IMO: Slow production/distribution hurts sales

DaveH

DaveH

Joined
Dec 2, 1999
Messages
12,249
Yeah, OK, I'm having a slightly grumpy day. If I'm FOS, I'm sure you all will tell me.

Here's what has happened to me on several occasions, I'll give you the latest one.

Wanted a green Chinese folder when they came out but they where hard to get, while I was waiting for production and distribution to catch up I heard there was a new blue in the works.

So I waited for the blue figuring I'll get which one I liked best. By the time the Blue Chinese came out, I saw pix for the Temperence Jr. (Leaf blade). So forget the chinese, now I want a Temperence Jr. and will have to wait. So will it make it out before something else catches my eye?

I have a suggestion, since the collectors club _must_ buy theirs anyway why not make them wait until after regular demand is satisfied?
 
I don't think you are FOS. However...

If you are going to surf the bleeding edge, then you will constantly be in a state of wanting. One forumite has a Bob Lum Tanto for sale for about 40% more that what they will be going for from the internet discounters. Is is worth the premium? Not for me.

If you could get a similar Lil' Temperance design from another company, would you?

If you didn't change your mind, you would probably have a green Lum by now. If you had bought one off of the forum, you would have been able to get one at 10-15% less than the cheapest price offered by a legitimate dealer.

No, you just want what you want when you want it. Not FOS, just maybe impatient.
 
I can sympathize w/ the waiting. Waiting is the worst. But...

I think rushing production runs at the expense of quality will hurt sales more then slow production/distribution. The pain of poor quality will last longer then the pleasure from making a ship date (my manufacturing background peaking out :)). My suggestion, bite the bullet, pick up a Chinese Lum now. By the time you save up the $, hopefully the Temperance w/ the leaf shape blade will be in dealer inventories. My opinion, the Temperance IS WORTH THE WAIT.
 
Originally posted by DaveH

I have a suggestion, since the collectors club _must_ buy theirs anyway why not make them wait until after regular demand is satisfied?
Click to expand...

And this makes sense how? The people who spent the money to join the club, and committed to buy everything that Spyderco makes (in other words their best customers), should wait for you to get your knife at a discounter?

If you don't want to wait, talk to Kelly at Spyderco. There are plenty of numbers available. Be ready to buy about a dozen knives up front, and then you can be first, too!

One privilege is getting your knives first. The other is getting them cheap. Pick one.
 
OK, I spell out what is, IMO, the problem with the collectors club and why it makes sense to me to make'm wait. This should probably be in the other thread, but the collecting club:

- Delays release of knives, sometimes significantly.

- Fuels my perception that a larger than I'm comfortable with number of the collectors club seem to resell their knives as soon as they get them. Which translates to me they are just plain old dealers.

It doesn't make sense for me to join the collectors club, my point is not to them first, but to get them more or less when I want one without paying the makes no sense MSRP.
 
Dave, I'm sure your intentions are positive, but putting up two threads critical of a knife company in that company's forum doesn't look good. I know your gripe is with one specific practice, but some might call this trolling (i'm NOT calling it trolling, I've been frustrated by the same thing). Putting it in the same thread might be less inflamatory and just as productive. Just my opinion, your mileage may vary.
 
Hi Dave. You are absolutely correct. Slow production does hurt sales. However, slow production just means that the demand is greater than the production capacity. Increasing production capacity is very difficult, these are not hamburgers.

When we come out with a new model, we have no idea of the demand. We schedule to make a certain number per month. Maybe in January we cut out enough parts to make 1000 pcs. They will normally take 3 months to run through the system. We learn in April that we'll need to make more than we're making, so we cut out a larger number of parts to make more. Let's see, ABC knife is increasing, so I guess we'll have to decrease production on DEF knife so we can make more ABC knives. Now we're getting complaints that DEF knife is slow.

I'm not trying to make excuses. It's a difficult problem. I'm open to suggestions.

Also keep in mind that excessive inventory is even worse as it hurts cash flow.

It is a puzzlement.

sal
 
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