It could have been so nice … but ….
Christmas in the mobile consulting unit. Sizzling something delicious over a campfire, a wonderful hot drink, and surrounded by nature.
The first trips to customers in December, who are already very curious to see how my mobile consulting unit is equipped. Perhaps the first interviews along the lines of “on the couch with the digitalization consultant”.
That’s how I had actually imagined it. Quite naive, right?
I know there are “supply chain” problems. I know that you have to wait a long time for a car. But this news was just enough to make me cry.
4 weeks before the delivery date
I receive the news that my motorhome will not arrive at the end of November, but probably not until the end of January. I am “thrilled” and am currently wondering how good the planning systems at Fiat must be to not know what’s going on much earlier.
As a digitalization consultant, I know that such things can be known and communicated earlier. Therefore, the question arises for me whether they haven’t known it for a long time anyway, but simply didn’t communicate it. I will probably never find out.
Some information received
- Fiat will not deliver any more chassis this year
- My vehicle does not yet have an assigned chassis number (only when you have one can you plan with some degree of certainty)
- The area where the chassis stand for assembly at Bürstner is reportedly empty (usually it’s always full)
- In the peak season of vehicle manufacturing (i.e., now), even a company like Bürstner is going into short-time work because the base material is missing
- My dealer alone is already nearly X hundred vehicles behind in delivery. (Number known, but not mentioned)
- The 2023 season will virtually not exist, as they first have to “catch up” on 2022
One wonders how this backlog is actually supposed to be caught up. And I myself wonder how certain the end-of-January date actually is.
Is my chassis just sitting around somewhere at Fiat waiting for parts?
Conclusion: Don’t believe any deadline that you haven’t “faked” yourself.
I’ll continue to think about what impact this has on dealers and customers. There are some highly interesting and at the same time frightening insights. Perhaps my press card will help me obtain some more in-depth information.
More on this in one of my next blog posts.
So, now I can either sit in a corner crying, drown my sorrows with my remaining alcohol, or simply live with it and look forward to a “postponed Christmas.” Perhaps a combination of all three options is the best alternative.
P.S. Until the move into the motorhome, the two of us will be moving into a 2-room apartment in Augsburg starting at the end of November. I see it as a first “downsizing” exercise. And as they say, practice makes perfect.
