over the last couple of years I've noticed this...so many of these large companies that supply us with the parts that we need spend large sums of money on advertising but when it comes down to filing the order they can't meet the demand....they use words like backorder or we are waiting for shipment and various other excuses. The ones that I have dealt with that don't make these kind of excuses are SPEEDWAY, SOUTHERN RODS, PORTELLS RADIATOR, HOLLEY, JEGS. I have the damnest time getting the others ones to fill orders,return phone calls or to just conduct business like they really want to make money...don't they get it or do they just don't give a shit?
you want to make a bet that speedway dont back order stuff, im still waiting on parts from them and i call them once a week to check on the items
all of those people get parts from somewhere... Almost everyone is stocking less and less because the economy is hurting. Well, the same goes for the manufacturers. You can't go and blame the distribution houses when they have trouble getting the parts as well.
ive had stuff back ordered from Speedway before..There good about it..but they have those issues too.
A lot of companies do not stockpile items anymore due to lean/ 6 sigma / TOC **Theory of constraints** atmosphere. Its a theory of a pull type manufacturing., or just in time manufacturing/supply..does it work.. yes when it is conformed with. Was developed by the founder of Toyota in the 40 & 50. Many larger corporations use this manufacturing theory now days..Boeing, Lockheed Martin, GM, and For to name a few. Good example of this your local grocery store. The push for it..save money, but in the end doesn't really work unless you maintain your buffers ( assets on the shelf) & know to a tee what your demand is. Saves money cause your not over producing or storing a large supply of items..along with a ton of other who's and haa's.
When I was able to work, I did Kaizen-Six Sigma-Lean Process control at the manufacturing level as a Production/Plant Manager and Troubleshooter and Scheduler. The problem you ran into was always purchasing still holding back on riding the crests and troughs everyone else had to, so you ended up with truncated production runs. This leads to back orders and cost center blowouts. It wasn't necessarily failing to stockpile, as it was refusing to accept the fact they had to look further up the road to operate in synchronization with all of the other cost centers. As things always do, they end up costing the same. They were buying things and incurring the same costs, they just were too much of the wrong things and not managing their logistics properly. The only victim? The customer, because the agents appear to be thrifty and lean purchasers. And eventually demand evens out when people buy elsewhere and you go out of business. Usually when you get a back order it because someone failed to get tapped into the process properly. As we go more foreign it gets worse, a container is six weeks in many cases, and if it has the wrong stuff on it you are boned for a season and will be grabbing high cost alternatives,seconds, or ignoring customer demands and making excuses. Its a high wire act that shouldn't be happening. And they blame it on lean manufacturing when it is really just lazy logistical management or indifference on the part of purchasing. A little insight into the system I hope.
One place I've never had a problem with is McMaster-Carr. It's an industrial supply place. They always seem to have everything, even really obscure little hardware parts. Their website tells you whether it's in stock or not. If they do have to backorder something, they give you a date that you can count on. I've ordered tons of stuff from them over the years for work and for hot rods, and they've never messed up an order. Often I'll order stuff late in the day, and it's on my doorstep the next day. I heard they have their own UPS office, so stuff goes out the same night you place the order. I like doing business with places like that.
Yeah, what BillBallingerSr said! ! ! ....If we only would listen to what the customer really would like to say they really wanted.
well,,THAT IS TRUE!!! ,,,but my problem and i'm sure i'm not the only one,,,, ,,,is when you call them and BEFORE you order,you ask them they have it in stock,and they say YES.,and then a week ,or two weeks later,,it hasnt arrived,,,,and then you call to find out whats up,,and they tell you it's on BACKORDER,,well,,then ,,its a PROBLEM!!!!
I Think This A Major Rant, We Try To Keep Enough Inventory To Meet Any Record Demand At Any Time Of The Year. Although We Do Run Out At Times, We Try To Call The Customer And Tell Him The Issue. We Never Charge A Cc/card Unless We Can Ship It That Day. If We Do B/o A Item The Shipping Charges Are The Same As If We Shipped It All The Same Day As One Order. We Also Gaurentee That The Box Arrives In Good Shape, If It Gets Lost Or Damaged We Pay. Our Big Problem Is New Product Introducitons. Getting All The Bugs Worked Out Of Product Is Just Not Very Predictable And Can Cause Us Very Bad Delays, Especially If We Had To Included The Part Into The Catalog Cause The Catalog Was Being Printed. We Try To Guess When We Will Be Done But It Seems That We Always Late. But Then We Put Some Stuff In The Catalog And There Was No Demand So It Gets Dropped. I Call Tell That Very Few Of Our Dealers Actually Stock Anything, Most Order From Us After They Sell It To You Guys And The Dealer Trys To Blame Us For The Delay. We Have Had Many Call From Custoemers Of Our Dealers Asking Use When We Were Going To Gets Parts In Stock, But Then We Say We Have Pallets Of This Parts Ready And The Dealer Is Slow To Order. We Try To Treat Customers The Way We Want To Be Treated Ems Custoemr Service
I've bought LOTS from SPEEDWAY and I totally disagree with you but maybe your luck has been different from mine...sorry...also the fellow that mentioned McMaster-carr is an example of a company that offers superb service with a huge variety of product...my whole point to this is companies that don't pay attention to the pulse of any market are doomed if rough times come at them hard. I want our companies to succeed but I think we have too many chiefs and not enough indians. the chiefs are busy kissing ass and having meetings(many trees tend to die) we as workers in this country have become lazy..we are more concerned about days off and vacations than taking care of our jobs.
i agree 110% with you,,,,it really amazes me,the way some of these companys run their buisnesses,,,dont they understand how fucked the economy is and that we dont have to buy from them with so many other sources,now,,,,???,, in the past two months i have delt with THREE companys that either sell thier product or specialize in selling a certain type of restoration product.. all three of them took my hard earned money,,all three made promises on the phone during our transactions,,,and all three could not follow through,,,2 out of the 3 got mad at ME when i questioned them,,,one of them told me it was "part of the game",,only the 3rd company actually tried to make shit right,,,,needless to say,,those two out of three companys i mentioned,,i will never deal with again...
my last rant...I refuse to mention the company but they are huge in OUR MARKET....for weeks they have put me off because they cannot get the product and the parts that I am buying are the backbone of their company. I just can't believe it....all I can do is wait.
No doubt that is a problem! With my place, if there is a missing part we call customers and let them know about it. No sense pissing off anyone. "It's part of the game." Sad but true. They are just taking the money and playing the numbers game with parts they don't have. They figure that some of the people will wait it out and not demand a refund. So those are sales and money in their pockets. If they had told the customers they didnt have the parts... they wouldn't have gotten the order.
I have bought alot from Speedway and have had very good luck with them,the worst companey i have delt with is So-Cal for back orders and poor comunication with there customers,I do like alot of there stuff.It is always best to try and buy straight for the manufacture if you can, the problems are always worse with middle men
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