Parts Availability
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Mountain Pass
Joined: Sep 2021
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Parts Availability
Note: I purposely left "UAW and Strike" out of the title. I'm hoping this discussion focuses on true impacts to us/customers and not on politics and opinions of unions, CEO's, etc.
With the current work stoppage at various factories, I'm curious as to what impact this will have on parts availability. There must be a disconnect between lack of actual vehicles being built and parts that might be accumulating as a result. There has been a big shortage of engines and other parts because the auto companies could not keep up with production. Now with productions stopped or slowed, do you think parts will become easier to get or unobtainable?
With the current work stoppage at various factories, I'm curious as to what impact this will have on parts availability. There must be a disconnect between lack of actual vehicles being built and parts that might be accumulating as a result. There has been a big shortage of engines and other parts because the auto companies could not keep up with production. Now with productions stopped or slowed, do you think parts will become easier to get or unobtainable?
Logistics Pro
Joined: Jan 2010
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I've been through these so many times, and it's pretty much the same story.
It depends on if the plants building the components are part of the strike or not. For instance the first plants hit for GM included SPO plants, so any component manufactured and stocked by GM was essentially tied up in a series of warehouses. So those parts are going to be harder to come by.
If the manufacturer of a part can ship direct to dealers and aren't part of the strike, those parts may become more readily available as a small stockpile can be built up. Some of our customers who make components for GM are actually taking this as a blessing - they are so far behind that they've been running 24/7 to try to keep up, so this will allow them to cut overtime and still catch back up, possibly build a small bank.
If it's an aftermarket part, then there will be little to no effect on them.
It depends on if the plants building the components are part of the strike or not. For instance the first plants hit for GM included SPO plants, so any component manufactured and stocked by GM was essentially tied up in a series of warehouses. So those parts are going to be harder to come by.
If the manufacturer of a part can ship direct to dealers and aren't part of the strike, those parts may become more readily available as a small stockpile can be built up. Some of our customers who make components for GM are actually taking this as a blessing - they are so far behind that they've been running 24/7 to try to keep up, so this will allow them to cut overtime and still catch back up, possibly build a small bank.
If it's an aftermarket part, then there will be little to no effect on them.
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Mountain Pass
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If Ford "really" cares about customers, I would hope they would use some of the idled parts to catch up on warranty requests (ie 6.7 engines......) and shorten the waiting times. If they don't, I guess we know the real reason for the wait times.....
Logistics Pro
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It looks like they at least partially shut down the Sterling axle plant. There may be a few people in there running machines to make recall parts but it looks like the plant is at least partially down.
Logistics Pro
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There is a lot to the equation as to how many people they can keep working with major assembly plants down. It all depends on the supply chain. Would it be better to build a stockpile? In my mind yes. In a bean-counter on Wall Street's mind? Maybe not.
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