01-22-2011, 04:52 PM
Coming from a design and development background and as a consequence, having a better than average understanding of manufacturing (albeit not to the extent of a manufacturing guy) I'd have to come down on Fred W.'s side on this one.
There is alot more to bring a product to market than the majority of the general public knows. It is the stuff of long days (no "overtime" as a owner or salaried guy,) lots of coffee, eating on the run and general anxiety. Now throw a change of hands of the product line into the mix and you find yourself buying Rolaids by the carton! Include business upheaval that may involve a move of the tooling, finding a new molder who has a.) the capability of running your tooling and b.) a slot in their production schedule that will accomodate your needs. Add to that locating the necessary amount of warehousing space in your vicinity and possibly hiring a couple of part-timers (you hope are trustworthy) to operate the warehousing, packaging and shipping of the new product line.
There is often an air bubble in the "product availablility pipeline," along with some "sludge" (inferior quality parts) while the whole transition of ownership/regional location thing happens. Depending on funding, manufacturing knowledge and manpower, It can take time to get it all running again smoothly ... and production (and therefore availablity of product) may become "Limited."
Take for instance Scale Structures Ltd., Durango Press, Sequoia and a couple other small operations that specialized in fairly high quality soft metal castings. They each disappeared from the scene for a while and then reappeared in limited availabilty from a couple very small family-run operations. Some of these product lines were split up, with cast detail parts going to one small producer and cast vehicle kits going to another. It can get confusing.
If the product line is a viable one and there is demand, the product and the repair parts will resurface. It may not be real pretty as new owners scramble to make it happen, but in time. the dust will settle.
There is alot more to bring a product to market than the majority of the general public knows. It is the stuff of long days (no "overtime" as a owner or salaried guy,) lots of coffee, eating on the run and general anxiety. Now throw a change of hands of the product line into the mix and you find yourself buying Rolaids by the carton! Include business upheaval that may involve a move of the tooling, finding a new molder who has a.) the capability of running your tooling and b.) a slot in their production schedule that will accomodate your needs. Add to that locating the necessary amount of warehousing space in your vicinity and possibly hiring a couple of part-timers (you hope are trustworthy) to operate the warehousing, packaging and shipping of the new product line.
There is often an air bubble in the "product availablility pipeline," along with some "sludge" (inferior quality parts) while the whole transition of ownership/regional location thing happens. Depending on funding, manufacturing knowledge and manpower, It can take time to get it all running again smoothly ... and production (and therefore availablity of product) may become "Limited."
Take for instance Scale Structures Ltd., Durango Press, Sequoia and a couple other small operations that specialized in fairly high quality soft metal castings. They each disappeared from the scene for a while and then reappeared in limited availabilty from a couple very small family-run operations. Some of these product lines were split up, with cast detail parts going to one small producer and cast vehicle kits going to another. It can get confusing.
If the product line is a viable one and there is demand, the product and the repair parts will resurface. It may not be real pretty as new owners scramble to make it happen, but in time. the dust will settle.
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln