What a nightmare, please read.

[dickfoster]

Isn't VW in trouble at the moment with their diesels ?

Don't know about their diesels but they're in deep dodo with the gubberment. LOL

 

[ultrarunner]

Our global JIT (Just In Time) world is extremely fragile. Most folks can't comprehend this. The reality is is that things are only going to get more tenuous.

I run into this all time now with Medical Equipment...

Just today a specialized $500 light bulb was needed... manufacturer said no light bulbs have been made since 2007 and this model was discontinued in 2004.

My original CEO gave me a free hand to stock select critical parts and at the time we bought this machine I wrote into the purchase order to include a spare...

So this morning the OR director left me a message and said to replace the item would be 12k... I said let me look at it and it turned out to be the bulb... I was quickly told no parts available and then I dusted off my spare...

The corporate culture has shifted tremendously in 25 years... no money or space tied up in spare parts is the rule... items were tagged for disposal and I set them aside to keep for spare parts... saved our bacon many times.

Too much trust is put into just in time supply chain logistics... but then I am old school.

In 25 years we have never cancelled a case due to a problem with facilities or hospital owned equipment... when I'm gone I no this will no longer be the case... plus no one is going to be here 16 hours like I was yesterday... just isn't the way of the world.

When you outsource you give up control...

 

[Deere Dude]

Well I seen a video where the Deere was 10X better than the Mahindra.

If those tractors are the same price I would look at the mahindra, even though there are quite a few places on the video were gimmicky.

 

[MossRoad]

I run into this all time now with Medical Equipment...

Just today a specialized $500 light bulb was needed... manufacturer said no light bulbs have been made since 2007 and this model was discontinued in 2004.

My original CEO gave me a free hand to stock select critical parts and at the time we bought this machine I wrote into the purchase order to include a spare...

So this morning the OR director left me a message and said to replace the item would be 12k... I said let me look at it and it turned out to be the bulb... I was quickly told no parts available and then I dusted off my spare...

The corporate culture has shifted tremendously in 25 years... no money or space tied up in spare parts is the rule... items were tagged for disposal and I set them aside to keep for spare parts... saved our bacon many times.

Too much trust is put into just in time supply chain logistics... but then I am old school.

In 25 years we have never cancelled a case due to a problem with facilities or hospital owned equipment... when I'm gone I no this will no longer be the case... plus no one is going to be here 16 hours like I was yesterday... just isn't the way of the world.

When you outsource you give up control...

Hey, we've got some equipment that was sold to us from Europe... That European company bought the original manufacturer, who happened to be located about 15 miles from us. For years we'd just call them up in the morning, drive over there in the afternoon and get our parts. Well... the European company moved the facilities to Europe. Parts can now take weeks. And we only have two lines. If they both should fail, we have to pay someone else to produce our product (and within their available time) until the parts arrive. It hasn't happened yet, but its been close.

 

[ultrarunner]

It kind of reminds me of how telephone service has changed... there was a time when reliability was everything... not anymore since ATT or the local Telcos are no longer responsible as in one stop from network to your bedroom telephone.

Expectations are sometimes exceeded and even greatly exceeded... a few weeks back I ordered two air compressors online with expected delivery of 7 to 10 days... you can imagine my surprise when they were at my doorstep the next morning...

 

[MossRoad]

Ha! In 2001 I ordered my tractor and half a dozen attachments from Power Trac in Tazewel, VA on a Friday and it showed up here in Indiana on Monday! :thumbsup:

We used to have about 50 servers in our building (now mostly outsourced by corporate). We had a contract with a local service company to inventory and maintain a parts inventory for the mission critical stuff. They had hard drives, motherboards, power supplies, etc... for 15 years old machines sitting within 4 hours of us. Really great company. Unfortunately, its just a fact of business, that you can redundancy yourself into the poorhouse. Someone, somewhere, has to figure out how much money you will lose with X hours of downtime, and then calculate the cost VS risk.

One event in particular comes to mind... massive power outage.
We have two feeds from two different substations. Well, in ONE manhole in downtown, several feeds from several substations cross over each other. Guess what? Something overheated, the manhole burned, the entire downtown area went dark. About 60 square blocks! Estimated repair time was a week.

We had many small UPS units that were only good to keep systems running for an hour or so. No central UPS, because we had two feeds. Well, it really didn't matter that our servers went down at that point, because the 350 work stations were dead as well, as well as all the manufacturing and material handling equipment.

