I’d love to speak to someone from Yamaha boat

[BigN8]

You really want to get red ass? You should see what corporate manufacturing is seeing and reporting for Profit last year and this year. They all know due to allotments that they can only run the manufacturing lines to a given amount. So the price has been hiked up to meet sales numbers. So we are seeing a slight dip in sales revenue, but operating income is through the roof. Wife is bugging me to do a major renovation to our master bath. I'm going to wait because I know all the building materials are inflated. I'll do the job when the recession hits, maybe even pull the trigger on that sailboat. And yes, a recession is right around the corner. We are already seeing it in construction bidding activity. The hold and wait mentality is trickling down.

 

[biffdotorg]

I mean I do get everything your saying? Not saying I don’t understand business. Maybe I was just hoping when I orders it it would be here a year later. It’s not like the dealer don’t have my deposit to guarantee a sale. Again I’m new to the boating world so I knew there would be a wait but not this long . Also it just sucks to hear guys saying I dint have to wait, or famous dealer quotes boat is built just waiting on parts.... for 6 months. I did try to reach out to other popular dealers out of state and most won’t sell out of state.

Time of year probably had the biggest effect on this situation as well.

At this time last year, dealers were taking deposits on an allocation of boats that they didn't even know about. In other words you were paying for a place in line, to place on order, on a predetermined amount of boats that the dealer "should" get in. The dealer didn't know what was going to change for the coming model year (it was before the dealer show) they didn't know colors, or prices. It was like picking a number at the door to the deli, before you could read a menu, see the specials, or even know if the type of bread you wanted was on the shelf.

And all of this happened, as the dealers needed something to sell. New and used boats were nowhere to be found. So what do you take a deposit on, a place in line.

This is not the norm, and there is no norm for the past 36 months. So we are not beating on you, but more or less trying to explain, that this is new for Yamaha as well as all other powersport MFG's. Some dealt with it better and adapted as best they could. But it did force them to go JIT inventory even more than they had, and deal with mostly the dealers they knew that could sell. As it was going to be tight to be profitable.

 

[ZippyBoater]

I am calling it the "Biden Boat Sortage!" LOL

 

[BigN8]

Time of year probably had the biggest effect on this situation as well.

At this time last year, dealers were taking deposits on an allocation of boats that they didn't even know about. In other words you were paying for a place in line, to place on order, on a predetermined amount of boats that the dealer "should" get in. The dealer didn't know what was going to change for the coming model year (it was before the dealer show) they didn't know colors, or prices. It was like picking a number at the door to the deli, before you could read a menu, see the specials, or even know if the type of bread you wanted was on the shelf.

And all of this happened, as the dealers needed something to sell. New and used boats were nowhere to be found. So what do you take a deposit on, a place in line.

This is not the norm, and there is no norm for the past 36 months. So we are not beating on you, but more or less trying to explain, that this is new for Yamaha as well as all other powersport MFG's. Some dealt with it better and adapted as best they could. But it did force them to go JIT inventory even more than they had, and deal with mostly the dealers they knew that could sell. As it was going to be tight to be profitable.

The execs in my company are saying we will never return back to normal as it was before this started. I'm not smart enough to understand why, but the days of being able to have 1 week lead times on the most common materials in the low slope roofing systems I sell are gone for good according to the big wigs. If it's that way with us, I would imagine it'll be that way for most manufacturing companies. The Pandemic was the hurricane. Lean Sigma was the warm water that fueled it. Last 15 years manufacturing has followed the Japanese implementing Lean Sigma and perfecting "just in time" delivery. That really screwed everything up. Keeping a large supply of OEM parts or raw materials in stock is gone for good it seems.

 

[sandtiago83]

You really want to get red ass? You should see what corporate manufacturing is seeing and reporting for Profit last year and this year. They all know due to allotments that they can only run the manufacturing lines to a given amount. So the price has been hiked up to meet sales numbers. So we are seeing a slight dip in sales revenue, but operating income is through the roof. Wife is bugging me to do a major renovation to our master bath. I'm going to wait because I know all the building materials are inflated. I'll do the job when the recession hits, maybe even pull the trigger on that sailboat. And yes, a recession is right around the corner. We are already seeing it in construction bidding activity. The hold and wait mentality is trickling down.

