0.04 packaging cost, then you need to find a different market.
Now, if you're hellbent on your idea, then go to a show like this: PACK EXPO International | Packaging Trade Show Chicago 2018. Find someone that will sell you a robot that will grab your CD, put it in a case, and send it on the assembly line for shrink wrapping. Your cost to get that automated (if the technology exists), will be around $100k. That's 2,500,000 CD's you have to sell for it to be worth it. If the technology doesn't exist yet, then add a zero to that number.
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