MANUFACTURES PLIGHT

[OldEastRR]

Back in the day when I worked on truck shipping docks, when things like busted pallets or wrecked boxes came in we and the supervisors were required to inspect and write up every piece of damage goods, and mark them "OSD" (Over, Short or Damaged). This was done at every transshipment point, whenever the cargo was moved out of one vehicle/container to another. From there the insurance companies of each carrier got to wrangle over who'd pay. And there was some really fkkd up stuff we got. A truck driver began to open his trailer doors before backing up to the dock and he barely got the latch undone (it was swinging doors) when the door shoved him out of the way and two crated motorcycles tumbled to the ground (luckily he wasn't hurt).
Another time I walked into an open trailer and nearly  conked out from a powerful acid  smell -- a whole pallet of auto batteries had fallen on its side and the acid had drained out of all of them (this was in the days before they decided to add the acid before they installed the battery in your car, instead of at the factory).
And you have not had a fork-lift pierced accident until it's with a 55 gallon drum full of light lubricating oil. You'd be amazed at how quickly so much floor space can be covered by 55 gallons of oil. Plus what soaks into other pieces of freight around it.

[nkalanaga]

The factory I work at gets fork-damaged skids fairly regularly from suppliers right here in the US.  Considering some of OUR fork truck drivers, I'm surprised we don't have more.  We finally had to put plastic guards around the H-columns holding the roof up, because three drivers ran into them in a month, just on my shift.  When that happened the whole building rang, so there was no hiding it, but as far apart as the columns are there really wasn't any excuse either. 

This wasn't in the warehouse itself, but on the production floor...

[James Costello]

[snip] they were counting on that release to bring money in and now not only can they not ship the product which would bring in additional revenue but it also may delay other projects from getting done or announced while they try and get more cars done.[/snip]

Should have lead with the containers - no moving parts to break and from what appears to be a sell-out, a good money earner for them.

Congrats to them for taking the [low] risk on a product with pent-up demand and [hopefully] reaping the rewards.

Also hopefully other manufacturers see the market that does exist for "modern" rolling stock, especially intermodal.

[mu26aeh]

They posted some photos of the damaged cars on their FB page.  They have people clamoring to buy the damaged cars from them to use for derailment scenes or flat car loads, some stating they will still pay full price for said cars.  Also a few comments that damage was caused by others in business not happy with new competition.  Amazing what people write on social media 



They are also looking for help to go thru the entire delivery if you live close by.

[peteski]

Seeing the photo I thought that these N scale cars have excellent details but then I noticed on the box that these cars are H0. 

[mu26aeh]

They got thru almost 900 cars today 

[jmarley76]

Amazing what people write on social media 

Flatlanders still try to spread their conspiracy propaganda... 

They are also looking for help to go thru the entire delivery if you live close by.

That actually sounds like it might be interesting... 

[H Lee]

aside from the damaged units, is the 20% failure rate an assembly process problem or a design problem?

From the initial post --- "....When we opened the trailer doors, our enthusiasm quickly turned to dismay.  Three pallets were pierced by fork lift forks and the remnants of a fourth skid was scattered on the floor.

After unloading the truck, we spent the next several days inspecting every damaged carton...."

So it was a shipping problem.

[nkalanaga]

And, if it was a trailer, not a container on a chassis, it probably happened in the US.  Our plant ships, and receives, pallets in mixed loads, with other companies' pallets.  The ones we receive from other countries are unloaded and reloaded at least once, and sometimes more often, before we get them.

[bnsf971]

which is probably true, but


which suggests production or assembly issues and not solely ham fisted shipping. And why the whole thing should be sent back.

"We're sorry you have trouble with this. Would you like to purchase more?"

[towl1996]

"We're sorry you have trouble with this. Would you like to purchase more?"

No. Not my era. How much did you purchase?

[JoeD]

Yep, can't remember a time we here at MTL put a fork truck through our packaging    Tide is turning, China is making it more and more difficult to work with them...higher MOQ's, longer lead times, inferior parts.  Unless you are a big company, and have an active presence you stand to get screwed.  I know that first hand.

Joe

not to be crass (!) but if we were all a little less cheap (!!  !!) and manufacturing moved back to the CONUS, SOME of these handling problems would be mitigated sinc ethe supply chain would be shorter . . . But thats a political discussion, sure to be quashed by the mods . . . 

[thomasjmdavis]

Yep, can't remember a time we here at MTL put a fork truck through our packaging

And I haven't noted paying vastly more for MTL products, even though most of the "supply chain" is down the hall from your office and not in far off Asian ports. 

[davefoxx]

And I haven't noted paying vastly more for MTL products, even though most of the "supply chain" is down the hall from your office and not in far off Asian ports.

In fact, MTL's heavyweight passenger cars are very reasonably priced.  Now, if I could just get @Shipsure to do some southeastern roads, e.g., ACL or SAL.   

DFF