Well known vendor question (Savvy wait times)

Damn, was going to bitch about my savvy order but its only been 8 weeks, got everything but the rock sliders...no word on those yet, am a patient fellow and understand the issues they may be having. The supply chains for many products and services have been screwed up with this pandemic crisis.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Apparition, rasband and tworley
mrblaine said:
The early UA was a very low volume product part of which was due to the lack of one for the early 32RH which did not share a single part with the rest of the UA products except common parts to make it. It is a very poor metric.

I outsource just about all of my parts. I am continually astounded at how one small part that I've been able to lay hands on for years all of a sudden is impossible to get. That and my lead times at the casting foundry are all over the map. They have historically ranged from 2 weeks to 15 weeks. There is no way to plan around that. I use 8-10 weeks as an average and that still bites me from time to time.

For those who do sell stuff, I often wonder if they encounter the same as we do. I've had several instances of two things happening simultaneously that kick my ass every time. Historic sales predicts a build quantity and it is fairly accurate. Historic lead times on parts is fairly accurate. What gets us is we will get a serious sales spike right near the end of the number of parts on the shelf along with an abnormal lead time to replace some aspect of them.

Doesn't sound terrible until you figure out we have very limited space. Right now we have calipers stacked completely full on the shelf and then in front of the shelf which makes the area hard to navigate so we can't just order extra. There are days when I just want to throw rocks at folks.
Click to expand...
So much this. I run a medium size mfg operation. We strive to ship all "standard" parts and spares the same day. The amount of Inventory I carry to support that is ridiculous...and I still get burned. It never fails. I'll sell my last widget and someone will place an order for 500 of the fuckers. So, I take a hit to my delivery score and have to figure out how to make the customer understand that we sold under our minimum stocking level, haven't been able to replace and now we're scrambling to produce as many as we can, because in addition to your 500, we have to make another 4500 for ourselves (stock). And, Oh yeah, my system is designed to hold a minimum of 20% MORE than historical averages. Its crazy how Murphy's law gets you on these things.

Ironically, its generally not the guys that order 500 that get pissed when I can't ship same day. Its the guy that orders one or two of the parts off our retail site. The difference I think is that the guy who orders two really needs them, vs the guy ordering 500 needs them, but they are a distributor or manufacturer and they have some in reserve.

It led me to coin a phrase..."The only thing guaranteed about a forecast is that its going to be wrong." I use it EVERY time one of my people bitch about the variations inherent in production.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: rasband, psrivats and Apparition
Mike_H said:
So much this. I run a medium size mfg operation. We strive to ship all "standard" parts and spares the same day. The amount of Inventory I carry to support that is ridiculous...and I still get burned. It never fails. I'll sell my last widget and someone will place an order for 500 of the fuckers. So, I take a hit to my delivery score and have to figure out how to make the customer understand that we sold under our minimum stocking level, haven't been able to replace and now we're scrambling to produce as many as we can, because in addition to your 500, we have to make another 4500 for ourselves (stock). And, Oh yeah, my system is designed to hold a minimum of 20% MORE than historical averages. Its crazy how Murphy's law gets you on these things.

Ironically, its generally not the guys that order 500 that get pissed when I can't ship same day. Its the guy that orders one or two of the parts off our retail site. The difference I think is that the guy who orders two really needs them, vs the guy ordering 500 needs them, but they are a distributor or manufacturer and they have some in reserve.

It led me to coin a phrase..."The only thing guaranteed about a forecast is that its going to be wrong." I use it EVERY time one of my people bitch the variations inherent in production.
Click to expand...
Had a guy that worked for me that used the slogan “there’s no project to big or too small that we can’t deliver late or over budget”. Thanks for reminding me of him.
 
When I ordered my mid-arm I knew the reputation they had for long lead times. I just figured the next 6 months were gonna pass no matter what I did.

I could Order, have the time pass, And eventually get my kit. Or I could not order, have the time pass and never have my kit. Or I could order an inferior product.

To me the wait was always going to be worth it for the product I wanted. Whether it was 6 days or 6 months. Obviously, there’s a limit to this. But waiting a few extra weeks wasn’t an issue for me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alex01
Mike_H said:
Yeah, I'd have an issue with an attitude like that. My only point is that forecasts are only forecasts, not gospel
Click to expand...
We all get that but at some point you'd think that some attention paid to historical sales, a buffer stock, lead time in the supply chain and paying attention to daily events should mitigate it more than just a little. And yet, it doesn't and my complaint really isn't one so much as just observation of stuff that is fascinating. Well that and trying to give consumers some idea of the daily challenges involved with actually putting a product in their hands. And again, not a defense, just an idea of some of the bullshit involved that continually baffles me.

We're in the middle of one right now. Centric fucked us by putting the same brake hardware in the right and left packages. Customer gets that and now the whole order is fucked. UPS is dragging their feet on the 3rd box, he tossed all the packaging and swears he only got one rotor. I explain that if the box is intact, that isn't possible. We had an issue, I now have 2 party verification of every single part that goes in the boxes. The boxes are glued at the bottom flaps and the rotors are tossed in first to hold the flaps down for the glue. I see them go into the boxes, I check the paper work and sign it, I know for a fact that both rotors shipped.

