PART $3$: PROBLEMS WITH SOURCED

LawnBots decided to use Sourced as their manufacturing partner. All the contracts have been set up and

preliminary manufacturing has begun while the campaign is starting. This decision was based on the cost per

unit being so much lower at only $$\frac{380}{?}$ unit, instead of the approximately $$\frac{400}{?}$ unit estimate from Electronics

Benchmark. Sourced recognizes shipping costs are high but at a much lower price per unit, LawnBots could

make huge savings if the product really took off.

The product did, in fact, take off. Multiple tech blogs and YouTubers noticed the campaign and started building

hype for the Automated Lawn Fighter, so the campaign started off a roaring success. The team was elated as

it became the fastest campaign to fund in Fundfunder history. LawnBots raised more than $$12$ million within

the first hour online and, ultimately, raised approximately $$21$ million in total funding with a total of $21,037$

people backing the project. The team was ecstatic. But when the team received the final bill from Sourced, the

LawnBots team was a bit confused. It all seemed off. The new bill was much higher than expected, so LawnBots

was making far less than expected at only around $$1\mathrm{.}7$ million in profits. They ran the numbers based on your

estimates and thought it should be closer to $$2\mathrm{.}7$ million. Since they had the most successful project of all time,

how could they have lost approximately $$1$ million?

The following is the estimated final bill from Sourced:

The LawnBots' team is confused by this, as they used some of the numbers in the full estimates that you and your

firm provided: why are the costs so different than expected, and why is the profit not what they thought it should

be$?$ The LawnBots' team said they used estimates from numbers included in the comparisons that your firm

created based on $$380$ of costs per unit for the Sourced bid. The team used these numbers based on the new totals

sold and felt there should have been a much higher net profit. They have asked you to break down why the profits

were so much less than expected when using that core $$380/$unit estimate scaled to the actual production number.