BachFar new model announcement changes

[Newportnobby]

BachFar have announced it's 'Catch Up Time', and have said for far too long customers have faced rash promises and declarations from all manufacturers and consumer confidence became dented when said models sometimes take years to come to market. (get away )
As such, new models will only be announced when they are available to send to retailers, timing probably to coincide with the new catalogue release (Jan/Feb)
Source - Oct 2016 Railway Modeller.

Now, to my small mind, this is going to hit retailers harder than the end consumer as, without the ability to offer pre-ordering, how will they know what their likely demand will be? If they get their numbers wrong will this force us to buy from somewhere we wouldn't normally purely because they have one of what we want? I am going to assume the gap between announcement and availability to to us will be the shipping time ex China to the retailer
It will no doubt spring a few surprises on us too, but without the ability to pre order we have no way to budget should we wish to purchase one of the surprises.

What does the team think? Is this taking a hammer to crack a nut? A retrograde or masterful forward piece of thinking?

3 updates on products are:-

BR Autotrailer Jan 2017
GWR Castle Feb 2017
BR Class 40 Jun 2017

[Snowwolflair]

Do you think they have just been told all the new stock is in containers on Hanjin ships and delivery dates will be a surprise to them as well.

They recon about 15% of Christmas goods are on these ships.

[leachsprite4]

Hmmm just as I thought there may be something new announced this weekend.
So it's back to the old ways, personally isn't there an in-between option of showing when samples approved for production.
Graham

[sparky]

I think they should only announce a new model when they are certain it will be at retailers within 6 months...not on a boat...not in design...not in tooling....just will be ready to buy 6 months out...this allows a reasonable time to budget and plan but any longer is just a series of broken promises.This nonsense of 2-3 year lead times is just hugely frustrating and creates expectations that are never met...imagine any other product being sold on the basis of "hopefully in 3 years time we might make x, not quite sure yet,we may change our minds or cancel altogether but in the meantime its in our catalogue to buy " !

[B757-236GT]

The all those new items listed below can be seen in the cabinets this weekend. The 40 still in grey while the others are painted. And very nice they look too!

I think there will still be a time lag but i think its going to be as when a new model is likely to go into the production (IE within the next 12 months) as otherwise how will they issue a 2017 catologue for that year if its the same as the 2016 one?

Richard

[MJKERR]

Personally there should be a balance between

"Model nearing production completion" and this usually includes a sample
Retailers can then offer pre-orders
and
"Model will soon be with retailers"

As an example is an upcoming Class 37/4 in Regional Railways
It sounds like they propose to do away with such advance notice
As a result I could end up having a full repaint carried out, the process taking about 3 to 6 months, only to have an exact same model released at the same time!

[daveg]

It does seem a bit OTT when what really should be happening is getting control of production planning so ex-factory forecasting is reasonably accurate.

OK, I know that's a silly thing to say but someone had to!

Dave G

[Dr Al]

This is how Poole Farish used to operate, and it seemed to work fine.

Cheers,
Alan

[Bob Tidbury]

That's what happens when things aren't made in house and you have to rely on other factories to make the products for you ,your at their mercy.
Bob

[Karhedron]

Trouble with this is that it means there is no chance for feedback meaning it is more likely that errors will creep through. Showing off CADs and EPTs is a good way to get feedback.

[Snowwolflair]

Trouble with this is that it means there is no chance for feedback meaning it is more likely that errors will creep through. Showing off CADs and EPTs is a good way to get feedback.

It also limits duplication as in the "two Kings" currently in OO

[Chetcombe]

From my perspective kudos to Bachmann. Announcing models several years ahead seems designed to stifle competition, whereas to me competition is a good thing for quality, timeliness and price.

Take for example the Dapol Class 33, this has been 'imminent' for months which proves that manufacturers have no clue when models will be distributed to stores until they arrive off the boat, a strange, strange situation...

[Byegad]

I pre-ordered a Grafar Valanced A4 in the spring 'due July 2016'. I cancelled the order in early August, and I now see they're due September/October 2016. That will be the best part of 6 months after I placed my pre-order, IF they turn up on time.

To me this is bad salesmanship in the extreme, and perhaps a symptom of poor market research where an announcement is made and pre-orders taken to gauge the potential market, before any tooling takes place??

[JRS747]

The present situation is absurd where models are announced over 4 years before they reach the customer.
To spring surprises on the market at short notice isn't going to do them any good either, all the detail faults will already be unalterable: there is no doubt that the greatest expertise on model accuracy is with the modelling community; excluding us until the end of the process will be only be embarrassing for the manufacturers when their mistakes are revealed.
They need more self discipline and realism in their schedules. I can't think of another industry that regularly misleads the consumer so badly on new product delivery dates. It is no good blaming outsourcing of production, they should have learned how to manage it properly by now. Almost every industry outsources components to some degree or another.
On the other hand if this is a time out to get schedules under control and once completed a sensible and RELIABLE advance notice (not more than 1 year) of new products will be instigated then I'm all in favour.
John

[Crepello]

I pre-ordered a Grafar Valanced A4 in the spring 'due July 2016'. I cancelled the order in early August, and I now see they're due September/October 2016. That will be the best part of 6 months after I placed my pre-order, IF they turn up on time.

To me this is bad salesmanship in the extreme, and perhaps a symptom of poor market research where an announcement is made and pre-orders taken to gauge the potential market, before any tooling takes place??

Don't you mean Dapol A4?