Cage manufacturing and lead time. Is there a better way?

[Prognathodon]

Although my thoughts below are about a suggestion fot Animal Plastics, they really apply to anybody building enclosures, or hides, or even breeding.

In another thread, another member said this about Animal Plastics' turnaround time and methods:

In all honesty they have a bad business plan. They really should have standard cage sizes on hand to ship. There isn't any reason to have such a long lead time on a non customized enclosure. A little inventory management would boost their sales.

I expect its because very few people buy a "stock" cage - just for a T8, options for sliding door cage locks, basking shelf, and circle screens all change the machining, and probably so do the heat and light options. Machining the pieces for the necessary options is more efficient than going back and add making changes after the parts are produced. Even if you're doing it all with hand tools. It really messes up your work flow.

Also, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts they don't keep an inventory of finished enclosures, except for those produced since the last shipment sent or the balance of a multi-unit order. Maintaining inventory costs time, money, and effort. You need *organized* storage space, a tracking system, and more material-handling.

Hiring more people to do the jobs and renting more space is not always an answer. With more employees and facilities, more oversight is required, which has a very large and real risk of taking that attention from quality control and customer service.

Buying more CNC machines to increase production has the same issues - CNC operation is a skill, and new operators would have to be trained on AP's products/processes at very least, and would require supervision. Plus space requirements, and possibly more support staff - materials handlers feeding machines, packing orders, etc. More time lost to supervision.

Quality, customer service, and fast turnaround - pick two. With AP we get the quality and customer service, and the price is that we have to wait our turn on the CNC machine. You can't always just throw money at a "problem" to "fix" it!

No, I'm not in the enclosure business, but I have a business of my own making and selling things, and have considered the expansion options - details (materials, tools) change, but the broad outlines of the issues remain the same.


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