I often read many posts from members expressing their disappointment and often disbelief in the difficulties they have experienced in obtaining spare parts. Being fortunate enough to have a new van I have yet to be on the receiving end, but know full well that my time will come ...
As a consumer, I am not defending any manufacturer, however, after reading through this thread, I would like to add my contribution to the discussion from the perspective of someone in a relatively senior position for a company whose core business is the manufacture, supply and support of specialist industrial machinery. My comments are not in any way relating to any particular manufacturer, or even to caravans, but to the manufacture, assembly and supply of big ticket items in todays competitive market.
Whilst there are no doubt exceptions, today, in general the vast majority of manufacturing processes operate on the JIT model. When a manufacturers portfolio consists of a variety of different products or models that share the same platform but whose components differ, this is the only proven way to remain competitive.
As prof correctly points out, holding spares is a very expensive practice. Despite the average consumer expecting that the manufacturer or supplier of their favourite luxury product, whatever it may be, holds enormous quantities of every part on the shelf, the reality is that this is such an expensive practice, those responsible for the operational side of most medium to large manufacturing organisations are usually penalised for holding stock. You may well ask why this would be ? - Surely In the interest of good customer service any reputable manufacturer of goods amounting to a major purchase would want to have an enormous spares inventory, right ? - Wrong.
The company accountants hate spares stock, without being directly aware of it, the shareholders hate spares stock, and the bank don’t want to fund spares stock. It’s simply dead money. Money tied up for years and years as a speculative practice in anticipation that loyal customers just may one day agree to purchasing your stock parts at an unavoidably overinflated price. Another reason is the enormous depreciation of spares. Imagiine if you were a manufacturer holding a vast spares stock of mechanical, electrical and electronic components for obsolete (i.e. no longer in production) end products. Most of this stock purchased in good faith from premium manufacturers has no warranty, because the warranty that the parts were supplied with has expired whilst the parts were sitting on the shelf. However, when a customer buys one of these parts, you, as the supplier need to stand the warranty.
If we take as another example a simple machined part such as a bracket, handle or lever that that was a standard part on a 2012 end product that a consumer wishes to purchase as a replacement part in 2017. These would have been manufactured by a 3rd party supplier during volume production runs, resulting in a relatively low unit cost. If this part is no longer used on todays models, and as the manufacturer you don’t have any left (which you almost certainly won’t as you’re only too well aware of the pitfalls of holding obsolete stock), through your normal company procedures, the only way to supply one to your customer is to have the third party manufacturer, or an alternative supplier make you a “one off”. In this case, what was a £23 machined bracket which featured on every 2012 model can very easily result in a £350 retail asking price, not to mention the weeks or often months of lead time. The reason for this is that the 3rd party supplier is full to capacity with volume production runs (If they’re not, they’ll soon be in trouble too !), and are not going to stop everything at the drop of a hat to make a one off which involves setup time and associated cots, and sometimes dedicated tooling.
Just taking a few of these examples into consideration, it doesn’t take long to realiise how quickly the value of spares stock depreciates, and more importantly as an organisation that this is the last area of the business in which you want to invest and tie up your hard earned profits.
Most complaints and comments made in agreement regarding difficulties in obtaining spares often use phrases like “they should” or “as a loyal customer I would have expected” or more recently “When will they learn”.
From the perspective of a loyal customer, I agree that they should. However, any medium to large manufacturer of luxury products still in business today has indeed learned, and learned very well that even a moderate investment in spares stock for obsolete production models is a financial disaster.
Despite having read these points, I believe the view of the average consumer would still be that any reputable company would indeed still have a huge spares stock inventory as this is the primary aim of the business, to serve the customer, customer satisfaction, so that they remain loyal, right ? - Wrong. Any business has a single aim, and a single purpose, to make money. Unfortunately for the consumer, as long as failure rates are not significantly above the industry average, the future revenue lost because the most discruntled customers went elsewhere for their next purchase is many times less than the financial rewards associated with operating on todays choice of business model as a modern manufacturer, whose market demands the launch of a range of shiny new products every year, or even every few months.
As some members have correctly pointed out, there are obligations within many market sectors to supply spares parts for a number of years after production ceases. However, there are no specific obligations regarding the price or availability of same.
As previously mentioned, there are of course exceptions to the examples and points above, and even industries where the above does not apply, or applies to a much lesser extent, the automotive industry being one of them, due to sheer production volumes and other factors beyond the scope of this post.
Apologies for the lengthy post, the aim of which again is not to defend what ultimately amounts to poor customer service, but to hopefully offer a different perspective and insight into at least one of the reasons why trying to obtain spare parts can often be a difficult and frustrating experience.
