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[Jamin Lynch]

This is how I feel when I place orders with 3 different manufactures for standard items only to find out several days later they haven't shipped and nobody can tell me when they will be available. "Presently out of stock." 

It seems like this is all too common these days.  Doesn't any manufacture ever keep their standard core items on the shelf?

IMO, there are items that should always be in stock.

If they are often sold out maybe should increase production on those items?   

Rant over.

[lindsay Dean]

Yeah good luck with that,
most suppliers are running so lean on stock
 they frustrate the buyer.

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

It's in the pipeline...

https://youtu.be/yshDF-NMWK8

[Jonathan Johnson]

Welcome to "lean manufacturing" -- when "just in time" means it's always late.

The idea is that you stock nothing. Instead, you manufacture to meet demand. You order your raw materials to arrive just as that step in the manufacturing process begins. That way, you don't have a bunch of money tied up in inventory, especially inventory that you don't have an immediate use or market for. By not having capital tied up in inventory, you can more quickly respond to changing market conditions.

This all assumes that your customer ALWAYS knows two weeks (or whatever) in advance of needing something. The problem is the world doesn't work that way. 90% or more of end users don't plan ahead; when they want something they want it NOW. That means that somebody, somewhere along the line HAS to keep SOMETHING in inventory.

So "lean manufacturing" sounds great on paper, but in practice it means "always late." Because end users don't anticipate their needs two to ten weeks out.

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

And then there's vaporware...

[Lee Douglas]

It's in the pipeline...

https://youtu.be/yshDF-NMWK8

Shouldn't that be Slow Boat from China?

Totally agree.  When they make widgets and only a couple versions of them where the design, version and/or model number has not changed in decades and they still manage to not have them in stock.

Worse yet is when they know that they're out of stock, but you still wait two to three weeks and finally call to see where they're at, only to find out that they were out of stock and someone should have told you.  The frustration is real.  And all too common. 

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

Shouldn't that be Slow Boat from China?

Totally agree.  When they make widgets and only a couple versions of them where the design, version and/or model number has not changed in decades and they still manage to not have them in stock.

Worse yet is when they know that they're out of stock, but you still wait two to three weeks and finally call to see where they're at, only to find out that they were out of stock and someone should have told you.  The frustration is real.  And all too common.

For the last 15-20 years it seems that the yearly cycle parallels the auto industry:

Market hype starts a couple months after tax time, delivery/release after Labor Day, tail end of inventory (or flow in the pipeline) happens between the middle of January and the end of February.

Parts?  Welcome to modular world! 

[John Roberts {JR}]

Three different manufacturers (they actually make the SKUs) are out of stock and and nobody can tell you when they will have them?  Perhaps you are not talking to the right people. Dealers were able to find me at Peavey when some of my hot products were out of stock. (I resisted the temptation to forward those calls to the factory manager I was fighting with to build more mixers.)

That sounds like an opportunity for at least one of the manufacturers.

I recall a time, long long ago, when Peavey stayed in constant back order because the dealers anticipated increasing sales and bought to hold JIC inventory in their stores. Peavey had the luxury of always having a home for their full production they built as they could increase that production.... but alas that world changed well before the end of last century.   

Apparently you felt no need to have any inventory in stock either. 

JR

[Geoff Doane]

Apparently you felt no need to have any inventory in stock either. 

Touché!

I hope Jamin isn't telling us that Shure is out of stock on SM58s (that would be a dark day)!

GTD

[Joseph D. Macry]

Touché!

I hope Jamin isn't telling us that Shure is out of stock on SM58s (that would be a dark day)!

GTD

I saw Shure advertising the 50th Anniversary Edition of the SM58.
I called two distributors who get us Shure items, they both said "Limited run, stock is depleted, no more to come." (The 50th Anniv of SM58 was in 2016.)
So I tried buying it directly from Shure, full price.
The mic arrived within 4 days.

[ProSoundWeb Community]