Must be something goingvaround! I have never seen SMC so argumentative!
If the thunder don't get you, the lightning will.
Unless of course they are Aldi Chisels. He's up in that like white on rice!
My perspective on this is easy. Every company has swings and misses. This is likely one. Being carpy on the interwebs about it doesn't make it get better. A PM to Rob who is a member here and owns the company would seem to me to be the first recourse if you think your voice isn't being heard.
Maybe try the PM method and see what happens.
Pete
Something in the air today Pete!
If the thunder don't get you, the lightning will.
To the OP: You've done all that could be expected. I'd learn to love another tool steel if I were you.
Something is in the air every single day (or thread) Tony. These pot shots at other members are not uncommon.
Hi Adam -
Please accept my apologies for the delay on the 1" chisel. Over the past several months we have been facing a number of challenges in our manufacturing operation.
First and foremost - we had the previously mentioned sudden requirement to switch woods, which caused a backlog in a large portion of the product line. We have now solved that problem, but as we were accumulating the backlog, our operation hit full capacity (and remains there) making it difficult to get out of the hole. Not only do we have physical space limitations, but have now maxed out the power supply to the building. To really add to the fun - for the past year or more we have not been able to fill all available open positions (this is a government town , not a manufacturing one....).
We have been working with a consulting firm to increase our productivity given current constraints - working smarter, and not necessarily harder (though we are doing that too). One of the ways we are doing this is by spending more time running product, and less time doing machine set-ups (a complex machine set-up, and we have a lot of them, can take up to two days). This means intervals between production runs gets longer, though quantities are higher when we do run them. Running something like chisels means a larger run of each size....and ultimately a longer time to get any single size back on track. Larger lot sizes also make for much more work in process, as we have to wait for all component parts to be finished before an assembly run.
PM-V11 is a custom steel, and not a stock item. We have to order many months in advance of our requirement (I believe about 6) and even then, are subject to getting bumped by a larger customer needing a different product. We have to order a complete mill run of steel, and can only run a couple of formats per run (a thickness of plate, or a cross section of bar or rod).
Throwing new product into the mix - demand patterns can change quickly, and strain resources as well.
So - we have some rapidly changing conditions in a system that can just not respond quickly. Nor, at this time, can we effectively scale for excess capacity. These are all "good" problems to have - in that they are related to growth. They are all "bad" problems with respect to being able to respond quickly.
The situation we have now has had our full attention for several months, and we are in the process of addressing it for the forseeable future. To relieve much of the pressure, we have been sitting on new product releases so as not to stretch our resources further. At the same time - we can't hold off on that forever either. We have not been advertising nor promoting much of the line at all for over a year now.
We are confident we will be back to our regular performance shortly. We meet weekly with staff to review production status and backlog burn-down rate - and there is light at the end of what has been a longer tunnel than we would have liked.
Cheers -
Rob
Rob, thank you so much for your reply. I wish you the best in getting things in order and thank you also for making such great tools.
Have we seen another company (public or private) that is as open and transparent with its internal challenges as Lee Valley?
If there is anything in the air, it is that we have witnessed a vendor that is willing to hear feedback, positive or negative, from its customers, and respond to them in a sincere manner. Covering for a vendor's shortcomings may be done with good intentions, but it hurts the vendor in the long term.
Simon
Of all the laws Brandolini's may be the most universally true.
Deep thought for the day:
Your bandsaw weighs more when you leave the spring compressed instead of relieving the tension.
True about the legal part (thanks for the correction) but it's against Visa and MC regs for a merchant to charge before shipping unless they notify you at the time of the order.
I don't know if LV is doing this, I hope not, but if they are I guess they're using customer credit card orders as short-term line of credit.
I'll leave it to regular customers of theirs to decide if they're cool with it. I haven't bought from them in quite some time and what I bought was not on backorder.
Last edited by Charles Guest; 09-20-2018 at 6:41 AM.