4. What happens if production is delayed?

This situation can have two different causes:

• the project is taking longer than expected, due to delays in studies, prototype manufacturing, testing, commissioning of production resources, or corrective action due to unsatisfactory validations;

• the customer may itself be behind schedule: this may be the case if the company is an intermediate supplier, in relation to the end customer.

In the case of the previous figure, the production start-up delay is 1.2 years; the breakeven point is shifted by at least one year, and usually a little more (here 1.4 years), because it is impossible to "freeze" the project completely (and avoid depreciation of production equipment): a minimum team will be kept in place, which increases the effective entry ticket.

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