As a consumer, I am not defending any manufacturer, however, after reading through this thread, I would like to add my contribution to the discussion from the perspective of someone in a relatively senior position for a company whose core business is the manufacture, supply and support of specialist industrial machinery. My comments are not in any way relating to any particular manufacturer, or even to caravans, but to the manufacture, assembly and supply of big ticket items in todays competitive market.
Whilst there are no doubt exceptions, today, in general the vast majority of manufacturing processes operate on the JIT model. When a manufacturers portfolio consists of a variety of different products or models that share the same platform but whose components differ, this is the only proven way to remain competitive.
As prof correctly points out, holding spares is a very expensive practice. Despite the average consumer expecting that the manufacturer or supplier of their favourite luxury product, whatever it may be, holds enormous quantities of every part on the shelf, the reality is that this is such an expensive practice, those responsible for the operational side of most medium to large manufacturing organisations are usually penalised for holding stock. You may well ask why this would be ? - Surely In the interest of good customer service any reputable manufacturer of goods amounting to a major purchase would want to have an enormous spares inventory, right ? - Wrong.
The company accountants hate spares stock, without being directly aware of it, the shareholders hate spares stock, and the bank don’t want to fund spares stock. It’s simply dead money. Money tied up for years and years as a speculative practice in anticipation that loyal customers just may one day agree to purchasing your stock parts at an unavoidably overinflated price. Another reason is the enormous depreciation of spares. Imagiine if you were a manufacturer holding a vast spares stock of mechanical, electrical and electronic components for obsolete (i.e. no longer in production) end products. Most of this stock purchased in good faith from premium manufacturers has no warranty, because the warranty that the parts were supplied with has expired whilst the parts were sitting on the shelf. However, when a customer buys one of these parts, you, as the supplier need to stand the warranty.
If we take as another example a simple machined part such as a bracket, handle or lever that that was a standard part on a 2012 end product that a consumer wishes to purchase as a replacement part in 2017. These would have been manufactured by a 3rd party supplier during volume production runs, resulting in a relatively low unit cost. If this part is no longer used on todays models, and as the manufacturer you don’t have any left (which you almost certainly won’t as you’re only too well aware of the pitfalls of holding obsolete stock), through your normal company procedures, the only way to supply one to your customer is to have the third party manufacturer, or an alternative supplier make you a “one off”. In this case, what was a £23 machined bracket which featured on every 2012 model can very easily result in a £350 retail asking price, not to mention the weeks or often months of lead time. The reason for this is that the 3rd party supplier is full to capacity with volume production runs (If they’re not, they’ll soon be in trouble too !), and are not going to stop everything at the drop of a hat to make a one off which involves setup time and associated cots, and sometimes dedicated tooling.
Just taking a few of these examples into consideration, it doesn’t take long to realiise how quickly the value of spares stock depreciates, and more importantly as an organisation that this is the last area of the business in which you want to invest and tie up your hard earned profits.
Most complaints and comments made in agreement regarding difficulties in obtaining spares often use phrases like “they should” or “as a loyal customer I would have expected” or more recently “When will they learn”.
From the perspective of a loyal customer, I agree that they should. However, any medium to large manufacturer of luxury products still in business today has indeed learned, and learned very well that even a moderate investment in spares stock for obsolete production models is a financial disaster.
Despite having read these points, I believe the view of the average consumer would still be that any reputable company would indeed still have a huge spares stock inventory as this is the primary aim of the business, to serve the customer, customer satisfaction, so that they remain loyal, right ? - Wrong. Any business has a single aim, and a single purpose, to make money. Unfortunately for the consumer, as long as failure rates are not significantly above the industry average, the future revenue lost because the most discruntled customers went elsewhere for their next purchase is many times less than the financial rewards associated with operating on todays choice of business model as a modern manufacturer, whose market demands the launch of a range of shiny new products every year, or even every few months.
As some members have correctly pointed out, there are obligations within many market sectors to supply spares parts for a number of years after production ceases. However, there are no specific obligations regarding the price or availability of same.
As previously mentioned, there are of course exceptions to the examples and points above, and even industries where the above does not apply, or applies to a much lesser extent, the automotive industry being one of them, due to sheer production volumes and other factors beyond the scope of this post.
Apologies for the lengthy post, the aim of which again is not to defend what ultimately amounts to poor customer service, but to hopefully offer a different perspective and insight into at least one of the reasons why trying to obtain spare parts can often be a difficult and frustrating experience.
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