Companies can no longer afford to keep unsold stock so generally build to order. I could never understand how vehicle (car and bike) manufacturers could afford to keep quite so much stock when its a high value item and costs to store.
Was it the Japanese manufacturers who invented the just in time delivery?I think in a few cases the marketing dept's of a couple of the big bike makers could have worked out,due to deposits paid,and amount of interest,a pretty good idea of numbers of bikes required.Seems a bit daft to spend so much on advertising/marketing and end up so way off the mark with supply?However,as I am not involved in the making of anything,I am way off the mark here!
Understand what you are saying, but it seems to be the way it is now. We ordered a new car in Jan with an expected delivery of last week - which worked out great as our old box is knackered and cost a fortune to get through the next MOT, not to mention having to renew the insurance on it too. It has been pushed back to end of May without any warning - only found out by ringing the dealer the night before wondering if it is all ready to go tomorrow! Double the original time and meaning that I am now spending on new suspension for our existing car for literally keeping it going for about 2 months. It seems a bit OTT to me, surely they know how many they can make versus how many orders they have in and give a computer calculated lead time on it with some degree of accuracy these days? We could work out stock delivery to within a day back 20 years ago when I worked in stock control for a large DIY chain!