I know everything is jacked up . Price of everything is up but pay don’t seem to match it. But somehow companies still seem to be growing there pockets. But that’s life. If the Recession is gonna happen needs to happen soon and just get it over with.

 

[adrianp89]

The execs in my company are saying we will never return back to normal as it was before this started. I'm not smart enough to understand why, but the days of being able to have 1 week lead times on the most common materials in the low slope roofing systems I sell are gone for good according to the big wigs. If it's that way with us, I would imagine it'll be that way for most manufacturing companies. The Pandemic was the hurricane. Lean Sigma was the warm water that fueled it. Last 15 years manufacturing has followed the Japanese implementing Lean Sigma and perfecting "just in time" delivery. That really screwed everything up. Keeping a large supply of OEM parts or raw materials in stock is gone for good it seems.

Competition will drive this down to normal. Even if the companies colluded to keep supply low, one will eventually break trend and always have a product in stock... which will drive their sales up and force the others to do the same. Might not be for all markets, but quite a few. I expect car dealerships to be one of the first.

 

[scokill]

Competition will drive this down to normal. Even if the companies colluded to keep supply low, one will eventually break trend and always have a product in stock... which will drive their sales up and force the others to do the same. Might not be for all markets, but quite a few. I expect car dealerships to be one of the first.

I believe Yamaha has sold all they can make for years and years. Now is no different. Demand has gone up and the supply chain has probably tightened things. I don't believe they will ever invest to the point of over producing unless it's because demand has gone down.

 

[DogDadDave]

That’s all it’s about is transparency. If Yamaha would tell dealers hey we are waiting on parts that are not gonna be here for 6 months it at lest they tell us hey we are 6 months behind and you probably won’t get anything till October then let us decide if it’s worth waiting for and get on with our summer. Instead they give us false hopes and give us dates then once that passes then they give us more dates . Then it just makes the dealers look bad because that’s who we deal with .

This is under the assumption that Yamaha knows you ever placed a reservation with your dealer. They do not. Yamaha cannot tell your dealer if your boat is being delayed because they aren't building a boat for you specifically. They are building boats and sending them out to dealers based mainly on how many boats the dealer sold in prior years (as others have already mentioned). The dealers are then choosing whether to honor the list they wrote down of people who placed reservations or if they should just mark it up $10K+ and wait for someone to bite (which appears to be happening a lot now). If your dealer is telling you that Yamaha is delaying YOUR order, your dealer is lying to you. Your dealer took too many reservations, thinking people would back out. My dealer took fewer reservations than they had allocations this year anticipating this based on last year's supply/production issues, and was open with us about the process.

 

[biffdotorg]

I believe Yamaha has sold all they can make for years and years. Now is no different. Demand has gone up and the supply chain has probably tightened things. I don't believe they will ever invest to the point of over producing unless it's because demand has gone down.

This is true. And in the sled industry, Yamaha was the first to go Pre-Order only and producing absolutely zero inventory for dealer stock. Arctic Cat followed suit, which was expected being both were mostly being produced out of the Thief River Falls plant.

Ski-Doo and Polaris pushed the largest pre-order this past spring. And both had more spring-order only models than any previous year. They truly had to sell what they could produce, and hopefully produce what was pre-sold. Then move on to other models once they knew they could fulfill all spring orders. I just saw an email from Polaris saying they have just started opening production on in-season models and informed potential buyers of what models will most likely be available. So someone is trying to give the consumer hope, that could not get off the fence in April.

 

[King]

I'm on a project currently where we barely avoided a 52 week wait on fiber optic cable by switching brands. One of our subcontractors may step in to the land of liquidated damages over the lead time on three Rockwell Allan Bradley PLC power supplies that aren't slated to arrive before next spring.

