When Winnebago recently announced its quarterly earnings, it also pointed to an inventory backlog that totals in the billions of dollars. That drew the attention of Supply Chain Dive, a magazine focused entirely on supply chain management, including logistics, freight, operations and technology.
High demand for Winnebagos is just the latest example of the bullwhip effect in action over the last 15 months as companies have dealt with dramatic demand swings.
Winnebago is responding by increasing its production levels, CEO Michael Happe said. The company did suspend production in the early part of the pandemic, but executives didn’t outline what impact this specifically had on the backlog.
“Though catalyzed undoubtedly by the onset of the pandemic, demand for our products has remained strong as the vaccine rollout and gradual reopening across North America has picked up,” he said. “Our team has stepped up production output as a result.”
As the company’s backlog grows, it is sticking by its methodology that requires a customer order to be placed before production begins.
“Our enterprise-wide build-to-order production approach also continues to serve us well, as we remain disciplined considering the ongoing supply chain challenges,” Happe said.
Some manufacturers, including Polaris, have partially completed products and sent them to dealerships, where they will finish the product when components arrive. But Winnebago doesn’t plan to take a similar approach.
“We are very committed to not shipping our dealers’ incomplete product and asking them to finish assembly on site; that’s a philosophy that we are not a fan of,” Happe said. “We will ship them complete high quality units as soon as we are able to.”
Click here to read the full story from reporter Matt Leonard in Supply Chain Dive.
