New Inventory page and process updates

[TahoeJoe]

In case you missed it:
https://escapetrailer.com/inventory/

First unit, a 21C, going up for sale this Monday!

My 2 questions for ETI will be:

1 - will the post-production options be revealed before committing to purchase? I can think of several scenarios that would be helpful, for example: I need the high axle on a 5.0, what if that's not included already, could it be added?

2 - will we learn any more about any sort of schedule or pattern to which models might be released when? Or will we just need to wait to be surprised every Friday? Although my planning nature wants more details, I admit that waiting for surprises would make the next few months a really fun experience!

[Oldtimer]

Your best bet for answers is to contact ETI directly

David

[rubicon327]

Can someone please explain why ETI is producing inventory units when they can’t keep up with current demand?

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

Can someone please explain why ETI is producing inventory units when they can’t keep up with current demand?

You should ask ETI. Anything we offer is speculation... opinions ya know.

[TahoeJoe]

Oh for sure, I meant these as questions for ETI, not answers from you guys, it just happens to be the weekend when I fart around on this site, and I like starting conversations and hearing thoughts other than my own...

[JeffreyG]

Can someone please explain why ETI is producing inventory units when they can’t keep up with current demand?.

As I understood it from previous ETI videos on this topic, they could accelerate the February - June build rate by slotting in about 60 "inventory" units that are not subject to customization and thus will be tailored to match component availability.

I suspect ETI expects all of the inventory units will be grabbed by people sitting on deposits, so effectively this accelerates the build rate for units on order.

[camp4528]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

Can someone please explain why ETI is producing inventory units when they can’t keep up with current demand?

I understand from the youtube updates videos that the inventory trailers are their way of refining the production increase without committing to a specific production capacity. So the additional production capacity until the end of July will be used to build as many inventory trailers as works. Starting in August that additional capacity will be more certain and they'll start leveraging the "Earliest Completion Date" process to get people their trailers as soon as they can, including the build slots vacated by people who bought an inventory trailer, or cancelled for any other reason.

[tdf-texas]

Originally Posted by camp4528

I understand from the youtube updates videos that the inventory trailers are their way of refining the production increase without committing to a specific production capacity. So the additional production capacity until the end of July will be used to build as many inventory trailers as works. Starting in August that additional capacity will be more certain and they'll start leveraging the "Earliest Completion Date" process to get people their trailers as soon as they can, including the build slots vacated by people who bought an inventory trailer, or cancelled for any other reason.

I'm assuming that you know that make no sense at all. With the backlog that Escape currently has, there is no reason for them to build "inventory" units if they have additional build capacity.

The only way that becomes logical is if ALL the current backlog orders refused earlier delivery dates. Otherwise, the additional build capacity could be used to get trailers out the door for customers waiting on their trailers.

What does make sense is Escape is trying to move to a standardized production and move away from building custom trailers.

[TahoeJoe]

Originally Posted by tdf-texas

I'm assuming that you know that make no sense at all. With the backlog that Escape currently has, there is no reason for them to build "inventory" units if they have additional build capacity.

The only way that becomes logical is if ALL the current backlog orders refused earlier delivery dates. Otherwise, the additional build capacity could be used to get trailers out the door for customers waiting on their trailers.

What does make sense is Escape is trying to move to a standardized production and move away from building custom trailers.

I know from my own business experience that there are complexities of the production process involving multiple different models sharing facilities, that make it such that the timeline of completing all units 1-xxx in chronological order is not as efficient and can even take longer than completing the same units in a pattern designed to group similar units into batches, even if this latter method results in excess units. In other words, the assumption that proceeding in a pure chronological order with 0 excess units is faster overall, or at least ensure unit #xxx is done faster, is not valid in many cases.

I don't know if this is true for Escape; just saying I've seen it in many other businesses...

[bobster]

Should be interesting to watch how fast this 21C goes on Monday.. Curious if the web-page will be updated real-time when someone hits the final purchase button Or if ETI plays referee after the fact.

I won't be clicking this time around given I'm interested in a 19, but in terms of options, they look to be in line with what we are looking for, so may be in the future. Will be interesting to see the mix of trailer models they offer... We are leaning for the Contemporary Interior, so that may limit our participation...

[NEWYORKHILLBILLY]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

Can someone please explain why ETI is producing inventory units when they can’t keep up with current demand?