We're waiting on our boat as well. But, I can attest, this is not a Yamaha exclusive problem. At least Yamaha is holding production until the units are 100% ready and hasn't implemented what Ford has by selling vehicles that will need a chip install, when ever it's available LINK. Come get it now, minus several of the features you're paying for sounds worse to me than we'll call you when it's ready.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

I'm on a project currently where we barely avoided a 52 week wait on fiber optic cable by switching brands. One of our subcontractors may step in to the land of liquidated damages over the lead time on three Rockwell Allan Bradley PLC power supplies that aren't slated to arrive before next spring.

We're waiting on our boat as well. But, I can attest, this is not a Yamaha exclusive problem. At least Yamaha is holding production until the units are 100% ready and hasn't implemented what Ford has by selling vehicles that will need a chip install, when ever it's available LINK. Come get it now, minus several of the features you're paying for sounds worse to me than we'll call you when it's ready.

Can’t open the article w/o subscribing.

Yamaha is screwed which path it takes, as Abe Lincoln said you can only make some of the people some of the time.

One of the worst things that can be done in customer service is to over promise and under deliver…I think Yamaha took the best route and stopped giving updates without some sort of guarantees. Why ? Because a lot of people are not reasonable…if Yamaha said we think the boats will be delivered on X date with the caveat “it depends on supply lines” when X date comes and goes some people get their jammys in a knot and deny the caveat, said people then start running to other forums and copy and paste inflammatory posts.

If it was me, and delivery dates were still unknown after a long time I’d have moved on to another manufacturer if I really wanted the boat and was able to break the budget.

 

[biffdotorg]

I'm on a project currently where we barely avoided a 52 week wait on fiber optic cable by switching brands. One of our subcontractors may step in to the land of liquidated damages over the lead time on three Rockwell Allan Bradley PLC power supplies that aren't slated to arrive before next spring.

We're waiting on our boat as well. But, I can attest, this is not a Yamaha exclusive problem. At least Yamaha is holding production until the units are 100% ready and hasn't implemented what Ford has by selling vehicles that will need a chip install, when ever it's available LINK. Come get it now, minus several of the features you're paying for sounds worse to me than we'll call you when it's ready.

Yup, GM is doing the same thing. A buddy took delivery last month of his new GMC Sierra AT4. Beautiful truck, fully loaded (on paper)

The actual window sticker now has a section for features that are included, and those that are included, but yet to be installed at a future date. As well as a credit for the inconvenience. My buddy got a $500 credit for not getting Onstar and heated seats, but knows they will come at a later date.

 

[King]

Can’t open the article w/o subscribing.

Yamaha is screwed which path it takes, as Abe Lincoln said you can only make some of the people some of the time.

One of the worst things that can be done in customer service is to over promise and under deliver…I think Yamaha took the best route and stopped giving updates without some sort of guarantees. Why ? Because a lot of people are not reasonable…if Yamaha said we think the boats will be delivered on X date with the caveat “it depends on supply lines” when X date comes and goes some people get their jammys in a knot and deny the caveat, said people then start running to other forums and copy and paste inflammatory posts.

If it was me, and delivery dates were still unknown after a long time I’d have moved on to another manufacturer if I really wanted the boat and was able to break the budget.

Here's a better LINK for that story.

I had a friend/coworker a long time ago that lived under the motto of... you can only please some of the people some of the time BUT, you can surely piss off all of the people all of the time.

 

[King]

Yup, GM is doing the same thing. A buddy took delivery last month of his new GMC Sierra AT4. Beautiful truck, fully loaded (on paper)

The actual window sticker now has a section for features that are included, and those that are included, but yet to be installed at a future date. As well as a credit for the inconvenience. My buddy got a $500 credit for not getting Onstar and heated seats, but knows they will come at a later date.

As weird as all of this is, I guess this is the current world we're living in. At least Chevy is offering a bit of financial compensation for it. Ford most likely is as well. I wasn't trying to pick on them, that was just the story I ran across. More about the situation than the party involve.

OnStar, I could deal without... Heated seats, the wife wouldn't let that happen. Literally, would be a deal breaker for her.

 

[biffdotorg]

As weird as all of this is, I guess this is the current world we're living in. At least Chevy is offering a bit of financial compensation for it. Ford most likely is as well. I wasn't trying to pick on them, that was just the story I ran across. More about the situation than the party involve.

