Anyone having trouble buying stuff?

[woodchucker]

Yes , our company can not get the parts we need and these are from USA manufacturers . More on the lines of electrical stuff such as die heaters . I talked to my leader late last week , he is searching for other places which make these parts . We also live and die by the JIT and Lean Manufacturing codes . SAP ..................stop all production .

I couldn't get a simple 30amp 2 pole QO panel Square D breaker in 2020... I had to wait about 5 months. No one had them.
When I was working on the bathroom remodel, road block after road block on parts. This is not new, it's been going on since March 2020, its just getting acute.

 

[WobblyHand]

Can't disagree with the offshoring argument. Terribly difficult to get things back, once things have migrated overseas, including the knowledge base. That being said, supply side has been severely disrupted in the past few years. Don't think that the disruption is over yet. Domestically there's transportation and delivery issues as well.

Unfortunately the financial system is skewed to profit at the expense of many greater goods. The financiers don't know or care to count the cost of total dependence on other countries. Or loss of a countries critical capabilities. They are not rewarded for that, so they don't even consider it. They sole sourced to the cheapest supplier. They cut inventory to the bone, because JIT is the financially responsible thing to do. JIT is not resilient. They are now just finding out that "not putting all your eggs into any one basket" is a good idea. It's odd to me, because back in the day (30 years ago) when I worked for a defense contractor, we were admonished to have multiple suppliers, for all critical parts, lest there be a disruption. Seems that many people didn't get that message at all. So they cut costs and jobs and rode the gravy train, all the while reducing the resilience of the country to endure these upsets.

Sorry, didn't want to get philosophical, or political. However, seems this thread is generating now activity than I expected.

More frustrated that this hobby is getting far harder than I anticipated. Find I'm doing a ton of meta-work, just to get to the point of doing or making chips. Understood that's part of machining, but sure seems tough to get going. Still building up my local infrastructure (facility & tools) so it is a little easier to make things.

 

[mmcmdl]

Unilever's eyes were opened back when Katrina hit New Orleans years ago . Our sole source supplier was located there and the train tracks were all 6 feet under . We had to shut our plant down not having what we needed .

 

[WobblyHand]

Unilever's eyes were opened back when Katrina hit New Orleans years ago . Our sole source supplier was located there and the train tracks were all 6 feet under . We had to shut our plant down not having what we needed .

Sad that it took a disaster like that to get people to think. Sole source and lean JIT is only good optimal in a perfect, idealized world. That world where everything goes according to plan. Don't know about you, but, I don't know where that world is. Disasters, either natural or otherwise alway happen, and have happened throughout all history.

Good companies have to build in resilience into their systems, else they eventually will face the consequences. Good planning takes into account both the likelihood of disaster, and the severity of the problem. The ones who don't plan are betting they can cash out before disaster happens.

 

[rabler]

I was just looking at transfer switches. A 200/200A manual transfer switch ... they're out of stock everywhere, with a few exceptions at more than $1500.

 

[Cadillac]

I couldn't get a simple 30amp 2 pole QO panel Square D breaker in 2020... I had to wait about 5 months. No one had them.
When I was working on the bathroom remodel, road block after road block on parts. This is not new, it's been going on since March 2020, its just getting acute.

I’m in the same boat. Did a side job two weeks ago job was to upgrade/replace breaker panel, the meter socket and corresponding pipe and wire.
Had no problem getting a 20 bank panel but a 125a overhead meter socket is as rare as hens teeth at this point. Have called every supply house I know ever big box store and they are all put of stock with no eta.
What I can’t grasp is the same companies make the panel as the meter socket?????
So if anyone has a 125a meter socket they wanna get rid of PM me I’ll take it. Can’t get paid on the job till done

 

[Cadillac]

I was just looking at transfer switches. A 200/200A manual transfer switch ... they're out of stock everywhere, with a few exceptions at more than $1500.

Yeah same here on the meter socket I can find one for 360.00 dollars. Any normal day theyre 58 bucks at menards.

 

[rabler]

Yeah same here on the meter socket I can find one for 360.00 dollars. Any normal day theyre 58 bucks at menards.

Fortunately here the Power Co supplies the meter socket, although we had to wait 2 months for them to get one in (400A).

 

[jwmay]

I haven't had much trouble. I enjoy reading everyone's explanations for what happened and how it happened. I am making an assumption that most of you are older than I am, so are more likely to have a better perspective. You saw it happen, right? Well I'm a young guy at 42 I guess. My generation and anyone younger are far more likely to be fairly mechanically incompetent. Throw away society, you say. I say I didn't even get a chance. I learned to weld at 36 years old. I learned to use power tools in my 20's in the Army. I learned to operate machine tools from Youtube and you folks here...still learning actually. So yeah it may be a throw away society, but we didn't get there on our own. Gone are the high school technical programs of times past. I had the option for ONE program in high school. Woodworking... which was wrapped into Agriculture 1, which was full of Levi wearing, Skoal chewing bullies who stole my lumber, and I passed with a D- because I didn't have money to buy more lumber. I digress. Lol I'm not a rarity. Nobody younger than me even got a woodshop class. How do we get by? We work 70 hour weeks at ridiculously simple jobs, to pay others to do the things we should have been taught as kids!! So yeah, it ain't all rainbows and unicorns for those of us working in America these days. But everybody ought to look back at their own mirrors before they sharpen their pointer fingers. It wasn't MY generation that decided a Bachelors degree in political science, or sociology was the key to young people's success. Lol Mike Rowe for President!! Geez I went way of course eh? Anyways I ordered this Tuesday. It's Thursday. Woohoo!

 

[KevinM]

Unilever's eyes were opened back when Katrina hit New Orleans years ago . Our sole source supplier was located there and the train tracks were all 6 feet under . We had to shut our plant down not having what we needed .

Building a city on the coast and below sea level is not wise.