So we call the local BIG electical company to inquire about getting a big UPS to run our building.... their phone system was dead, as they were only a few blocks from us. The biggest electrical event in our town's history and the biggest electrical company can't use their phones due to no power!!! :laughing:

Anyhow, to end this thread hijack.... we knew a guy who knew a guy who knew THE guy at the big electrical company, called his cell, and we got a 1MW generator and a 3/4MW generator here in just a few hours and were back in production in less than a day (I put in 36 hours that day). It was fun helping hook that stuff up.

What we learned from that is... even if we had spent a million bucks on a UPS that was big enough to handle this plant, we spent less than a 10th of that being on rental emergency power for 3 days. We'd have to have a catastrophic event 10 more times to break even, not counting the costs of maintaining our own UPS.

Bean counters run the world.

 

[ultrarunner]

I did a lot of re-engineering prior to Y2K at the insistence of the Medical Chief of Staff... came up with a page of critical items that were not on emergency power but nevertheless required for a functioning hospital... such as lobby doors and area lighting on standby power as well as at least one fully functional workstation in each area in 1999.

I realize tractors are not in same class as a hospital but I can see the OP point questioning not having a single part anywhere in North America or ready elsewhere for rapid deployment.

I have awarded buybacks in rare instances for just such cases... you buy a new special order vehicle and 9 of the first 12 weeks it sits in the Dealer's back lot waiting for parts... or even longer waiting for a redesigned part.

In one case my decision was to extend the original warranty based on manufacturer rep's testimony at the hearing... my decision sent ripples all the way to top of corporate... it was sustained but in the future we were instructed to order a buyback and no more extended warranty because it was a logistics issue having one off warranties as opposed to simply buying back the car.

 

[SteveM70]

It kind of reminds me of how telephone service has changed... there was a time when reliability was everything... not anymore since ATT or the local Telcos are no longer responsible as in one stop from network to your bedroom telephone.

Expectations are sometimes exceeded and even greatly exceeded... a few weeks back I ordered two air compressors online with expected delivery of 7 to 10 days... you can imagine my surprise when they were at my doorstep the next morning...

What does one stop from network to your bedroom telephone mean? and what does your expectations have to do with the the op's situation?

 

[MossRoad]

What does one stop from network to your bedroom telephone mean? and what does your expectations have to do with the the op's situation?

I think what he means is an analogy... the phone company used to do everything. From the phone on your nightstand, to the wires in your house, to the termination point in your house, to the pole, to the phone exchange downtown, and all of the parts and labor, too, they did it all and all of it was available all the time, anytime, anywhere.

As it pertains to the OPs situation, the tractor company is located in another country. They don't have some parts available in this country. They won't let the local dealer inspect the inner workings of a suspected bad part. They rely on 3rd party shippers, etc....

 

[ultrarunner]

Single source and responsibility with the ability to direct production, staff and resources.

Kubota actually builds tractors here at least mine has USA as country of origin.

The telephone company example illustrates how the United States had the finest telecommunication network in the world... each and every part of the Bell System was designed to work reliably and why not... because they were responsible for for every inch of wire from the central office to the extension phone in your bedroom... if there was a problem it was quickly resolved 24/7.

I remember when my Grandfather's business was burglarized when I was a kid... phones ripped from the walls, lines cut, outside ringers smashed... learned about it at 7am Sunday morning over a 3 day holiday weekend... within an hour Pacific telephone had the first of two trucks on premise and pulled new wire from two blocks away, installed new phones, ringers, jacks... etc and the charge for this was all included in the monthly bill... not a penny more because we were their customer... the guys were career MaBell employees with everything they needed on their truck and the power to requisition anything they might.

Not much is like this anymore... my closest tractor experience is Caterpillar... totally blew me away because the service was consistently over the top and I'm a nobody.... just a CAT owner for personal use.

I believe there is a difference in products... and a lot of the difference is not readily apparent when shopping... a strong dealer network with large domestic inventory a phone call away matters when you depend on your equipment to meet your obligations...

 

[MossRoad]

...

I believe there is a difference in products... and a lot of the difference is not readily apparent when shopping... a strong dealer network with large domestic inventory a phone call away matters when you depend on your equipment to meet your obligations...

This is one of the reasons I went with the Power Trac machine. Its made in the U.S. in Tazewell, VA. There are NO dealerships. Its all factory direct. They stock all the parts and they usually ship the day you order the parts. They'll also repair parts if you send it to them. But you have to love working on machinery to own one of these.