OnStar, I could deal without... Heated seats, the wife wouldn't let that happen. Literally, would be a deal breaker for her.

What's funny is the heated seats and most of the Onstar components are installed. It's the controller chip that is not available. Too funny. For the same reason Polaris was delayed on many new SXS's and Sleds, it was the chips missing from their Ride Command in-dash infotainment system.

 

[sandtiago83]

Hey man, don't shoot the messenger. And, I'm not sure why I am the one to blame for this mess, I'm just bluntly telling you why it is the way it is. I'm just a cog in the corporate wheel operating within the boundaries of this modern day shit sandwich. All I can tell you is that if I do $2M every year with Company X, then they get priority over Company Y that has never bought our product before. They have been a longer partner in business with us so we have to keep them happy. And yes, they push on us and remind us of that very situation when it becomes an issue.

Yamaha finally got back to me when I contacted them and this is what they offered me.

 

[rockinthesuburbs]

The execs in my company are saying we will never return back to normal as it was before this started. I'm not smart enough to understand why, but the days of being able to have 1 week lead times on the most common materials in the low slope roofing systems I sell are gone for good according to the big wigs. If it's that way with us, I would imagine it'll be that way for most manufacturing companies. The Pandemic was the hurricane. Lean Sigma was the warm water that fueled it. Last 15 years manufacturing has followed the Japanese implementing Lean Sigma and perfecting "just in time" delivery. That really screwed everything up. Keeping a large supply of OEM parts or raw materials in stock is gone for good it seems.

THIS! Know it's an old comment but I wish more people knew about this. I head our Cont. Improvement/LEAN dept. and can definitely say that JIT and six-sigma combined with the global supply chain shortages have basically done away with long-term raw material storage. I work in the aviation industry and while it's frustrating waiting 10-12 months for a part, it's that way across the board. As long as customers are willing to wait, there's no sense in wasting capital on stocking additional inventory, especially with the price increases that we've experienced over the past year. If prices begin to drop significantly, it might be a different story, but that's yet to be seen. Wait it out is the new norm for the moment.

On a side note - glad you finally got your boat @sandtiago83! Looks great!

 

[sandtiago83]

THIS! Know it's an old comment but I wish more people knew about this. I head our Cont. Improvement/LEAN dept. and can definitely say that JIT and six-sigma combined with the global supply chain shortages have basically done away with long-term raw material storage. I work in the aviation industry and while it's frustrating waiting 10-12 months for a part, it's that way across the board. As long as customers are willing to wait, there's no sense in wasting capital on stocking additional inventory, especially with the price increases that we've experienced over the past year. If prices begin to drop significantly, it might be a different story, but that's yet to be seen. Wait it out is the new norm for the moment.

On a side note - glad you finally got your boat @sandtiago83! Looks great!t

Thanks waiting a long time but Yamaha worked it out with me . The higher up truly cared and don’t agree how it’s done but made it happen. Guess the squeaky wheel got the grease. I did not post this to gloat or rub it in anyone’s face who unfortunately got canceled. Just wanted to show that the company did rite by me and are changing the way they do there allotment to be more transparent with the waiting customer.

 

[Jim_in_Delaware]

It would be nice if as a customer, you went to a dealer and he placed an order for your boat and you got a build slot with Yamaha. Maybe you could even have a reasonable expectation when your boat might get deliver. However, the current process seems to work for Yamaha and it's dealers, so it really doesn't matter what you or I might think.

Jim

 

[Julian]

Yea I was a bit new to all this and thought it be as simple as buying a car.. boy was I wrong. The political game you have to play with the dealer then with the allotment, makes it all seem pointless when everyone just wants to buy something and just enjoy it.

Clearly you didn't try buying a car during Covid!!!! Holy [HASH=6754]#$@%[/HASH]

I feel for you as I bought a car and came away feeling dirty, abused and down right trodden all over. I felt like I should have thanked the dealer for the ass [HASH=6755]#$%@[/HASH] ! LOL

The furtther north you are, the few boats those dealers are selling, so when Yamaha was forced to cut deliveries by over half, those northern dealers really got screwed - and you along with them.