I finally saved up enough money to get a second bird on my boat and they are all out of stock. Does anyone know when they will be back in stock? I’m assuming the Pandemic and supply issues are to blame?
Thanks
I’m assuming the Pandemic and supply issues are to blame?
Really down to a lot of factors coming together at once. The pandemic is a little to blame in terms of driving massive demand for computers and home entertainment last year, but that spike has mostly passed. Consumer demand is strong because the economy is strong, but that isn’t really what’s driving it.
Bigger reasons are the fire at the Renesas plant in Japan back in March. Thanks to manufacturing’s hyper reliance on JIT (Just In Time) inventory and supplier consolidation to force down prices, this single plant makes 60+% of the chips used in the auto industry. And the auto industry loves zero inventory and JIT, so the automakers and other manufacturers had no stock of chips to fall back on.
Really this whole shortage comes down to decades of manufacturing moving to JIT inventory and supplier consolidation for efficiency and to hammer down costs. This has created a supply chain that has no resilience. The minute something goes wrong, the situation is bad. If two things go wrong, the situation is dire. There is no slack in the chain.
There is also a huge drought in Asia that is crippling chip production in several key areas. Water use restrictions have stalled chip production (which uses a lot of water) and some factories are limited to working only a few days a week because that’s all their water permits will allow.
Neither of these situations is going to end soon. Order backlogs for the supply of chips that are available are massive and growing every day.
Ford is completely shut down on the F150 production, which is Ford’s best-selling vehicle and this is entirely due to the chip shortage. Ford hasn’t idled consumer production on this scale since WW2. That’s how bad the situaiton is.
I was window shopping for Bird units this morning online as well & the only thing I could find, on two separate sites, said availability Oct. 1st..
I bought a new boat the first week of April. I ordered 2 Helixs then. Dealer was given a June 13 ship date……but I am not holding my breath.
Just plain craziness. People want to spend money but can’t.
Have you checked with Reed’s? They helped me out earlier this year.
What are you looking for? I took 3 Birds off my tiller before sending it down the road.
Thorne Brothers in Blaine had Helix units on the shelf yesterday.
Reeds were out but will check thorne bros
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
