Technical Comp Cams Disappointment

I've always had good success in my dealings with Comp Cams products and customer service. But that was in the past before the pandemic we ain't supposed to talk about here on HAMB. And I'll say no more about that except that what we are seeing now in our dealings with lots of companies is difficulties caused by the interference in the normal supply chain.
Combine that aspect with the fact that there most likely isn't a big demand for 500 cid Caddy cams, even in normal times, and things get difficult.

 

IMHO, buying a custom roller cam from Jegs/Summit/Honest Charley's is like buying anything from HomeDepot/Lowes/Menards...they are nothing more than a middleman and do nothing more than required to get your dollar. There are plenty of small cam companies (as well as other parts) that sell direct and the 'little' guy is whom I prefer to support with my dollars.
I have lost track of whether or not you ever received your cam. If you don't have it and Comp can't provide a solid production date then I'd say start over.

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It's possible that Comp Cams informed Summit of the delay and Summit was the one that didn't tell you.

 

Summit might have more pull with the number of cams they purchase, but that sure doesn't mean they are given any more attention than the individual, or treated better. Since they aren't the end user they rarely will get excited if the news given by the cam maker is disappointing, like the end user will. And Summit sales is likely busy enough they may not make the call promptly, or they may just take the first response they get from the maker without delving deeper into why?
I see nothing at all wrong with contacting Comp Cams, and getting the story straight from them, vs. 2nd hand. And getting the story related directly, complete with the we can't do anything attitude, will certainly help the end user decide if he even wants to deal with that company again.
And word of mouth from car guys really travels. A lot of companies have found out that pissing one guy off can really snowball.

 

Following that logic maybe you should call the blank manufacturer or the mining company too.

Sounds like you knew the answer about your cam order before you called.

 

I’m sure many know why companies use JIT, right? I’ll try to explain


If I have xxx amount of inventory, at the last quarter of the cycle, I have to pay taxes on that inventory. It’s an asset. If I have nothing in stock, then my taxes are not affected by it. So probably why in the last 30 years? We see so many “good deals” on new parts. Notice many ship by “manufacturers “. ? That way the store front doesn’t hold the inventory, doesn’t spend resources to cycle count, etc, etc.

Now I know Summit stocks a lot of shit, but it’s stuff that comes in one day, out soon. Why would they stock a ‘32 thing, and sit on it for ten years to double the money? They would have been in the hole by the time it sold.
Okay. I’m off work tonight, sipping beer and time to get off the HAMB

 

Actually, you are the one that claims to know about what production process/business procedure they adhere to, I merely said that I have experience with that process and know the pit falls...........if thats what they are using.

The large company I worked for operated under the mantra that it was not cost effective to have components sitting on the shelf and having to also store and inventory them....aka: JIT. As an example, we had a small part about an inch square with a dimple in the middle of it, kinda like the dimple in a christmas ornament. It was also cad plated. The supplier had to buy a sheet of material and perform setup and shearing ....and the dimple punch. They couldn't buy a 1" square sheet, so they bought a larger sheet and made as many of the squares as they could and set them on a shelf. Each time we ordered 1, we paid $136 for it. When the ordering fell into my lap, I sent out a quote for different quantities.
1=$136 10= $13.60 ea and 100= $1.36 ea I ordered 100
We had a company that made machined parts for us when we needed them quickly. They developed the same philosphy. When we placed an order with them they would order a full length of the material used for the part, and while they were set up......they ran parts till all the material was gone. They supplied us with what we ordered and put the rest on their shelf. It was free money for them every time we needed them again and they could underbid anyone if we sent other quotes out. Owner of the machine shop sold out and was a multimillionaire after about 5 years.
In working in the Procurement department, I learned that you often have to be willing to contact someone other than the first person who answers the phone if you want more than empty promises. Called Summit today and first thing I got was a recorded voice that checked my order and told me expected shipping was "any day now". I pushed a couple more buttons and talked to a real human being. I explained the situation and she checked and came back that expected shipping date now is Jan 29,2021. Now that was without her talking to anyone, but just looking at what was electronically available.
I persisted and she offed to call them and came back in a few minutes and told me they said that was an accurate date.
The point is that while these people may be pleasant to deal with, they simply look at electronic updates and don't actually know anything. That's why calling the manufacturer gives you at least a chance to find out what the real story is. If you think thats wrong, wait on your back orders as long as you want. Personally, I like to sort things out for myself.

One thing I did find out was that Summit normally stocks this cam and is sold out. That tells me two things. I ain't the only person in America that wants one and when they do make some they will be making stock for their vendors too.