I asked the same question last summer when my build was delayed because of covid shutdown and inventor units where being build and sold off the lot .People where buying these units while still in production and changing the options to what they wanted. It did not make since to me to produce units ahead of waiting customers . I was told that these spots have been reserved ahead of time for inventory units only. so it appears the new policy it to reserve 60-100 units a year to be loaded heavy with options and sold online. one can assume the profit margin is higher on these unit because of all the options.At least this year there be offered to customers with deposits first. This was not the case last year. Not offering these reserved dates to the public makes the build dates go out a long ways. Witch makes the demand seem greater than is actually is .Harder to get makes demand go up and new and used prices rise. I am not a big fan of the New system. last year you could call and they would hold the inventory unit for 24 hours for you to decide.This new system if you decide you want that trailer over the weekend have to go online Monday at 9pm PST time. you have to be the first person to get into you cart and checked out. It is not your trailer until you have checked out. This is crazy so many things can affect checkout speed from connection speed to typing speed. It seems a better way to do it would be to offer it to anyone that has that size trailer ordered giving priority based on deposit date.

In the old days if a unit become available Tammy listed on this forum. First come first serve.

[Mike G]

Trailers loaded with options might be more profitable than lightly optioned ones. This might be a way to bump up profits.

I could see uniformity streamlining and speeding up the build process, but only if they are building a bunch all the same one right after the other. (Fact is, I'd think a trailer would take longer to finish when loaded than if just a few options were being installed.) Being on the outside looking in, however, means that there may be details I'm not aware of. (People I talk to have no concept of what I have to do to get my job done, for example.)

But hey, they are in business to earn a profit. They make a good product and I don't begrudge them.

[snas]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

Can someone please explain why ETI is producing inventory units when they can’t keep up with current demand?

A few speculative thoughts. Not meant to denigrate etc.

This could be a good "no questions asked" vehicle to clear built units from storage that the original intended owners have cancelled.

The order cost could be cheaper for inventory units not carrying any of those specific, "call the factory" interactions that cost time and resources. Likewise for production costs - standard is better.

Agreed, probably heading to less customer requested customisation - in the sense of deletions, substitutions, alterations etc I've read in older build threads. Non standard can be tricky to make money on and increase the possibility of headaches. ETI already has a list of options (some called customisation), packages could be coming (eg value, mid, high content). They have the data on what sell for them. If this inventory release plan is a success it could be another nail for traditional customisation tolerance.

Who knows what the demand to capacity numbers are. IIRC the deposit to build date spread went from ~8,9 months in Fall 2020 to 22 months currently. I don't be surprised if ETI has blocked out a period of time for a future reset with a revised sales and production model. I imagine when the Venture Capital outfit purchased the Co. they had plans for changing the business but the pandemic demand threw that off course temporarily. I expect changes will continue tho.

[TahoeJoe]

Originally Posted by NEWYORKHILLBILLY

...last year you could call and they would hold the inventory unit for 24 hours for you to decide.This new system if you decide you want that trailer over the weekend have to go online Monday at 9pm PST time. you have to be the first person to get into you cart and checked out. It is not your trailer until you have checked out. This is crazy so many things can affect checkout speed from connection speed to typing speed.

At a certain point, some version of first come first serve becomes necessary, and when it does...how is doing it by telephone any better or worse than by internet? I would argue that telephone technology has similar constraints and speed factors as the internet in a scenario like this...I could use your same argument to say that telephone is not fair because some guy with a land line in Chilliwack could beat me with my cell phone in Nevada.

[JeffreyG]

Originally Posted by TahoeJoe

At a certain point, some version of first come first serve becomes necessary, and when it does...how is doing it by telephone any better or worse than by internet? I would argue that telephone technology has similar constraints and speed factors as the internet in a scenario like this...I could use your same argument to say that telephone is not fair because some guy with a land line in Chilliwack could beat me with my cell phone in Nevada.

They have everyone's deposit date and they are only taking orders from deposit holders. Why not let everyone interested place a bid, and whoever has the earliest deposit date gets the trailer?

Everything else ignores when people committed to ETI and just makes it essentially random. The trailers will go to the people with the best internet connections and skills at trying to swoop something. It reminds me people trying to get popular campsite reservations.

