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I find your comment quite trite. It can be boiled down to: Ha! Things can disrupt JIT operations, don't these bozos know that? In reality these decisions are

I find your comment quite trite. It can be boiled down to: Ha! Things can disrupt JIT operations, don't these bozos know that? In reality these decisions are made by professionals armed with heaps of statistics to make the best decision. I'm a nobody who knows nothing, yet I understand that ships are sometimes late. It is sometimes caused by weather, or mechanical issues, or piracy, or war. I trust that the professional know this too and more. Why do you think you know better than them what fits their reliability guarantees and budget the best?

adrianN 6y ago
I've seen enough decisions made in companies to put a lot less trust into "they employ experts, I'm sure they do the right thing".
- stinkytaco 6y ago
  If there was a article on HN about a company sunk by its excessive inventory and storage costs, we'd all be kibitzing about how they should use JIT inventory. Some companies make mistakes, some people aren't as expert as they think, but in aggregate I can't really do anything but assume that other people know more than I do about most things.
bopbeepboop 6y ago
> Why do you think you know better than them what fits their reliability guarantees and budget the best? The point isn’t whether JIT meets “their reliability guarantees and budget the best” — it’s whether what companies guarantee and provide is best for society at large. That a company benefits from JIT is irrelevant to what OP was saying and your “trust the experts” response is a non sequitur. Also, I worked on a team doing logistics for a F10 company — your faith in “experts” is wildly misplaced.
rangibaby 6y ago
> Ha! Things can disrupt JIT operations, don't these bozos know that For a real world example of bozos not knowing that, see Toyota in 2011.
- hef19898 6y ago
  One 10 years old example? Ok, I guess.
  - rangibaby 6y ago
    Considering that they literally invented JIT manufacturing, yes I think it counts
gdubs 6y ago
Well, we could just ‘appeal to authority’ on things but then why have Hacker News, where intelligent people can come and discuss things? As for this specific question, it’s the same thing people said in 2007 about mortgages: “these are experts - what makes you think they haven’t adequately considered the risk?”
- krisoft 6y ago
  This is not an appeal to authority. The comment in question was insinuating that people (who?) will return using JIT inventories (return from what?) because they don't foresee the dangers the commenter in question can see. (What dangers? What does the commenter propose instead? To whom?) What you mistake for an appeal to authority is in reality a plea to consider the question deeper than in a 147 character snide remark. After all there are people who spend day in, day out thinking about supply chains, so maybe they have thought about this deeper than what fits into that many characters? For example one of the sibling comments here writes that while JIT might be in the companies interest it's not in society's interest. That is a super interesting question. Properly unpacking even just the question would take a lot more characters. Or maybe there are some systemic biasses which makes logistic experts blind to these looming dangers? Or maybe actually everything is fine and the sky is not falling? I assume people are not making as much money as they could, but is anyone going to go cold/hungry/loosing their job because of this incident in some way I don't see yet? All of these questions and more could provide the substance for a worthy discussion in a way a snide remark can't.

adrianN 6y ago

I've seen enough decisions made in companies to put a lot less trust into "they employ experts, I'm sure they do the right thing".

stinkytaco 6y ago
If there was a article on HN about a company sunk by its excessive inventory and storage costs, we'd all be kibitzing about how they should use JIT inventory. Some companies make mistakes, some people aren't as expert as they think, but in aggregate I can't really do anything but assume that other people know more than I do about most things.

bopbeepboop 6y ago

> Why do you think you know better than them what fits their reliability guarantees and budget the best? The point isn’t whether JIT meets “their reliability guarantees and budget the best” — it’s whether what companies guarantee and provide is best for society at large. That a company benefits from JIT is irrelevant to what OP was saying and your “trust the experts” response is a non sequitur. Also, I worked on a team doing logistics for a F10 company — your faith in “experts” is wildly misplaced.

rangibaby 6y ago

> Ha! Things can disrupt JIT operations, don't these bozos know that For a real world example of bozos not knowing that, see Toyota in 2011.

hef19898 6y ago
One 10 years old example? Ok, I guess.
- rangibaby 6y ago
  Considering that they literally invented JIT manufacturing, yes I think it counts

gdubs 6y ago

Well, we could just ‘appeal to authority’ on things but then why have Hacker News, where intelligent people can come and discuss things? As for this specific question, it’s the same thing people said in 2007 about mortgages: “these are experts - what makes you think they haven’t adequately considered the risk?”

krisoft 6y ago
This is not an appeal to authority. The comment in question was insinuating that people (who?) will return using JIT inventories (return from what?) because they don't foresee the dangers the commenter in question can see. (What dangers? What does the commenter propose instead? To whom?) What you mistake for an appeal to authority is in reality a plea to consider the question deeper than in a 147 character snide remark. After all there are people who spend day in, day out thinking about supply chains, so maybe they have thought about this deeper than what fits into that many characters? For example one of the sibling comments here writes that while JIT might be in the companies interest it's not in society's interest. That is a super interesting question. Properly unpacking even just the question would take a lot more characters. Or maybe there are some systemic biasses which makes logistic experts blind to these looming dangers? Or maybe actually everything is fine and the sky is not falling? I assume people are not making as much money as they could, but is anyone going to go cold/hungry/loosing their job because of this incident in some way I don't see yet? All of these questions and more could provide the substance for a worthy discussion in a way a snide remark can't.