My mind boggles at the thought of what this slow pace must mean for Bombardier's supply chain. There are how many parts in one Flexity? The various suppliers and subcontractors have likely produced and shipped based on the 39-50 per year target that would have been in their contract, at least for the first year. I wonder how much material is warehoused - and where. The longer the contract is delayed, the greater the likelihood that some manufacturer will default or disappear altogether before shipping the full production run.
One also wonders about the production floor in Thunder Bay. Surely they don't build one vehicle from top to bottom, then start the next....there will be some sort of line with several vehicles in progress. Whatever is continuing to hold up production must be pretty fundamental, or you'd have some almost finished vehicles just waiting for the last touches....and at some point the logjam would clear with a flood of them. This doesn't seem to be happening.
- Paul
If Bomber is to be believed, the issue is because they keep getting NEW problems from their supply chains. As in, as soon as they solve the issue with the frames, another set of parts comes with faulty electronics.
Which is actually crazy. It shows the low level of quality control from their suppliers. It should be that you fix the kinks, and thats it. The fact that NEW problems are showing up? That really is surprising.
Also, something like 5 managers quit/were laid off on this project. I think someone new comes on board, is either unable to take on the project at such a critical stage, or simply doesn't think its worth it and leaves. Which means there are delays each time a new manager needs to relearn the work process, or attempt to fix things.
Also they are a company, and I am sure they have done tons of cost/benefit analysis to determine how much they should spend solving the problem, and what kind of ROI each scenario has. They will only fix the problem as much as they see it having an issue with their PR and bottom line. Clearly they don't think that it has reached a critical point, whether they are right or wrong.
From a financial point of view, which is how top brass only really look at things, its always a game of chess. Like with recalling cars: will it cost the car company more to recall, then to pay off lawsuits and public reaction from the deaths of ensuing issues from this faulty part? If yes, then they don't do it.
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