Originally Posted by Slippery (Post 4751766)

1st - Having a broken boat truly sucks & if parts aren't available that definitely adds to the suckage. We've all been there, and saying that doesn't make it any better because while my favorite boater is me, I'm sure your favorite boater is you.

I don't know how the big M works exactly in terms of production and allocation, but I've grown up in the automotive industry so don't shoot the messenger, but let me provide a bit of perspective that's being overlooked.

1st - As previously mentioned, "Just in time" manufacturing is a reality and means as the last "widget" in the bin is being installed on a vehicle, a rail car is unloading more "widgets" and re-supplying the inventory in the plant. Most "widget" suppliers have their business model in tune and have production to match orders and don't overproduce, because it's money on the shelf instead of in the bank account. Now add a pandemic/earthquake/tsunami/fire into the mix and break not only the supply chain, but also interrupt production and you have not only unhappy customers, but also unhappy shareholders. Now, have a few "widget" suppliers close their doors, and you truly have a Charlie Foxtrot as manufacturers scramble to find replacements. As far as the automotive industry goes, I'm not sure the auto manufacturers have even figured out which of all their suppliers are still in business. The more complex the supply chain, the more "Charlie Foxtrotted" the situation is. I've got a buddy in the footwear industry and we were drinking and solving problems and he said "I've got a plant full of vibram over here, a plant full of leather over there, and the plant that puts them together is closed and we've got dealers screaming for product".

2nd - as far as stealing parts from production - here's something to think about, and it's not pretty:

As an oversimplification, the manufacturer sells vehicles to the dealer. Dealers have vehicles they've earned through the sales & allocation process which aren't produced yet. (We've got trucks scheduled right now with targeted production weeks into September, and I believe October). Some of those vehicles are ordered specifically for a customer (special order) and it's also common on high demand stuff (everything right now) to "sell" an inbound unit before it gets here (we have several un-produced vehicles spoken for right now).

At this point you can probably see the issue with robbing parts off the production line, at least as it pertains to the auto industry: Every Single Vehicle is sold to a dealer prior to it even getting to the plant and going down the assembly line.

Stealing a part from production means taking a widget off the assy line to give to a dealer to fix "customer Smith", and is literally stealing the part from a dealer who's been waiting for the vehicle and may have it sold to "customer Jones". Those parts you want to steal from the assembly line aren't theirs to give, especially if the part is robbed from a vehicle waiting for transport...when the tires hit the ground off the assembly line, the dealer is billed for the vehicle...up until that point the vehicle is merely "spoken for" but as soon as it falls (sometimes I think literally, but that's another story) off the line belongs to the dealer because we've paid for it.

All this doesn't lessen the suck factor, but it is why it's very difficult to rob from production. Your dealer is no doubt screaming at Merc to rob one from production because "I can't get the part for a customer but you're building and shipping new motors every day". However, the dealer that owns the motor Merc wants to rob the part from is saying "Not a frickin' chance you're stealing MY part because I have a customer waiting on this motor". It s a bad situation.

Here's the ugly truth in terms of "bad business model to not rob parts for a customer off an engine in a crate"...let me add the rest of the sentence for you..."...off a DEALER's engine in a crate which has already been paid for (and who may have a customer waiting on that engine for his boat). How pissed are you likely to be if you bought a boat at the boat show, have been waiting for months for you dealer to get the engine from Merc so they can rig your boat, and your dealer calls you and tells you "Uh, it's gonna be another couple weeks because we found out they robbed parts from your engine, so you're probably going to have to make different vacation plans because there's no way your boat is going to be ready like we promised. Sorry 'bout that".

Yeah, it sucks, and all I've done is piss you off further, but we have the same issues and arguments with parts in the automotive industry. "Backordered" is a reality and GM/Ford/Ram is making vehicles everyday with the parts we're waiting on to fix a customers vehicle. And I think sometimes the definition of "backorder" is "We're planting the trees to make the boxes to ship your parts in". ****.

If there's any good news at all - at least in my opinion - is that your issue is with an OB, and Merc is smart enough to know they have competition in that market and you can vote with your $$ the next time you're shopping.

I would think your dealer would be encouraging you to politely be the squeaky wheel on the Merc customer assistance line, and they should be burning up the parts locator and phone trying to beg borrow or steal a part from some other dealer. Or rob the part off an inventory motor, (also a tough decision if demand is high and supply is low) if there is such a thing. And they should be communicating with Merc daily..the squeaky wheel does tend to get greased.

The problem as I see it is the manufacturer must balance having a supply of parts they know are going to break and be available to service customers against answering to shareholders who want every last part to go on a high demand product they can't produce enough of.

It's like airlines deliberately over-booking a flight; I think it's a bad biz decision but every airline does it, so I must be missing something.

In my opinion, the bad biz decision isn't Merc not robbing a part off someone's spoken for engine, but rather in Mercury not requiring the supplier to be able to produce - and Mercury purchase and provide to dealers - sufficient parts to service their product.

I'm really not trying to be "Richard Cranium"...it's just my $ .02 based on what we see in the automotive industry & I'm sure it doesn't help because at the end of the day, you've got a new boat you can't use and summer is short. That sucks.

I hope you're in the water soon.

d