Anyway, the spare parts stock kept building up over the years simply because the VW Beetle was so darn reliable until the parts weren’t needed. Some models did not sell as expected and the dealer usually ends up with a ton of slow moving spares.
This loss in the past is now for collectors in the present to gain. Diesa SA has about 3500sq ft of spare parts of old VWs since the 1950s. This includes rare and hard to find items like engine and transmission units for Beetles and other VWs. What were also found are body parts like bonnets and doors for the 2nd generation Audi 100.
https://www.vwheritage.com/pages/paraguay-find-vw-classic-parts/
https://bandwagen.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/reaching-the-parts/
Full list of the parts found at http://data.vwheritage.com/_inc/pdf/catalogues/flyer_paraguay.pdf
Someone failed to metric (keep records on) the on-hand inventory, turn-around time of parts needed for known consumpion rate, ageing of inventory in numbers of months/years and average age of inventory. Nine months leadtime between order and availability needs to be tempered by demand. Holding/storage/shipping costs of inv is always a factor toward profitability. Someone was not watching their business.
ReplyDeleteif this was a business that was managed for profitability, and bottom line reports on weekly, monthly, and quarterly, were the priority... then your modern day managerial practices like Kaizen and 6 Sigma would make sense. But I think the business methods of the past 60 years in Paraguay aren't there yet. It's a remarkable find of vintage parts
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