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Subject: 
Re: Bulk Ordering - Secrets Revealed.
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general
Date: 
Sun, 8 Aug 1999 23:03:37 GMT
Viewed: 
2273 times
  
John,

I understand that in terms of Lego and their internal processes, but it sounds
like TLG needs a major upgrade of their systems if it's that tedious (i.e. book
for this, check this book, etc. Anyone ever heard of a computer?!) As for the
bulk orders, I think there is enough demand from numerous sources to facilitate
a bulk order service. This could be an opening for them to gain some needed
capital for, in my estimation, a relatively small time consumption. (Oh, we got
an order for 3000 train doors. We need to keep the machine running another hour
or two) etc.

Scott Sanburn

john kelly wrote:

(Sorry for the length of this thing....)

Well said.

When I was in Enfield, I had the misfortune of having to be on the element
team in a rotation.  (We all had to share some of the element misfortune on a
rotating basis.)  It was very very tedious.  It would take all afternoon and
sometimes all day for the element team to be able to place an order.  You need
to find what the part numbers you need are.  You need to find the color code.
You need to find if the US had it in inventory.  (Phone call to inventory
manager, he looks at his book for the type of piece, then at another book to
see if he has in inventory, then confirms it's on the shelf.)  Call back to
you.  If not in Enfield, send note to Demark.  Wait for reply.  Call again and
try to reach someone on phone who speaks english.  Confirm product.  (If they
have it. if not, too bad.)  Get shipped on boat to US.  (Wait 4-6 weeks for
delivery)  It was miserable.

Unless LEGO has gotten better logistics for inventory since I left, they'd be
crazy to try to bulk order.  They don't have a strong enough system to meet
the demand.  Should they update the system?  SOunds wonderful.  Will they?
doubtful.  LEGO tries hard not to have excess inventory in bricks, they very
rarely had anything other than basic bricks available in the US.  Other parts
were special ordered, but more often than not they will still be unavailable
in the quantities needed to build a model.  So we'd scrap that idea and find
another way to do it.  You might be able to get LEGO to do bulk ordering of
bricks through a centralized source, but I would doubt you'd be able to get
anyhting other than 1x and 2x bricks and plates.  There just isn't an
inventory position on any other pieces that would satisfy a world market.  And
you would need to order hundreds of K8's to make a molding run worthwhile to
LEGO.

(We tried as a model shop and we could not find a use for enough bricks to
make the run worthwhile to us and we bought at production cost.  The only run
we ever made was for 50 K8's of black Duplo 2x4 blocks because they were
running them at the time.)

Now with most model shops being eliminated or cut back, there is even less
demand for any pieces outside of what they need to produce the sets.  (Enfield
model shop from around 35 to 9 last month as part of the fitness program.)

As a member of GMLTC, there is nothing more I'd like than to be able to bulk
order grey 2x10s.  Nothing is more fustrating than being able to build with as
many grey 2x12s and green 2x4s as I wanted and then be reduced to red 2x4s for
landscape.  I hope that someday they firgure out a way to do it.  But my guess
is that they have evaluated this with better information than anyone here has
and found it to be not worth the inventory risk.

-john 3

In lugnet.general, John Neal writes:


Tim Courtney wrote:

<snip flame>

There's ABSOLUTELY NO POINT in carrying this any further.

The facts as I see them:

1.  Sanjay had some good fortune
2.  Many envied Sanjay, although were happy for him
3.  Some perceived a little gloating
4.  Sanjay is a good guy
5.  Larry is a good guy
6.  Most (all?) would love the opportunity to order bulk
7.  TLG is clueless

Tim is right; we are getting out of hand.  Hurtful things are starting to get • said
and that's not how to play well:-)

-John



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Bulk Ordering - Secrets Revealed.
 
(Sorry for the length of this thing....) Well said. When I was in Enfield, I had the misfortune of having to be on the element team in a rotation. (We all had to share some of the element misfortune on a rotating basis.) It was very very tedious. It (...) (25 years ago, 7-Aug-99, to lugnet.general)

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