Well, he is right after several emails we finally figure out that he is missing a box so he is also missing a set of pads, and a pair of knuckles. I'm really running low on rocks.

So now we open each box of hardware from Centric and verify that the right parts are in the box and now we do that for every item which is mind-numbingly dumb to have to do.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: Apparition
mrblaine said:
We all get that but at some point you'd think that some attention paid to historical sales, a buffer stock, lead time in the supply chain and paying attention to daily events should mitigate it more than just a little. And yet, it doesn't and my complaint really isn't one so much as just observation of stuff that is fascinating. Well that and trying to give consumers some idea of the daily challenges involved with actually putting a product in their hands. And again, not a defense, just an idea of some of the bullshit involved that continually baffles me.

We're in the middle of one right now. Centric fucked us by putting the same brake hardware in the right and left packages. Customer gets that and now the whole order is fucked. UPS is dragging their feet on the 3rd box, he tossed all the packaging and swears he only got one rotor. I explain that if the box is intact, that isn't possible. We had an issue, I now have 2 party verification of every single part that goes in the boxes. The boxes are glued at the bottom flaps and the rotors are tossed in first to hold the flaps down for the glue. I see them go into the boxes, I check the paper work and sign it, I know for a fact that both rotors shipped.

Well, he is right after several emails we finally figure out that he is missing a box so he is also missing a set of pads, and a pair of knuckles. I'm really running low on rocks.

So now we open each box of hardware from Centric and verify that the right parts are in the box and now we do that for every item which is mind-numbingly dumb to have to do.
Click to expand...

I look at historical sales for a three year period, look at current sales trends (up or down in that segment), speak with the sales team about what they see happening in their territories, try to read tea leaves from what is going on in the industries we serve, and reboot the whole process every month (we call it Sales and Operations Planning). There is a team of people compiling and analyzing this data, highly paid and highly intelligent. We STILL fuck it up. Now, we don't fuck up that often (we ship 99.8% of all orders on time, as requested by our customers) but we're not 100%. It is interesting to watch how something will explode in demand for no apparent reason.

Vendors only add to the complexity. We have some pretty good ones, and some pretty shitty ones. We're working to improve or eliminate the shitty ones, but its not an overnight process. The real trick comes when you're a small fish in a big pond with parts you actually like (or need). Then it becomes a delicate negotiations game to get what you want, without pissing the vendor off to the point where they say "fuck it, your little orders aren't worth the hassle."
 
Mike_H said:
Then it becomes a delicate negotiations game to get what you want, without pissing the vendor off to the point where they say "fuck it, your little orders aren't worth the hassle."
Click to expand...
That is my life trying to source quality calipers. A 100 pair order is a blip on the sales of the companies that I want to purchase from and if I'm not doing 10,000 sets, they don't even want to talk to me.
 
mrblaine said:
That is my life trying to source quality calipers. A 100 pair order is a blip on the sales of the companies that I want to purchase from and if I'm not doing 10,000 sets, they don't even want to talk to me.
Click to expand...
I'd imagine. I commend your efforts to provide quality automotive parts as a "little guy". I can't imagine the difficulty in trying to get your orders through in a timely fashion. We're a 25,000,000 dollar company and have a tough time with some suppliers!
 
Chris said:
Haha, yep. My understanding is they wait until they hit a certain number of orders, then do a new batch of whatever product it is.

Savvy can get away with this since they aren't reselling cheap Chinese shit like Quadratec is. In my book at least.
Click to expand...

They can get away with it with some people, some times.

I get supply disruptions. I get lead times. I'm no stranger to manufacturing and supply chains. I even get the concept of float.

If you sell me something and take my money, then at least communicate with me. Set my expectations. Let me know you're still alive at least.

I figured it'd be four to six weeks, at least. I figured that I would get my winch out of Australia before Savvy shipped anything.

Well, I don't need to be one of the cool kids that bad.

Edited to add: Finally got a hold of Katie at Savvy. They are having supply / vendor problems. The vendor hasn't STARTED to fab up the bumpers yet. Canceled the order. Time to go with plan "B".
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: jwilson2899, Starrs and Squatch
Wow I guess I have been super lucky, over the past few years I have ordered the following items from Savvy

Gas Tank Skid
Engine Skid
Rear Bumper ( and this was during Covid 19 )

And each time they have showed up in about a week.
 
The only part I've had to wait for than a week for was the midarm. I've had good luck emailing them through the website. Katie typically gets back to me before noon.
 
It’s safe to say with all the demand they seem to have, they probably need to hire some more help. Maybe?
 
Plumber1 said:
Wow I guess I have been super lucky, over the past few years I have ordered the following items from Savvy

Gas Tank Skid
Engine Skid
Rear Bumper ( and this was during Covid 19 )

And each time they have showed up in about a week.
Click to expand...

Mine have all been similar, the longest being around 3 weeks.

* GTS
* Engine Skid
* TC Skid
* CAs
* BL
* shifter cable (and replacement for a bad shipment)

As a side note... Still no stickers in any shipment!
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom
Back