On a non political note: What are the main things affecting the supply chain right now? In the past month I have talked to a race tire manufacture who says there is a rubber shortage....a piston manufacturer who claims an aluminum shortage....and ARP having a steel shortage preventing them from running 7/16" material, including a shortage of tooling.
These are all three American companies.
All have been ordered February or before.
What is contributing to this right now?

you can't have this discussion without talking to the politics that is the cause of it.

Agree. Shut down businesses and then people can't get products.

There is still a help shortage also. I don't understand where everyone went. There was a small shortage of help before 2020 but never this bad. There isn't a restaurant anywhere that doesn't have a help wanted sign out. I am to the point of just telling our sales office that they will just have to keep pushing deliveries back until the help I have catches up because there isn't anyone to hire to help.

That doesn't even count the foundry deliveries that are behind schedule. Electric motors that I'm out of and aren't supposed to be here until July from there original delivery date of last November. There isn't anywhere to buy those motors in the states so we have to get them from, where else but stupid China. I do everything I can to keep China stuff out of our products but there is no option so we wait.

It all starts at the raw material stage problems and ends at the help shortage problem. JMO

I have an extremely well written notice from a VP at Cummins regarding ONAN Commercial Mobile and RV generators and parts in front of me

Detailing the reasons for the supply chain problems for the last 2+ years

It does not predict any improvement for some time and sounds like 2022 is not going to be getting better and that is really bad from a business standpoint for many

New machines are 6 months or longer wait and that has been true since well into last year

Right now I cannot even buy an Onan branded oil filter direct from them for their most popular and common machine produced today..

Blame it all on whoever you feel is responsible......

Political or otherwise...but there is an old saying that everything is political and it's hard not to make that connection after the last 2 years+

It is a huge problem and will continue thru 2022 !!

I have to do all I can to keep existing machines running because new is not an option.....

Stocks have been falling and inflation is climbing. A reset is on the way.

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Originally posted by Yellow Ticket:
Stocks have been falling and inflation is climbing. A reset is on the way.

When they slash credit card limits for no reason by 75%, then you can know for certain they're gonna pull the plug on the money machine.

Right now every indication is they're intending on blowing the bubble of all bubbles.

Most Americans have no clue where money comes from, or what it means to be a monetarily sovereign nation.

I did see where the Israeli's starting using chinese money. That is definitely a trend to follow.

It could be a looting operation too, the banks continuing expand credit.

It could go horribly wrong for the working man, or the masterminds may just attempt to blow the bubble back up with debt to infinity.

It has all been orchestrated to bring us to this point, only they know how long they intend keep the money machine plugged in.

They're 20 years ahead on plans. In other words they could tell what it'll be like in 20 years.

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It all starts at the raw material stage problems and ends at the help shortage problem. JMO

For sure. But everyone has been back to work for over a year. Some of us never shut down ever. In fact, in this area, nobody shut down. nobody. Are we that shy of capacity that we have no ability to recover? Is China prioritizing their own needs, and our reliance on them is finally catching up with us?

There is no doubt that this administration is mishandling and even caused some, maybe all issues. But I'm more interested in the specifics that are failing right now.
Great points brought up by all.

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Originally posted by Bucky:

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It all starts at the raw material stage problems and ends at the help shortage problem. JMO

For sure. But everyone has been back to work for over a year. Some of us never shut down ever. In fact, in this area, nobody shut down. nobody. Are we that shy of capacity that we have no ability to recover? Is China prioritizing their own needs, and our reliance on them is finally catching up with us?

There is no doubt that this administration is mishandling and even caused some, maybe all issues. But I'm more interested in the specifics that are failing right now.
Great points brought up by all.

This administration doesn't handle anything. Biden was appointed to take the tomatoes being thrown at him.

I’ve wondered where everyone went? At the end of 2019 finding good help was a little tough but I would get 50 résumés sent in to our ads. The available jobs are, I believe, mostly the jobs that were there before. Not hundreds of thousands of NEW jobs so where is everyone that was doing the work before that can’t be found now?

Wasn’t it Beijing that just shuttered the city again for a few weeks?

Finding help in construction sucks.

As for discussing with political is almost impossible.
Cpl old saying do come to mind. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Everything has a domino effect. One link got broken and took out the rest. Once the supply of material to make products was short it just made those products harder to get and those probably where used in making others and so on.

quote:

Originally posted by CURTIS REED:
I’ve wondered where everyone went? At the end of 2019 finding good help was a little tough but I would get 50 résumés sent in to our ads. The available jobs are, I believe, mostly the jobs that were there before. Not hundreds of thousands of NEW jobs so where is everyone that was doing the work before that can’t be found now?

Wasn’t it Beijing that just shuttered the city again for a few weeks?

