The delivery time misery
Our industry is currently facing an acute parts shortage due to long delivery times. This leads to delays in the assembling process. Thus it is not possible to deliver the finished products on time and the customer’s satisfaction is in danger.
There are always many people involved in the manufacturing of a product. The disadvantage is that each link in the production chain has to function perfectly in order to ensure that the goods arrive at the customer’s site on time. But currently many suppliers have problems with on time part deliveries due to a lack of capacity. This leads to a delay in the working process. Since many products are customised it is, from an economical point of view, impossible to store every single possible part. This is a big problem for us. So we are dependent on a just in time delivery.
Limited flexibility
Right in the area of those specific and important components, that are required for the machinery and equipment, delivery times are delayed. This problem is especially noticeable for motors and pneumatics since these setups are always unique to a specific project. So far it was possible to meet all confirmed delivery dates. However, for those customers trying to get a shortened delivery time things are looking bad.
Keeping partnerships
We have longstanding partnerships with many of our suppliers. Of cause we do not want to just give these partnerships up. It is especially aggravating when such good cooperation’s are harmed due to a too long delivery time. If a machine is sold and only some of the purchased components are missing it is a disturbing factor to the complete production plan. It is not only a question of flexibility. Some purchased parts which will normally be delivered within 14 days after order confirmation are currently arriving in some cases after five weeks.
Missing capacity
A reason for this is that many suppliers decreased their production capacities or planed too tightly. The economic situation was bad in the last two years. In this year the demand is relatively high and some suppliers were not prepared for this. In order to keep up with the production many suppliers have to run up their workload considerably. Of course a delivery can be delayed due to several reasons. So we, together with the suppliers, always try to find ways to shorten the delivery time. In the present situation we can only hope that our partners will find a way to expand their capacities as soon as possible.
