My county offices were shut down last week in a ransomware attack. Fortunately, they recovered pretty quickly.
Penalties can be as stiff as we can make them, but attribution to specific individuals is often impossible, regardless of the type of attack. When the actors are scattered around the world using freely available tools it makes things even harder to hold individuals responsible. There is a shadowy world of "cat and mouse" involved with trying to hunt down those involved on both the corporate and government side.
The good companies have hardened their networks, are active in their defense and have built out resilient networks managed by competent professionals. Then there are those who don`t properly resource or secure their networks and end up getting locked out of their own data or lose hard-earned intellectual property. Even the good ones are occasionally compromised.
Could we legislate standards for critical infrastructure industries? Probably, but I don`t think the technical competence exists at the national-level to create the meaningful legislation, and I don`t know if there is the political will to even tackle a problem like that. Its a slippery slope. Then there is the fact the technology evolves so fast no one can keep up.
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I HAVE to bump this thread discussion about car-care product increases only because there are a number of factors/reasons why this is happening at the current time. Some are a USA-government democracy in action, some are uncontrolled, like the Texas Polar Vortex or the COVID-19 Pandemic, and some the way businesses and economies are run today with computer/AI/program technology, world-sourced material supplies, and just-in-time deliveries. And as an engineering supervisor I once worked for said, "Anyone can identify a problem. I`m looking for workable solutions and answers to those problems!" The key word in that statement is "Workable" and that took on a host of characteristics from being able to be implemented, to being cost-effective, to not creating other new problems than what it solves.
While my concern is the price of car-care products themselves, a MUCH bigger concern is the short-term availability, or more correctly the lack thereof, of such products and its effects/impact on both the professional detailer and their personal economic livelihood and customer business and myself as a detailing hobbyist. It is one thing to pay a higher price for a car-care product; it is something else not to be able to get that product at all at ANY price.
Those of you in manufacturing are well aware these factors and its impact on your business and job. Long lead-times and shortages on critical parts needed for repair or maintenance of production machinery or raw materials to product the end-product on such machines have a `domino effect" on everyone wherever that end-product is bought and/or used, and hence, this world-wide economic inter-dependency.
It`s easy to say, "We are all in this together." But as stated above by my engineering supervisor, I`m looking for workable solutions, and right now, from my perspective, our "solutions and answers" have created more problems.
Will it get better?
The self-reflective answer to that question is, "Am I part of the problem or am I part of the solution?"
(Geeze, Captain Obvious, for someone who wants to keep this forum "detailing centric", you`re saying a lot about "things" other than detailing. No wonder the admins ban this stuff. Just saying`..... )
GB detailer
Good points. I read an article not long questioning whether the current world situation would bring an end to the whole "just-in-time" supply chain model used for just about every industry. Companies are apparently starting to look at warehousing and stockpiling of vital components/materials to provide a buffer to keep them going in times of a supply-chain disruption.
One of the biggest ironies of the piece was a comment that Japanese automaker (I *think* Toyota) has managed to fair the global chip shortage better than some because they started to stockpile supplies early in the pandemic...yet they were on leading edge of the whole just in time business model.
Wish I could find the story again and link it here....
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This was one of the most shortsighted policies...but just another facet of a world driven by quarterly results and bonuses etc., instead of actual fundamentals. The result of a transition of corporate management from entrepreneurs and technical people to finance and business-school people. I think the most (in)famous example of this was when the CEO of GM was explaining his hiring of Bob Lutz as a "product guru". He explained that he wasn`t really a "car guy". I remember the top of my head blowing off thinking "DON`T YOU HAVE TO BE A CAR GUY TO BE THE CEO OF A CAR COMPANY!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?"
Of course, this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.
Well for my home theater subwoofer business, my amplifiers went from a 3-4 week lead time to at least 3 months at this point, which is a significant amount of money that is now parked in inventory. A similar story on the drivers, which are my two largest costs and now I have to triple and even quadruple inventory costs because of it and that assumes I’ll even be able to get the equipment. Throw in plywood costs have doubled and I can’t get it reliably because other companies are also trying to stockpile (think gas shortage of a month ago). So business will need to change SIGNIFICANTLY to weather the next year.
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So very true. I remember be in some business elective while getting my computer science degree and being baffled buy the incredible risks taken with just in time manufacturing. Of course I`m a glass half-empty sort of person too...
Baffled by the "car guy" comments too... So many rants I could start with just those comments. I`m in total agreement with you.
I found the article I remember reading about Toyota. It isn`t the one about the problems of just-in-time manufacturing in the current environment, but was actually a completely different one focused on the chip shortage. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-chip-shortage
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Thanks for the reminder Lonnie, i think i will get some bulk items the over the rest of the year. Something as to give eventually IMO.
If this comes to fruition professional detailers would have to jack their prices, not good.
Have the prices gone up yet on AG and Autopia? I havent noticed.
Don
1989 Formula 350
2004 Saturn Ion Quadcoupe
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