Ruger Parts Problem ????

[caryc]

Anybody else having trouble getting parts from Ruger? On 7/30, I ordered left and right ferrules. They did not have enough left in inventory to cover my order but said they would send me the 44 pieces of each that they had. My bank account was billed the next day on 7/31.

On 8/6 I called them again and they now had 25,000 of each in stock so I ordered the remainder of my original order. Again, they billed me the next day on 8/7.

I still have not received either order from them. I've been ordering from them for over 8 years and usually receive the parts within about 4 business days.

Their is another thread on the Ruger Forum.com where another guy is having the same problem as I am.

I'm beginning to wonder if they have some kind of IRS problem and cannot ship anything out of their plants or something. When I called again on 8/6, the lady just said she didn't know why my original order had not shipped yet. I tried to call them yesterday, Friday but the recorded message said the NH plant had closed down early at 11 AM.

Anybody else having problems getting parts? They're just little parts. Throw them in an envelope and stick it in the mail. So what's the hold up?

[taffin]

I ORDERED SIGHTS AND SCREWS AND WAS TOLD THEY WOULD ARRIVE IN ABOUT 10 DAYS. THEY ARRIVED YESTERDAY WHICH WAS ABOUT TEN DAYS.

[caryc]

Aug 12, 2012 8:54:40 GMT -5 taffin said:

I ORDERED SIGHTS AND SCREWS AND WAS TOLD THEY WOULD ARRIVE IN ABOUT 10 DAYS. THEY ARRIVED YESTERDAY WHICH WAS ABOUT TEN DAYS.

John,

I still want to keep the faith with Ruger but I'm just going on the info of how it's been with my orders for 8 years now. If when I call them tomorrow, they tell me that my original order has been shipped, that will restore my faith in them.

[sackpeterson]

Yes Cary… I imagine we have similar ordering habits.

I ordered some parts just prior to July 1st. They were doing inventory, and said no parts would be shipped that week. Then they went on factory hiatus for the week of July 4. I encountered this in years prior, so I paid it no mind. They did charge my card the following Monday, so I expected my order was picked and sent, as had been my past experience.

4th week of July they hadn’t arrived. I called a couple times and didn’t get very confident answers. In my last call I begged / cajoled / insisted they tell me what’s up / what to expect. They said they had a new fulfillment system and were overrun with orders in general. I did manage to get someone to go pull my slip and pick my order and send it.

Had to order again this morning, and the sense was it would be 7 days before it would even be picked.

I do believe it is as they say. In the software business I have seen users bewildered by new software. And I hear it’s the case that their overall business is going gangbusters.

[arokcrwlr]

I'm not sure about slow order shipment of parts that are in stock, but I had a conversation with one of our favorite gunsmiths over the weekend about Ruger parts availability in general. In his circle of friends in the gunsmith profession, they have concluded through contacts at Ruger, that today's company is operated differently than the Ruger of old. They no longer build parts just to have on hand - rather they build only enough parts to satisfy current orders. I suppose that is function of "just in time" manufacturing processes that are supposed to reduce operating costs. What this means is that if there's no order on the books for a specific part and you need one, then you have to wait until there's enough orders to justify another run of parts.

We can assume that other "process improvements" have affected order shipments as well. New management almost always make some changes - not always for the better.

[sackpeterson]

Could be Kraig.

Cary – I also found them confused about whether the parts were actually in stock. Phone person was browsing positive inventory amounts, while warehouse picker was not finding any and / or looking at the system and seeing out of stock.

[hammerdown77]

Seeing a lot of parts shortages at the retail online sellers as well. Midway is almost always out of the part(s) I need, as is Brownells.

[caryc]

I finally received my original order of ferrules yesterday. I'm still a little miffed that they can manage to bill one the very next day of receiving the order but can't even manage to get it picked until two weeks later.

I can live with the two weeks but why should they have my money for two weeks while I have nothing?

As far as inventory is concerned, I worked as an inventory controller for a rather large company. A good system will have "MRP" built into it. That is material requirements planning. This automatically tracks usage of any particular part number. The controller uses this to set a "safety stock".

This safety stock is what you can safely get by on until a new parts order is received. When one runs "MRP" which I did at least every other day, the system automatically told me what "it" wanted to buy. It was my job then to either buy or not to buy and at what amount. It generally works pretty well. The whole idea is that you never run out of anything. Of course there are always unforeseen circumstances.

When I received my order yesterday, there was a whole new invoice with it so I guess Ruger has gone to a new system. I had also gone through this with the company I worked for. We went from an old DOS based system called "Infomax" to a much newer system called "Avante'. It was a very traumatic couple of weeks that I would not like to do again.

I could even live with Rugers billing habits but I hope they get things to run more smoothly than letting two weeks go by before they even "pick" the parts for shipment.

But anyway, I've been through this "getting a new system" thing so let's give Ruger a little slack for a while.

As far as the retail online sellers go, Ruger can not determine how their sales are going to go. When I was in control, one of my pet peeves was our sales reps that would make a large sale to another retailer and running our inventory dangerously low all of a sudden. Ruger is going to keep their own butt covered before selling to other retailers.

And don't forget that on top of all that you always have the company bean counters telling you that your "DSI" (days supply of inventory) is too high and you need to cut down. The trouble is that no one goes to them ranting and raving when you run out of stock on something.

Controlling inventory is a thankless job no matter how you look at it. If your inventory is to high you have the bean counters on your butt, if it's too low, you have the sales people crying because they have customers ranting and raving with them.

[ranch23]

So, thats how those IRS rumors get started.

[sackpeterson]

My experience with my August order was pretty good. Around ten days from call to delivery.

I do wish they'd allow for more online shopping with some of this stuff. But, there is Brownells for that I guess.

[caryc]

That second order I put in was delivered 17 days after they billed me for it.