Are all vendors hopelessly behind?

Local fab shop? Cant they just MAKE you sliders?

 

Agreed, the supply chain is in shambles. I took a nail to one of my Cooper ST Maxx 255/85/R16 tires last week and Cooper told the rep it would be late October until they get those back in stock… thank god the tech at the shop was able to get a good patch on it.. the nail was just into the flare for the side wall, so it still may be a short term fix.

 

This. I have a guy local to me who owns a small fab shop. His prices are reasonable, his welds are good and he gets things done quickly. Every town has someone like that, just ask around. If I were in the market for Sliders or maybe even a bumper, a local fabricator would be the route I would take.

 

So my last project as a contractor to a major power company (after 30 as an employee) was implementation of a 'just in time' piece of supply chain software.

Are you suggesting that may be blown up right now? 'Cause power companies use thousands of parts for new, upgrade and repair construction...............

While I don't want people to lose power because of it, I did think that the storekeepers often had a better handle on material stocking than the computer. Just from years of experience.

 

Depends on inventory level. Right now, raw materials GLOBALLY are scarce as the supply chain slinkies along.
Mine or cut or harvest raw material
Ship
Refine raw material into usable product
Ship
Distribute refined material to manufacturers
Ship
Make one of millions of products produced
Ship
Stores stock
Customers buy.

Every step above was interrupted until 1st qtr of this yr. We still had products because pipeline was so long. Now its restarting globally. Need people and transport and machines.

 

Can't tell you how many times I've had that thought.

 

So far I don't recall seeing a power plant with an unscheduled outage. Haven't seen a hospital or other critically important facility down yet either. I'm guessing they began ordering backups for their critical spare inventory at the first hint of trouble. And that supplying them be at the top of the list for factories and vendors.

 

Well put. It gets even more muddied right now when you're dealing with vendors in Asia.

I work in the design department for a large consumer electronics company that deals with ALOT of injection molders in China and when we had issues in the past we'd send an engineer over for a week to show them how to fix the tool, run test shots, and get production back on track. As a company policy my job is not having anyone travel internationally right now (probably a good idea) so instead of sending an engineer and fixing the issue in a week we are spending literally months going back and forth just to get small tooling issues resolved. Bear in mind with injection molding small tooling issues are the difference between a usable part and scrap.

Multiply this over hundreds to thousands of parts in a single product and the delays get staggering. Everyone in my industry is saying the same thing, supply chain MIGHT be back on track by the end of 2022 but it sure as hell won't be anytime soon.

 

Gears.. Ordered in April and still waiting. My appointment for install has since past. I am hearing mid November until I could see something.

 

I'd cancel the order and get my deposit returned.

Then wait a year. Try again with a different vendor.

 

I wonder how many of these companies would whine about folding - or how many people would whine about losing their jobs because people stopped buying "unnecessary trinkets". That's the stupidest thing I've heard in a long time. When you consider what's "necessary"...my man...90% of the economy is unnecessary. I hope everything you build is a hospital, police station, power station or something of the sort, since multi-million dollar projects like shopping malls, movie theaters, sports stadiums and cruise ships are...umm...unnecessary.

 

Basic needs are necessary.

Food
Shelter
Clothing

Everything else is gravy......

 

Is it really supply chain? I can go down and buy steel right now from our local steel supply store. Just bought 20ft 1/8" angle for $20..

 

We are talking about whining and complaining about trinkets taking too long to make and ship. Please try to keep up.

 

Supply chain.

@JoeCOVA You purchased 1 small piece.

As an example:
Consider a manufacturer who needs 10 million battery cells per year to build the battery packs for their cordless tools.
or
Consider an engine manufacturer who needs 1000s of metric tons of aluminum per year to make engine blocks.

If the factories can't get the materials, then they can't produce and we can't buy. Circle of life kinda thing......

 

I think the intent of this discussion is smaller shops.

 

Doesn't really matter. Its all connected.

Where do you think the smaller shops get their supplies?????

 

OK so thats my point, local steel shops have inventory to supply. I can walk down right now and build 100 bumpers based on current supplies

 

and when they have exhausted their current supply??????

The little guys will be the last to get their orders filled.

If the supplier needs to fill a $1M order or a $1000 order.......which do you think will garner attention.

 

They never have. I'm not sure what argument you are trying to pick. A lot of places have inventory rendering the supply chain argument moot. Maybe on a grandeur global scale for complex manufacturing like Ford but local shops, idk