mohavesam said:
It's presumed that most consumer folks don't take the time to understand - or have never been exposed to - a manufacturing supply chain process. Since the 30SIMBA lexicon (business shorthand for "30-something marketing MBA" syndrome) most manufacturers buy as much as possible of a finished product's parts list from sub-tier suppliers. Hence someone somewhere has to make and maintain the molds, the formulation, the quality standards and controlled manufacturing processes (for the grip bodies) just to be able to inventory and deliver the rubber stuff to another assembler entity, who buys or makes the screws, the bushings, the inserts, and assembly & QA practices just to sell them to a distributor (MIDWAYUSA) or to Ruger.
Most folks born since 1960 are just used to making a call and getting a product, and have little patience for any delay, seeing any explanation as "an excuse" for them not being instantly satisfied. It shows even on this forum.
And I confess to the same from time to time, as I remain convinced I'm the customer in the deal.
Exactly.
As I tried to explain ... Perhaps not fuzzily and softly enough in today's easily offended atmosphere :roll: ... People have to understand external purchase orders, production orders from suppliers, customer orders, inventory levels and MRP, etc, etc. Ruger may have 1000 of those grips sitting in a bin somewhere, but those 1000 grips may be allocated to their own production orders, and to other previously placed customer purchase orders with a near delivery date. THEREFORE .... Even though inventory may show 1000 on hand .... THEY ARE ALREADY ALLOCATED to another production order or customer.
Most front office folks have absolutely NO ACCESS to this data ... Only purchasing, MRP, and plant personnel will have that.
So ... To complain about Ruger not knowing what their inventory is due to some front office personnel not knowing details ... Just shows lack of an understanding of modern business systems and how plants actually work.
Now ... Having said that .... Ruger SHOULD know how many FINISHED PRODUCTS they have available. For example ... How many GP100's are there available for sale. The normal employee would NOT know how many grips they have because grips are a COMPONENT of a finished product.
Having said THAT ... The Ruger store should have an inventory as well, where the grips ARE a finished sellable product, but they're almost definitely not the ones supplying Midway.
Either way .... Virtually no company would be able to provide the data that the OP requested ... At least not reliably ... Unless you just got lucky and talked to someone in the supply chain, and even then ... It would be unusual for them to give out that info.
With regard to that info being 'top secret' ... It could be. If S&W wanted to know how the SP101's were selling, Ruger saying that they had 10,000 grips on hand could tip them off.
You have to think a little beyond the OP's question to see the implications of what was involved, before you say things like 'Ruger doesn't even know their inventory', or 'they can't even keep up with inventory'.
REV
