ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Three gang decora plate

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where's the logic in not ordering atleast a couple spares just to have around for future?
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Lamplighter,
Why didn't you order more than one so you would have some for future use?

My thoughts exactly.

I just wanted to give Hal more reason to give me a hard time about this thread.

No, actually I agree with you about the supply house ordering just one. Mine does the same thing. I can understand it with oddball items but they do it with the not so unusual items also. I needed an ivory single gang plate for a single 15A/220v air conditioner receptacle. The had the receptacle in ivory but they didn't stock the plate. Go figure.

-Hal

[This message has been edited by hbiss (edited 12-10-2005).]

'Just In Time' stocking has been the mantra in the supply industry for years. It was the begining of a day dream that ware houses that had too much un-usable stock laying around for years. (Which in thier minds is money in the bank that does not collect interest, and becomes obsolete...)

So the idea was that if an end user needed something, they could order it, and have it "Just in time" for when they would need it. That way a supply house would not have a case of (24) 3 gang over-sized brown plates collecting dust on the shelf for years when that 24X1.98 ($47.52) could be collecting interest in a bank. On top of that... If you consider the cost of urban and sub-urban real estate, that box could cost more to store per month as .5 cu/ft of shelf space also needs to be paid for. For them, it may cost less to ship and handle a small item like that than it would in storage of stagnate capitol.

The problem lays in what the end-user, and the supply chain see as "Just in time". Lead time for a 3 gang plate is much more, because the supplier figures you can wait a few days for some un-consiquential item like that. On the other-hand, if you need a high dollar transformer and they know you can not wait for it (or go somewhere else) would be shipped over-night from some low dollar sq/ft warehouse in deep space special just for you. A low dollar item of low importance may have to come from a warehouse in the Dagoba Galaxy...

FYI I was a warehouse and distribution foreman for Mass General Hospital before I was an Electrician. $3.5M of material inventory, and when they needed it, they needed it yesterday... Another $3M handled each month that was too expensive to store in stock... Labor is cheap when floor space is going for $130+sq/ft.

It's all about "real estate".
That one item is not cost effiecient to keep on the shelf. that case collecting dust could easily be replaced by a case of 1900 boxes that actually "move".

I have the same issue in my shop...sure I'd love to keep all sorts of stuff "on hand", but space is limited and what gets used most is what's stocked. I cannot justify the "expense" of keeping "non-standard" items on the shelf.

I would have ordered more than one if I thought I could keep them in good enough shape for sale later.
I used to have a supply of cover plates that would orbit the earth if laid end to end but they always seem to get things thrown on top of them whether in the shop or the truck.
It's like stocking cases of flourescent tubes. they just get broken.
Every supply house I've ever walked through has enough room to stock hundreds, if not thousands, of plates without leaving them where they'll get damaged.
I don't have that luxury.

Lamp, by ordering only one plate, you did exactly what you're criticizing the supply house for.

I wasn't criticizing anyone as much as I was just using this thread as a vehicle to vent about myfrustration in finding that plate.
I realize that in only ordering one plate I'm guilty of the same thing I am complaining about but, the difference is that I don't have room to store the extras where they won't get damaged like a supply house would and I am not in the supply business like a supply house is.
Believe me, if I did own a wholesale house, I would have a small stock of those plates on the shelf next to the four and five gang white decoras that are in as much demand as the one I needed only, they're a regularly stocked item.