William Elliot wrote on Fri, 22 Mar 2019 00:02:18
-0700:

On Thu, 21 Mar 2019, Fred J. McCall wrote:

I've seen from several sources that SpaceX has apparently junked all
their fabrication tools for composite structures (at a cost of tens of
millions of dollars). Apparently betting the ranch on the new steel
construction plan with no future path to switch to composites.

Why didn't they just mothball the composite tools?


Probably because they have no intention of ever using it and storing
things costs money. That's the whole thrust behind what is called
"Just In Time Manufacturing", which is pretty much how all
manufacturing works these days. Minimize parts storage and Work In
Progress (which also has storage costs). Same thing with tools you
never intend to use. If they had any commercial value to anyone but
SpaceX they would probably have sold them, but if you're not building
a composite BFR/BFS they're not useful.


--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw