Our Small Parts Experience, to all TEAMS

[Jason Rudolph]

Even though there aren't going to be any SPI employees at the competition sites, there will still be a "small parts booth" at the competition sites with spare parts. At least this is what I understood when I spoke with FIRST.

[bigqueue]

Originally posted by Ed Sparks
I requested catalogs for our team back in November and last week. I got a response a couple days ago that Small Parts is out of catalogs.


I expect that the economy is hurting Small Parts and it's ability to provide it's past level of service. I guess everyone has to cut back to survive.

The absence of the grant for Small Parts hurt my hardware budget this year so I don't get to experiment as much as I would like.

Maybe next year ......

I requested a catalog in December some time, and this explains why I have not received it!

This is another thing that affects rookie teams alot. We are lucky to have someone who has a small parts catalog from two years ago...or we would be potentially at quite a dissadvantage.

Disadvantage because while the Allowed List of materials is nice, the ability to dip into ANYTHING in the small parts inventory is lost of you don't know what they have in their catalog.

Their web page is ok, with PDF pages from their catalog....but there is nothing like flipping page by page scanning a catalog with an open mind looking for ideas to solve a problem.

-Quentin

[AWiser]

According to the rules, you can only order parts that you could get on SmallParts.com or anything on the additional hardware list. Also, they have to be EXACTLY the same or else they won't be allowed!

[Ryan Curry]

Ok, so I was trying to figure out what to do about my tems sprocket problems, i loked at two leftovers from SPI from last year. Stamped on them was the word <b><i>Martin</B></I>. So after a little research on the internet i found http://www.martinsprocket.com/. These are the people who make sprockets for SPI! there for order it from them, skip the SPI problems and still get by within the rules. Sounds good to me. Oh and lok on your old sprockets to see if i was right about the Martin stamp on it!

[Mike Norton]

Martin is the supplier for Small parts. They are out of sprockets already. We pick up the last of them. they should have more in about two weeks. 24t,36t,48t,


there are plenty of other places it get them.

[Wayne Doenges]

Now for Teams 535 SPI horror story.

We ordered everything to build our robot Tuesday. They said it would go out Next Day FedEx. The parts were ordered early morning. We called today and they told us the parts were still in the warehouse. Now we have to wait another day!!! Also, half of our gear order is on backorder. Won't be in till 1/30.
Now is this anyway to run a railroad? Did SPI think that 660 teams would not need a few parts for their robots? Were they caught off-guard? I don't think so. Why couldn't SPI stock up on the most asked for parts? It boggles the mind

*throws $.02 into kittty*

Wayne Doenges

[bigqueue]

Originally posted by Wayne Doenges
Now form Teams 535 SPI horror story.

We ordered everything to build our robot Tuesday. They said it would go out Next Day FedEx. The parts were ordered early morning. We called today and they told us the parts were still in the warehouse. Now we have to wait another day!!! Also, half of our gear order is on backorder. Won't be in till 1/30.
Now is this anyway to run a railroad? Did SPI think that 660 teams would not need a few parts for their robots? Were they caught off-guard? I don't think so. Why couldn't SPI stock up on the most asked for parts? It boggles the mind

*throws $.02 into kittty*

Wayne Doenges

I know this will sound critical, but think about the state of the economy, and consider that Small Parts might be trying to keep inventories down like everyone else.

I think the timing of the economic downturn is very unfortunate for everyone....and particularly people who have to get a job done in 6 weeks.

Perhaps some of the blame might be laid on FIRST itself for requiring such strict rules regarding purchases from Small Parts....not that Small Parts probably doesn't want the business, but with crunch time schedules for 660 teams, quick delivery is important. (remember that running a FIRST competition during a tight economy has never benn done....I'm sure there are "special" circumstances/issues that crop up that have never been seen)



Either way, this is life....and we need to go with the flow and get it all done somehow.

-Quentin

[mnkysp6353]

As i was sitting in class i thought of something. How does SPI justify saying that they were caught off guard by the orders, THIS COMPETITION HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR 12 YEARS!. What did they think was going to change this year? The sagging economy is ABSOLUTLEY NO! reason to keep a low stock on hand. If they were prepared then there would still be the demand for them. Also how can they justify saying they didnt know, uhh they are giving each team 25% off everyorder. If this was my company I think i would know to order more stock. If FIRST chose SPI as there official supplier then they should say uh we had 00 teams that ordered a total of 1500 sprockets and we have 700 teams this year so we should order 2100 this year. I am required to do my homework to pass the class so why shouldnt SPI be required to do there homework?
Can you smell the sarcasm in this post?

[dlavery]

Remember, a big part of what FIRST is all about is giving students (and sometimes engineers!) a taste of '"real world engineering." It is an opportunity to see how practicing engineers solve problems, overcome hurdles, and attempt to triumph over adversities small and large.

Hmmm. Your suppliers aren't delivering on time? Parts on back order for longer than you expected?

Welcome to the real world.

So what to do now? You can sit here and whine about the poor performance of SPI, or you can try to solve your problem. I would like to make the following suggestion - why don't we change the tone of this thread to: "I can't get part xxx from SPI in time, can anyone help me find an alternate supplier FAST?"

I'll offer up the first suggestion. We are on two-week backorder for 1/4" pitch chain from SPI. Ordered a week ago, when we checked at the end of this week we were told it would be another two weeks. We found a company called Motion Industries that carried the identical part. Turns out they have about 500 outlets around the country (check their locator at http://www.motionindustries.com/ ). A quick 30-minute car trip to their nearest location, and problem solved. While there, a quick wander through their warehouse revealed that they carried a lot of other gears, chain, sprockets, bearings, etc. that SPI carries (I think that I even saw a whole pile of the Martin sprockets). I am probably going back this weekend with SPI catalog in hand to verify part similarities, and see if I can take care of all our back-order issues all at once.

-dave

[Anton Abaya]

in the real world, is the deadline normally 6 weeks? You're right, economics will tell us that our resources are scarce. Perhaps the real world shouldnt be this harsh on rookie teams though. Nice a gentle, we might scare them away!

[mnkysp6353]

Dave im not whining. I am just saying this is NO way for an official sponsor to act towards customers.
For example:
My moms company is the official supplier of cash register supplies to the Hilton Corporation. If she says i have a two week back order on most of the product that you are ordering, then Hilton will say goodby. They will take there business elsewere and her company will lose money.
The point is that the official supplier of FIRST should act accordingly. This will set many teams back.

In the real world Small Parts would be dropped as a supplier faster then they could say were out of most of the parts you ordered.

[dlavery]

Are we all disappointed that SPI has not been able to keep up with the demands of this year’s competition (for whatever reason the may be)? Yes. Are we all ticked off when this affects our ability to construct our robots? Yes. Are we the only ones that this ever happens to? Obviously, not. Should we get so paralyzed with indignation that we forget to deal with the fundamental problem of getting the robot built? Duh, let me think about that for a while…

My point is very simple: we can waste a lot of time complaining about how we are being treated by suppliers, or we can get around the problem. FIRST has given us a perfect way to do just that - they clearly said that it we can't get a part in a timely fashion from SPI, we are free to go elsewhere to get an indentical part. Just like the real world, if the supplier can't deliver on time, we are able to take our business (and money) elsewhere.

Make no mistake: it is completely appropriate to provide feedback to FIRST about how SPI, or any other supplier, treated teams - they need to know. But I would suggest that the most appropriate time and place to do that is the team forums later this summer, in a concise and professional manner. But right now, it is time to concentrate on getting robots built. And if in the process of solving our supplier problems we are able to help other teams running up against the same shortages, I think it would be great.

Me, I am very interested in finding out where I can get 1/2" flanged ball bearings by tomorrow afternoon...

-dave

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Somewhere, a villiage is missing their idiot. You see, I recently moved...

[Leo M]

Dave -

Which bearings do you need, exactly?

If they came in the kit, and you are in need of more than what was supplied, we can probably help you.

You can contact me by e-mail : Leo.Meire@Infineon.com

I hope I can help.

[dlavery]

Leo -

Thank you very, very much for the offer - it is most generous! But I think we may have that one solved. The local Motion Industries outlet didn't have exactly what we needed in stock. But he checked and found out that the store in Atlanta has what we need, and is having them shipped over-night up here. We pick them up on Thursday morning (now I just hope that no teams in Atlanta need the same bearings we want! ). And after all that, he did not charge extra for shipping - instead he gave us a discount when we told him about the project!

-dave


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I went on vacation to "find myself" - and got lost!

[rdmendola]

I ordered some stuff -- sprockets, chain, bearings, etc. -- from Motion Industries, Inc. (https://www.motionmro.com/motion/jsp/index.jsp ) and they were very helpful and prompt. I looked them up in the phone book -- they have offices in several cities -- but they also have a web site (address above). Good luck in getting your parts. We had problems with Small Parts also.