It is. That's a lot of people.
I guess we have had a shrinking workforce. Covid covered it up to some extent, and was the impetus for many to go ahead and retire. Just as we need people in the work force for catch up?
The scary part here seems to be the notion that even while outsourcing a bunch of our labor, we still don't have the workforce to be self sufficient? How does that happen? Are we just that prosperous that people can retire younger than anywhere? We delay young people from going into the work force by steering the largest chunk of them into college, whether it benefits them or not. Plus, college is filled with classes having nothing to do with their majors. So it takes longer and is more expensive than it should be. And if you choose not to work, of course we won't let you starve. Plus we will give you access to free health care.....you know....cuz it's a god given right according to some. We certainly are our own worst enemy. We outsource everything and then create a world where we don't need that displaced workforce. And the answer seems to be to import folks who percentage wise have more of a tendency to work, and vote left than our American population as a whole.

It seems to me perhaps the next world wide conflict we will be involved in is a currency one. And we will see governmental overstep like we have never before.

And we have our own internal warring, spurred by political extremists. A war on the non urban. War on the nuclear family and traditional gender and sexual identification. A war on the productive. A war on whites, as well as a war on legal Americans. Don't forget the war on the sober, as we legalize drugs and import lethal ones from everywhere via our southern boarder.

You guys are right. I can't keep it from being political.

I think it's all ripple effect... we are now feeling the shutdowns. I need a liner for my pool - last year the pool place told me they were taking 8-10 weeks to come in instead of 2. Now this year they are backed up because of the dozen or so liners from last year that came in over the winter that will now have to get installed this year. And of course, they can't get enough help.
We are reopened in this country but I understand China is locked down, which I'm sure has an effect as so much manufacturing of products or components is done there. I work in a car dealership - we are getting new cars with only 1 key, no subwoofer installed and other parts missing due to shortages, customers will get the missing equipment at no charge once its available. Our manufacturers are in a panic because the factory that makes the wiring harnesses is in the Ukraine. They have blacked out the windows and switched to working nights, it's in an area of the country that Russia has not attacked.... YET.
Years ago, the trend in manufacturing was a switch to "just in time" manufacturing... not carrying a lot of surplus inventory as a way of saving costs. Now we are seeing just how fragile the whole supply chain is.

quote:

Originally posted by BD104X:

Years ago, the trend in manufacturing was a switch to "just in time" manufacturing... not carrying a lot of surplus inventory as a way of saving costs. Now we are seeing just how fragile the whole supply chain is.

The Army went to JIT back in the 90's. I had to pull any excess repair parts and turn it in and the start ordering as needed.
Needless to say I had equipment down for an extended time because of a lack of parts. Command didn't appreciate the answer of "No parts". I began assembling a unauthorized parts supply just to keep equipment operational. Also as the senior warrant in the battalion I had access to every companies parts list so I could move parts around. It didn't cure the issues but it helped.
Yeah, just in time doesn't work very well..

Dave

I recall something about this generation called the baby boomers and the large impact they will have on the country when they retire.
I can tell you that my wife and I both quit early and the BS of working isn't worth staying at a job or business. They might be paying more but most employers suck, especially if it's corporate America and then you have the people you have to deal with. Anyone that had the opportunity to go home and stay home took it.

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Years ago, the trend in manufacturing was a switch to "just in time" manufacturing... not carrying a lot of surplus inventory as a way of saving costs. Now we are seeing just how fragile the whole supply chain is.

Over the last 20 years, industry and bean counters in particular have perfected the near zero inventory model. And that removed every ounce of buffer we had. It does by its nature.

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especially if it's corporate America and then you have the people you have to deal with.

I agree. Corporate America still thinks people should be happy with working 50 weeks a year. I'm certainly a capitalist, but people don't like selling time from their life without flexibility.

I work in Corporate America, I'm very happy and I also race more than the majority that post here. Life is good!

quote:

Originally posted by Yellow Ticket:

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especially if it's corporate America and then you have the people you have to deal with.

I agree. Corporate America still thinks people should be happy with working 50 weeks a year. I'm certainly a capitalist, but people don't like selling time from their life without flexibility.

Everybody gets 3 weeks starting here. Corporate. Plus sick days. 401k and health insurance. Not all corporations are evil. They do what they are supposed to do: Make money.

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I work in Corporate America, I'm very happy and I also race more than the majority that post here. Life is good!

Not surprisingly those that prosper under a given situation are more than satisfied for things to continue down the current path. It can be the path to hell ultimately but from their perspective it's all well and good, until the bill comes due. I dare say that's the perspective most all of us have had all of our lives. People alive today in America haven't seen a world war or a depression, it's been milk and honey all our lives so good enough has been good enough. History assures there is a price to be paid for such apathy.