Just in time system in the world

[TTSX]

That's mighty woke of them.

Over the years Costco has made it very difficult to source Prime grade beef for other grocers and even restaurants (unless you're willing to buy from them of course) by purchasing of all the prime they can find .
Since Costco's customers are also members, I guess this door doesn't always swing both ways.
Yes , my family has purchased Costco memberships without interruption for 25+ years.

Explain what's woke about them selling as much or as little of their property in a single transaction as they like?

 

[Longwalkhome]

I remember a fairly recent trip to Costco and needed to buy mustard and ketchup. Looked everywhere and there was none. Asked the help and he couldn't find any so he went to the office. Office said to tell me mustard and ketchup are now seasonal items and we are not in season.

Of course it was a shortage due to the change in manufacturing when restaurants shut down.

 

[Knobgoblin]

Explain what's woke about them selling as much or as little of their property in a single transaction as they like?

Because it's, whether by design or ignorance, conditioning the sheeple to accept limits of their own purchasing power

 

[Knobgoblin]

I remember a fairly recent trip to Costco and needed to buy mustard and ketchup. Looked everywhere and there was none. Asked the help and he couldn't find any so he went to the office. Office said to tell me mustard and ketchup are now seasonal items and we are not in season.

Of course it was a shortage due to the change in manufacturing when restaurants shut down.

Vinegar has been in short supply for well over a year.
Pickles are also shipping at %50 or less availability.
Local bbq sauce entrepreneur hasn't had enough raw material for his modest production since last spring

 

[TTSX]

Because it's, whether by design or ignorance, conditioning the sheeple to accept limits of their own purchasing power

I don't think woke is the correct phrase, nor do I think costco is limiting anyone's purchasing power. A dollar is still worth a dollar at costco and it's not like you can't eat other foods. Or raise your own. Or hunt.

 

[Longwalkhome]

That's mighty woke of them.

Over the years Costco has made it very difficult to source Prime grade beef for other grocers and even restaurants (unless you're willing to buy from them of course) by purchasing of all the prime they can find .
Since Costco's customers are also members, I guess this door doesn't always swing both ways.
Yes , my family has purchased Costco memberships without interruption for 25+ years.

I have heard that big companies often corner a product they want to offer for sale. Some years ago I was told McDonald's buys all the big size potatoes so they can sell loomster fries and they have special onions grown just for them too.

 

[Knobgoblin]

I don't think woke is the correct phrase, nor do I think costco is limiting anyone's purchasing power. A dollar is still worth a dollar at costco and it's not like you can't eat other foods. Or raise your own. Or hunt.

Do you consider yourself a part owner of Costco, by paying membership fees?

 

[TTSX]

Do you consider yourself a part owner of Costco, by paying membership fees?

No. I consider myself a member. I don't pay ownership fees, I pay membership fees

 

[Knobgoblin]

No. I consider myself a member. I don't pay ownership fees, I may membership fees

That's good.

I will clear the air and simply say that I never limit my customers to any quantity of the products I have in my control. Of course I will qualify this statement with the fact that I am nobody, and with my attitude will never be in a position to enact policy at a scale that would make a difference.

 

[Carbon]

One time at costco as a floor guy, I5 was snowed over and some fellows in suits came from fred meyer to buy all the pallets of milk that they could, so their customers wouldnt go elsewhere.

 

[Longwalkhome]

I was thinking if there was some sort of order to the crash that is giving us shortages. Normally my mind is a steel trap but unfortunately its rusted shut with age.

Seems the shortages started with guns and ammo over the panic of the election.

Then if I have this right, covid kicked in and TP was the next to run short.

Beef next as covid hit meat packaging companies.

Then it was closing businesses to create what?

Its a perfect storm with JIT and covid as the tools but to what end?

Things run short and prices go up then things come back...just in time?

 

[revjen45]

I studied for APICS certification, so I understand Production and Inventory Management. Most people aren't aware of how much the costs associated with inventory amount to, so JIT works quite well as long as the supply chain is functioning. It is indeed less resistant to disruption.
The Chinese are smart and the Communists are evil. The Chicoms combine smart and evil like nobody else ever has. They have the long term Weltanschauung of a nation that's 2000 years old, with the patience, subtlety and total ruthlessness to go with it. We have JIT, an economic vision that stretches into the next quarter, and Droolin' Joe at the helm. God help us!
Do a search for china declares 30 year war on america. They have made their intentions clear.

 

[OldBroad44]

Excellent video. A little elaboration on the role of just-in-time patterns of inventory control. There is a genuine trade-off between efficiency and resilience. You get maximum efficiency by JIT if everything goes right and all the supply chains work. But JIT also gives you the least resilience. If one part goes wrong everything comes to a halt. Toyota was in a geographically tiny country, so supply chains were short. American supply chains are much longer, and they are often national or international. Furthermore, America tried to apply JIT to all steps/supplies. Even in Japan that doesn't work. Toyota uses JIT on all the products that are available from many sources, or that can be easily replaced with substitutes, or whose sources can be easily expanded. OTOH Toyota keeps a two to six months supply of computer chips, because sources are limited, and it can take millions of dollars and years to build a new chip plant. America learned the quicky one line version of JIT and missed some of the critical details.

As pointed out in the video, nearly all the goods from Pacific trade come into USA via two ports in California. And these became bottlenecks when covid disrupted labor supply to these ports. And a shortage of long haul trucking labor interfered with getting empty containers back to ports. And the fact that covid caused a recession in Asia meant that the containers sat over here since Asia wasn't buying American goods. So there is now a shortage of containers in Asia to use to ship goods to us because they are here in America not being returned to ports to get shipped back to Asia. This all agrees with what I've read elsewhere.