Ultimately I'm glad ETI is working to push everything up and get people into trailers earlier. But I'm not sure why they're not using the queue that their deposit system already formed. They way they are doing this, one person could place a deposit tomorrow and have just as good a chance at that 21C as someone who had placed a deposit five months ago.

[NEWYORKHILLBILLY]

Originally Posted by TahoeJoe

At a certain point, some version of first come first serve becomes necessary, and when it does...how is doing it by telephone any better or worse than by internet? I would argue that telephone technology has similar constraints and speed factors as the internet in a scenario like this...I could use your same argument to say that telephone is not fair because some guy with a land line in Chilliwack could beat me with my cell phone in Nevada.

One reason is the phone call give you 24 hours to decide if you wanted the unit. In that time Frame you could ask questions and find out what options could be added to that trailer. Also there was no rush as not everyone would be calling at a specific release time.They listed them on the website as they came available. On the internet you have to buy it. There is already threads starting with people wondering what they can add for options on the one unit is for sale. I not saying the phone was the correct way either. I think they should be offered based on your deposit date and if not sold offered to the other buyers .If i decide I want that unit I can call Monday put a deposit trailer build date Jan 2023 and then purchase this trailer jumping ahead of every other customer on the wait list. so the way I see it its not really first come first serve .

[Greg A]

Sounds like they’ve adopted the campground reservation model. Go online at exactly 9am on Monday and find out it’s already booked. Hmmm.
Should be an interesting process to watch.

[TahoeJoe]

Originally Posted by JeffreyG

They have everyone's deposit date and they are only taking orders from deposit holders. Why not let everyone interested place a bid, and whoever has the earliest deposit date gets the trailer?

That's a great idea! I think it would placate a lot of interested folks, including those further down the line because then their spots could be moved up sooner. I wonder if they considered this?

Just to be clear I was not arguing that the proposed process is fair or that they shouldn't somehow factor deposit dates in better...I was merely defending an internet-based gatekeeper vs a telephone one in that scenario. I'm partial to online stuff, where I live I have great internet but no cell service and no land line!

[Centex]

Just for sporting-fun I'll offer the following prognostication ...

1. Karl Kenny is korrect, his basic model for this venture will yield quick-sales of offered 'heavily optioned' units with little chance they'll linger long enough to require opening the sale of any unit to the 'general public' (folks without an existing deposit in place).

2. We'll likely see very minor, if any, tweaks to the well-considered offering/sales process - some will accept the rigorous terms and conditions and will participate, some won't and will elect to 'pass', but the former will prevail and prove the 'success' of Karl's thinking on behalf of ETI. Either way it's not gonna damage pending or future sales one iota (i.e. the rate of order cancellations won't increase nor the rate of order placements decrease, two measures of its success).

3. Post-production mods will be limited to strictly additive spray-on, bolt-on, screw-on, drop-in, and plug-in upgrades (e.g the already mentioned spray-insulation, body-lift kit, umbra hooks, extension tables, optional cabinet interior shelving, etc. of the like), but nothing involving any subtractive effort other than maybe removal of the bolt-on body-lift kit, and that with no $ deduct if it was on the unit as offered.

4. All units offered will have at least the 1st-level battery option of 2x6V FLA batteries and be at least pre-wired allowing post-production bolt-on / plug-in addition of a second PV panel if not already equipped.

5. IF offered without lithium batteries, that won't be an available post-production upgrade.

6. Any post-production request for which materials or equipment are not readily available will be politely declined (part of the object of the exercise is to move these units off-the-premises ASAP).

We'll see how far off-the-mark I am, not gonna be embarrassed either way, just a bit of public speculation for sporting fun

(I'll be following all of this just for the sporting fun, I already know that "heavily optioned" doesn't fit my wants, so it's just gonna be a diversion while I patiently wait for the Escape that's 'Built For Me' )

[TTMartin]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

Can someone please explain why ETI is producing inventory units when they can’t keep up with current demand?

One reason would be for sizes that aren't as popular. It takes time for gel coat and fiberglass to cure. They have a one mold per size. So if they want to output as many shells as possible ideally they would build one 17, one 19, one 21, one 5.0, repeat. However if the sell twice as many 21's (NE and C) than they do some other length the choice is to have the gel coat and fiberglass station idle while waiting for the 21 foot shell to cure to make another 21. Or they can build a less popular size as an inventory unit. The immediate availability may outweigh the preference for a different size trailer.