OUT OF STOCK

[IndySam]

I can't state emphatically enough to call AndyMark or VexPro when something you need is out of stock. They both have wonderful people that understand the time crunch you are under and can tell you when things may or not be back in stock.

[JamesCH95]

Why this comes as a shock to teams every year is beyond me. The parts shortage immediately after kickoff happens every year and has been happening every year I've been involved with FRC.

It's just another part of the challenge that is most certainly realistic.

[Tom Line]

While we're at it, let's talk about the root cause of the issue.

FIRST is small. The organization is shockingly small: a lot of people thing FIRST a huge company when they're actually tiny.

So are a lot of their suppliers. Cross the Road is tiny. Andy Mark is small. Banebots. 221. Robot Shop. Vex Pro is pretty small too. They serve a very 'niche' market. The demand happens in a 6 week time span, and any inventory they don't sell ends up as taxable stuff sitting on a shelf costing them big bucks.

I work for Ford, and anyone who orders cars can tell you that we actually run out of cars from time to time. Especially hot selling models - you may end up waiting weeks for one. Same for all the other auto makers, and we're talking about a hugely mass-produced item with a fairly predictable market volume curve. It's like X-Box's and Playstations at Christmas when a new model comes out. Good luck getting it for a reasonable price - unless you preorder or stand in line for days.

None of this makes anyone feel better, I'm sure. When something is out, it sucks. However, it's the reality of any type of real manufacturing.

[MrJohnston]

We are certainly accustomed to dealing with items that are out of stock... We do try to pre-order things as much as possible. For instance, we have some things we specifically like to do in a tank drive system - what we most commonly use, so, before the season approaches, we order the parts for it. That doesn't solve the problem, of course. It does help.

I did just get off the phone with Vex as we we needed one replacement part... It was out-of-stock, so.... Last night we braced ourselves and mentally prepared ourselves to complete redesign the drive train, pending my conversation with Vex. Luckily the part will be back in stock in the next day or two and I should be able to have it by Tuesday next week.

[dradel]

I think the real frustration comes when they release a new item for the public to view a few weeks prior to kickoff, and once we know what our challenge is going to be for the year we all say "hey that new rev lifter would work here" only to find they are out of stock.

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by dradel

I think the real frustration comes when they release a new item for the public to view a few weeks prior to kickoff, and once we know what our challenge is going to be for the year we all say "hey that new rev lifter would work here" only to find they are out of stock.

I understand this frustration and have been there. This is my 14th FRC season, and as a team mentor I have over the years felt the frustration of needing an item that was out of stock.

When I started REV Robotics, I vowed before the season to not be one of those suppliers who runs out of stock at the worst time, because the student experience in this program is the most important thing to me and I want you focused on how to solve the problem not worrying about if a part will become available. I get it, I really do.

Unfortunately things happen that are out my control (like when the supplier for our bushings sends us a few thousand that are out of spec, or when the Port of LA backs up because of new structured union contracts that were put in place over the summer, or when a winter storm delays our deliveries to AndyMark.

We tried to plan, build in extra time, and do everything in our power to make sure we would be in stock, when teams needed parts, but we still went out of stock.

Here is a status of all REV products right this minute.

*REV extrusion - Large shipment was supposed to be delivered to AndyMark today, but will probably not make it until Monday because of the storm.

*Bushings - these have been shipped to AndyMark and should be arriving Monday also. They would have been in much eariler if our machine shop had not missed the tolerances I set. We have had to do 100% check on all of these, so qty will be low for a while, but a new full shipment will be arriving within a week.

*Bearing Plates - Plates are also en-route to AndyMark, and we have reserve stock on these so we won't run out, once team start buying them

*RIOduino - In stock now and totally awesome with the touchscreen shield. http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-2999.htm

All other components (More Board, Protoboard, Gusset Plates, Hardware, Bearings, etc) are in stock and ready to ship.


If you ever have any questions about stock or products I am always available to help teams in any way that I can.


Greg

[RachetIsLife]

Yah I'm really sad that the goats are out of stock on Andymark me and my team wanted 10 of them!

[BrendanB]

Yeah its frustrating.

I placed an order with AM right after kickoff with game pieces and a lot of other items we wanted for week 1 prototyping being careful to only place items in our cart that were in stock.

5 business days later and it still hasn't shipped out because one item either went out of stock or was out of stock and they only ship full orders according to my email inquiry.

Was it that hard to reach out to me and ask if I wanted the rest of my order instead of holding it up for a week?

[Conor Ryan]

Check out the Lunch with Andy episodes for season 3, Andy is usually pretty insightful as to what people are buying, whats in stock, and whats almost out of stock. If you want specifics, email or call AM or VexPro. They are nice people.

There are a lot of reasons for items to go out of stock due to the nature of how FRC's schedule goes.

[sanddrag]

This discussion takes me back to the days when we were allowed to purchase robot parts from only one supplier, who did not sell any FIRST-specific components (there was no such thing.). It would be nice to see this get back to a competition of design and manufacturing ability, rather than a competition of consumerism.

While it is an important skill to design around COTS parts and pick them out of a catalog, it's a more valuable skill to learn how to come up with the parts that are in the catalog.

That said, I'll be looking forward to my $1600 VEX Pro order arriving next week.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Was it that hard to reach out to me and ask if I wanted the rest of my order instead of holding it up for a week?

When they get hundreds, if not thousands, of orders in the span of a few days? Yes, it is that hard. This is not a massive corporation we're talking about, but rather a small business in their busiest time of year. Be pro-active about your orders.

Originally Posted by sanddrag

While it is an important skill to design around COTS parts and pick them out of a catalog, it's a more valuable skill to learn how to come up with the parts that are in the catalog.

Says who?
And who says you still can't learn both skills?
And who says that using COTs components can't teach how to create the parts in a catalog?
And who says we should be teaching skills rather than inspiring?

[Donut]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

It would be nice to see this get back to a competition of design and manufacturing ability, rather than a competition of consumerism.

While it is an important skill to design around COTS parts and pick them out of a catalog, it's a more valuable skill to learn how to come up with the parts that are in the catalog.

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Says who?
And who says you still can't learn both skills?
And who says that using COTs components can't teach how to create the parts in a catalog?
And who says we should be teaching skills rather than inspiring?

There are a lot of technical and engineering jobs where all you will do is use COTS components. I've worked in manufacturing since getting my degree and most big manufacturing companies don't design from the ground up. They buy an OEM stock machine or a design from an integrator, who use COTS drives and motors, which contain COTS electronics, etc. While there are times for an engineer to design a custom part the vast majority of the work in my field is deciding which COTS component or machine is optimal, identifying what maintenance is needed to keep it running, troubleshooting why it won't work, and planning for how to replace it when it is obsolete.

When Senior Design projects rolled around in college there were a few fellow Electrical Engineers who were lamenting about figuring out how to use a power MOSFET to run a motor. They asked me about what I was doing for my project which was working on a small machine for a local place that made military tie down straps. I had to explain to them about this thing called a relay, that you can buy for less than $50 and is readily available. That's knowledge I only had from my time in FIRST, and my career field will have a much smaller talent pool to pull from if we think that isn't a skill worth learning.

[cglrcng]

Greg that RIOduino w/ the touch screen shield is a sweet lil board. Thank's for that info.