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

I sell several brands. I am going to be purposefully vague about the brand and model since it really doesn't matter.

I've had situations where a buyback or swap seemed reasonable and necessary and the OEM refused, or continued to delay the decision. It's my customer and I sold him the tractor, so I bought it back anyway. I have done the buyback or the swap before and just dealt with the short term financial loss, and I have reaped the long term rewards of that sort of customer service. The dealer can make this call, he just has to realize that he now owns a repaired tractor that he must discount and that is costly.

Most customers will agree to pay a modest value for the hours they have already had the unit. That is as long as you get it done quickly. And often they will move up a tractor size and pay the difference for that, and that helps the dealer. But if you wait until they are smokin' mad, you have gained nothing. Even if you do exactly what they want at that point, it is too late to buy "good will". Timing is everything, and customer satisfaction is key and there is a point of no return.

Maybe the best post DavesTractor has ever made. Your customers have to come before your short term profits. A tractor, regardless of who built is, is only as good as the dealership who sells it to you.

 

[Ford850]

I agree the dealers are the most important when deciding which tractor to buy. I huge dealer means you could be a nobody to them. A dealer that's too small means THEY could be a nobody to the manufacturer. You want a dealer who has the experience, knowledge, and connections, to make decisions and keep a good relationship/partnership between you and them. I'm lucky to have a couple choices, both medium sized for my area, and both with excellent service. Here's a recent parts story about one of them...
I wanted to add a 3rd rear remote to my tractor. They made a kit with all fittings, tubing, handles, etc., but that became obsolete many years ago when they changed part numbers for a newer kit. Then that newer kit became obsolete a couple years ago, with only rare stock found at some dealers. Anyways, I tried to get that kit from my dealer. He searched dealers inventory nationwide, and none have been in stock for over a year. I kicked myself for not getting all 3 remotes when I bought the tractor new. Then my dealer started asking more questions and continued to dig. He found an original kit with the old part number, in stock at a dealer in Canada. Still new in the unopened box, made in 2007. Still listed at the 2007 price which was less than half the latest kit price from a couple years ago. He said "I can have it in tomorrow for you, or if you can wait 4 days I can get it with no shipping charges". I now have a 3rd remote on my tractor, and that dealer has me as a dedicated customer.

 

[SteveM70]

Thanks ultrarunner and moss road. Times have definitely changed. It seams like in this day we almost take for granted that when we need something the Internet and the little brown truck can have it at our door within hours. And it does most of the time.

 

[ultrarunner]

Maybe the best post DavesTractor has ever made. Your customers have to come before your short term profits. A tractor, regardless of who built is, is only as good as the dealership who sells it to you.

I agree up to a point...

Unfortunately all the local Kubota Dealers closed up shop in my San Francisco area... but Kubota still found a way to get me my new seat for my BX 10 years ago... ;-)

 

[crreed67]

Maybe the best post DavesTractor has ever made. Your customers have to come before your short term profits. A tractor, regardless of who built is, is only as good as the dealership who sells it to you.

YUP..

 

[Industrial Toys]

That kind of relationship with PT is almost impossible to believe in this day and age and too good to be true. Usually a company like that (Or Harley, The Rake People) gets bought by a Billion Dollar corporation in a leveraged deal and everything that's good is destroyed to become like every other dysfunctional faceless corporation.

 

[ultrarunner]

Sad but true... kind of what might happen when my little local Hospital gets absorbed by a huge National Hospital group... in part it is the insurance companies driving this because stand alone community hospitals get paid WAY less in reimbursements than the big chains...

People that know me realize I literally have kept the doors open at times... the plan is to outsource all facilities to the lowest bidder and negotiate as contracts come due.

I'm really pulling for you getting back up and running soon!

 

[MossRoad]

That kind of relationship with PT is almost impossible to believe in this day and age and too good to be true. Usually a company like that (Or Harley, The Rake People) gets bought by a Billion Dollar corporation in a leveraged deal and everything that's good is destroyed to become like every other dysfunctional faceless corporation.

Rumor has it they close during hunting season... :laughing:

 

[TMGT]

Wouldn't suprise me, there's a number of companies around me that close during hunting season.

From my understanding, power trac main income is from underground mining equipment, they started building the tractors as part of a side venture.

I went to the factory with my dad when he was looking at one years ago. Didn't end up buying one but always liked how heavy they were built.