 

You have an excellent point, but businesses merely transfer that cost to the product at time of sale. The real point is whether you can make money......or lose money by having parts on hand. In the long run you have to figure that not having "just 1" critical component when you need it can shut down production and cost far more than you saved.
We operated under the MRP system for ordering. Problem was that the information wasn't always reliable. I felt if we were making the same product with some variations/models, that anything we had on hand should be kept because even if the model we were building didn't need it, ..........as long as we were building that product we would eventually use it.
One day management decided to purge the unrequired inventory that the MRP system told us we showed no future needs for. They stacked a million dollars or so of inventory on pallets outside our office.....preparing to throw it in dumpsters.
Then we got our print outs for the items we needed to order quickly because we had none in stock and had immediate needs.......even offer incentives to companies to provide them quickly. WE walked outside and looked at the parts on the pallets and found item after item that we were throwing away because there no requirement......were the same things we were showing emergency needs for.
My view is that far more money is lost when companies don't plan for the unknown than when they do.

 

Uhhh, nope. You asked why a big company might have been out of materials when a small one might not. I offered up 5 possibilities [complete with question marks) off the top of my head. You went on to 'splain (twice) your vast knowledge of JIT. Feel free to read (re-read??) my previous posts.

This occasionally happens in a commodity market where a cost affects suppliers across the board (like a particularly cold winter for orange groves). Cams are assuredly not a commodity. Also, are you aware of supply and demand curves, and the effects of production cost on them? Your above comment suggests not. It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer suggests the Post Office "just writes it off." And Jerry says, "you don't know what that means, do you?"

 

Off topic discussion is bound to get the thread locked or deleted. Best to drop it and move on.

 

Likely the cam ships directly from Comp Cams, but who you give the $$ to should do the leg work to see what is holding it up. I have been hung out to dry by Summit and have not bought anything from them in 2 years.

 

Not wanting to argue here, so bare with me.

If I am a manufacturing company and I make 10000 items a year, things are going smoothly, so I always have stock of all items I need to make those 10000 items though out the year. But we (I hope) are talking about places like Comp, etc, that does a lot of business, right? So Comp has to keep their books straight. So if they do, they look on the "shelf" and see a blank not used for a long time. They toss it.

So, me and Milo open a cam shop and buy 200 blanks...we come to realize that we have to pay asset taxes on what we have. I tell Milo (just a name), let's just take them home and hide till we need them.

Then soon the smaller places, like my shop are not paying on assets on hand, we sorta back door them in and sell them. We really are under the radar.

But back up to Comp...should they pay taxes on those 5 blanks that are under 2 inches of dust? Or should they toss them.?

I don't mind if Milo is cooking the books and making money, but smaller companies don't get looked at like larger ones/Corps do.

Now all my babble aside, it's mot like (apparently) Comp is doing much with those cams, so isn't asking for "XX amount a week/month to grind, but...what do you think may happen is the request came into them for 4 times thier business they normally do for SBC cams? Do you think they would keep up? Do you think they are paying taxes on unused inventory? Could they quadruple their output on orders placed, even for the same SBC type of cam...assuming they had the labor to take care of it, my "poor guess is no"

So even if they meet 99% of orders, I'd be willing to bet they are not pulling from a 30 year supply of cam blanks, they are in fact JIT manufacturing, just in a much larger scale/business model that works.

JIT has been a little bit mis-construed...many feel a company that does this, is just trying to survive and limit inventory until an order is placed, how many time have you seen that with BIG companies?

Summit is pretty big, right? They aren't making a thing as far as I know, but order something today, and there is a 3 week lead time before it ships...why? Not in stock and not a fast moving product.

Okay, back to my hole, but before I go...Summit should have kept the OP informed, he payed Summit, not Comp. Summit should have spent the time/effort to follow up.. Now the Summit rep may not have known the OP spent 1000's there, or was his first order, but surely Summit should make the call to Comp, then inform the OP of what's up.

How far did I deviate here?

 

That's somewhat true on a future sale, but if I ordered 100 of "XX" at an agreed upon price, we have a contract...so if it cost you more by them the time it goes out the oor, you have to eat the cost/loss. I learned this driving a produce truck in S.Phx so many years ago. Kinda relevant, but say a box of melons sold for 8 bucks to XX fancy house, but we were out of melons and had to pay the competition 12 buck for that box of melons, We still deliverd them for the 8 dollar price. Couldn't pass that on when a contract is done.