What actually costs the money is tooling up the production line to produce them.

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Tooling up these custom-made molds, which wear out after 100, 000 injections, is a big part of Omni's cost structure.

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Rapid tooling-up of China's manufacturing sector means a massive demand for energy - one of the factors which has kept world oil prices sky-high for most of this year.

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Mr. Hackenberg said up to 44 separate vehicles will be built on the MQB, resulting in materials savings of 20% and savings on tooling and facilities of up to 30%.

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With so many potential combinations, it's tough to predict what will sell, so Chrysler (and its suppliers) have to gear up with parts and tooling to build every possible variation.

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Growing up in the early 1970s I spent my August summer evenings tooling around on my banana seat bicycle and playing outside games such as hide and seek.

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Clever software helps Blueswarf.com's customers crank up factory output by configuring mills and lathes with the best combination of tooling.

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