A few additional factors the video didn't cover. Much of the American meat processing is highly consolidated. So when one processing plant shuts down it can be a large fraction of the total meat supply. In addition, markets are highly differentiated. So, for example, the most Prime grades of sirloin steaks are sold mostly to restaurants. Lots of lower grade hamburger is sold to grocery stores. Soft tp is sold to grocery stores for use in homes. Inferior coarse or one ply tp is sold for use in commercial establishments. The supply chains and delivery mechanisms are separate and different. When covid happened the sales to restaurants collapsed. A much larger proportion of the food was being eaten and prepared at home. but the food being delivered to restaurants isn't the same as that for homes. And those who supply it have no agreements with grocery stores. The distributor of one ply toilet paper who sells to restaurants does not sell to grocery stores. Also, when everything shut down, people turned massively to buying from on-line much that they used to eat in restaurants or buy in stores, and those supply and distribution chains are all different too. Amazon, for example, has had to greatly expand its delivery capabilities. Finally, US businesses had been happy to buy huge amounts from China, paying no attention to the potential liabilities involved in sourcing so much--even critical stuff such as medical supplies and computer chips--from a country that is so far away and communist and so hostile toward us. We are involved in a trade war with China that has itself disrupted many supply chains. All the problems can be solved and undoubtedly will be. But rearranging markets, distribution, etc isn't fast. .and some stuff that is clearly necessary, such as moving our computer chips production back to America, will take years.

 

[Dungannon]

The supply chain issues are getting media coverage, but the conclusions are not encouraging.

COVID reveals huge structural problems in US supply chains, resulting in shortages

WASHINGTON (SBG) — Economists believe the pandemic has revealed just how vulnerable the United States' supply chain is to major economic shocks and that the time is coming where experts will have to rethink how to move products around the globe. The country has experienced severe shortages of...

katu.com

 

[albin25]

the REAL pity...
....Too bad that the Plandemic hasn't caused a shortage of fools!

 

[ma96782]

Then, there is that view that.....
The Govt's reaction (to force the shutdown of the entire economy) due to the CCP Virus caused.......

Yeah....I believe that Govt Policy also has lot to do with how the economy functions (or does not).


Remember that....the Coronavirus was raging at the same time that the "Summer of Love" was happening across Amerika.

Aloha, Mark

 

[CamoDeafie]

This book, copyrighted and published in 1986, provided me with a decent insight on the early start of Just-In-Time manufacturing and supply, and if I recall correctly, it also says that supply must never be interrupted, lest it all collapse. I am not sure if it is available as an e-book.

 

[Ura-Ki]

I call it the John Deere Saga of failure! While many a company has followed what J.D. had happen, None were as hard hit as them! J.D. started out with the old school idea of building something that would last forever, so there was little market for new sales! Where J.D. made it's money was in parts and service, with modest sales to help it along! They had SERIOUS inventory sitting around for decades and little movement, and their service shops were SLOW, not a whole lot of work coming through the shops! This worked for a long time and profits were ok. Along comes the Asian Manufactures and serious competition from Caterpillar and the other agile manufactures and J.D. suddenly had a crises on their hands! With literally MILLIONS sitting in inventory, a under used work force that was slow and methodical, they found them selves on the short end and damn near went under! What made things worse for them, in order to cut costs and become agile like the competition, they had to get rid of all that un used inventory some how, and they needed to build machines that were less then perfect so that they could drive new sales, and drive the service shops! This was a MAJOR change, and it cost them big money to correct, and then, they took it too far, which also nearly ended them! I would like to think they figured it out, but they haven't, and now with a MAJOR set of law suits against them, they may not survive!

 

[TTSX]

I call it the John Deere Saga of failure! While many a company has followed what J.D. had happen, None were as hard hit as them! J.D. started out with the old school idea of building something that would last forever, so there was little market for new sales! Where J.D. made it's money was in parts and service, with modest sales to help it along! They had SERIOUS inventory sitting around for decades and little movement, and their service shops were SLOW, not a whole lot of work coming through the shops! This worked for a long time and profits were ok. Along comes the Asian Manufactures and serious competition from Caterpillar and the other agile manufactures and J.D. suddenly had a crises on their hands! With literally MILLIONS sitting in inventory, a under used work force that was slow and methodical, they found them selves on the short end and damn near went under! What made things worse for them, in order to cut costs and become agile like the competition, they had to get rid of all that un used inventory some how, and they needed to build machines that were less then perfect so that they could drive new sales, and drive the service shops! This was a MAJOR change, and it cost them big money to correct, and then, they took it too far, which also nearly ended them! I would like to think they figured it out, but they haven't, and now with a MAJOR set of law suits against them, they may not survive!

Profits over all else has consequences. Instead of being able to buy any number of well made machines, you get to pick your favorite color of cheaply made junk. Green, orange, yellow, blue... More than likely are nearly the same machine built to the same specs with the same parts by similarly disgruntled alcoholics in a "we're family" environment. Can't say I'll miss them if they went under or even that I'd notice. At work the majority of our trucks have either a cat or Cummins engine, Eaton transmission and Spicer axles. Different badge on the hood so they're "different" vehicles . All look the same to me but the newer ones sure break more often

 

[oremike]

The JIT supply system worked for me as an ammunition manufacturer. To function at my level I'm restricted on the amounts of primers and powder I can have on hand. I'd get down to my restock level, order the most I could have and just keep going. Same with gun powder. Then in September without warning none of my suppliers will take orders for primers. So far I can still get powder, but with out primers........ Back before the who flung poo flu I didn't know I needed a rail road car or two of the consumables nor do I have the storage or funding to make that happen.