Grendel AR Bolt.......Anyone.....?

[bwaites]

@bwaites

But don´t you think that if a company is in a situation that their customers have to wait a year and longer for ordered parts you have to change something. In that case the anticipation was wrong and has to be corrected asap. An AR bolt is not a very complex part, any machine shop with driven toolholders turning machines can manufacture that cost effectively.

I am working in the industrial goods industry near Stuttgart, Germany (Porsche & Mercedes Benz are quite in our neighborhood) and the company I am working for is buying a lot of machined products. If some of our suppliers would tell us that a standard product would have a delivery time more than 6 weeks it would be very hard (if not impossible) for the supplier to get an order the next time.
As far as I can rely on my experience, I think it would be possible to manufacture 1000 Grendel bolts and extractors in less than 6 Weeks (including hardening, surface coating and assembly) for about 15-25$ per piece.

But the real annoying thing is not their lot size policy, it is AAs website on which you can read the following statement (in case the shop website is working, right now it isn´t):

"At this time we are not able to provide estimated delivery dates due to the extremely high volume of orders we are receiving and processing every day.
All items are subject to back-order."

This is simply not acceptible because it tells you these things:

1. We do not have a clue how to manage the amounts of orders we are getting
2. We do not change our manufacturing policy/amounts of products produced per week to handle the high volume of orders we are getting.
3. We do want any business possible, regardless of delivery time, our customers will have to wait and we won´t tell them how long

Kohoki,

The simple problem is cash flow. AA is a very small company in relation to the industry as a whole. While making bolts may not seem like a particularly difficult process, there are only so many places that do it. AA simply can't order the quantities that others can, and consequently, they are subject to the whims of manufacturers who take larger orders.

Its not a matter of WANTING, its a matter of simply not being able to get parts fast enough because of the bottlenecks in the industry. 2 months ago people were paying $300-500 for a bolt carrier group for a 5.56 AR, today you can buy complete 5.56 AR's for $800.

The supply is catching up to the demand, and I suspect that AA will soon do the same, but they will take longer because of their size. They are not the only company in this situation. Magpul is catching up, but they couldn't predict when they would have mags again just a few months ago. Much bigger company than AA.

I know that AA has had some parts on order for MANY months and they simply can't get them. They get promises, but no follow through. Small manufacturers are subject to a lot of that.

Finally, this is the gun industry in America. People wait 5 years for some guns. Some 1911 gunsmiths are backordered 20 years! Some of the target pistol specialists are simply saying "If your name is on the list, and I don't die, you'll eventually get your pistol."

AA is not really a parts supplier, they are a rifle manufacturer. They really DON'T want to be in the parts business. They have been because no one else did it. But other places can order Grendel parts, like Midway, etc. They have stocked barrels and barrel/bolt combos, but even they can't seem to source enough of those parts to keep them in stock, and they are hundreds of times bigger than AA!

It will get better, but it will take time.