Extended delays on T61 shipments

Ordered on May 22nd.

Given Est. ship date of June 8.

On June 8th, new date is June 29.

I called them, and was told after remaining persistent, that they are having a quaility issue with "a" component. No further elaboration was provided.

I asked why the delay was not posted any sooner than June 8th and they stated it was an assembly line component issue. I assume this means that the problem was detected in the assembly phase of production.

My T61 was entirely run of the mill with the WXGA+ 14.1" screen being the only upgrade item. No wait, I also went to 1 stick of 1GB RAM but that would hardly be the reason to hold up production.

 

http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=84

Join the number of people waiting (including me). However, there are several threads already on this.

 

Well the lenovoblogs June 7th response confirms it. Here is the a further elboration on the issue and a very probably casue of the mixup in not ordering the bezel for the LCD,s.

Lenovo had been mfg'ing their Thinkpads in Osaka Japan and not out-sourcing to OEM's like Compal, Quanta, FIC and Asus. Starting in June of 2006 the switched to an out-sourcing agreement with Compal and here's the results of Compal picking up this business:

Compal Sales Report – May 2007

Issued on: June 07, 2007

Taipei, Taiwan, ROC

Compal Electronics, Inc. (the “Company”) (2324.TW/2324 TT) today posted unaudited revenue of NT$ 30.9bn for the month of May 2007 ( up 86% YoY). Consolidated revenue (excluding Compal Communications’ sales) was NT$ 31.4bn.

In the month, Shipment of NB PCs was 1,650 thousand, with 101% year over year (820 thousand in May 2006); and of 190 thousand for display products.


Compal Sales Report (Unconsolidated)

(Unit: NT$ Million)

Net Sales
2007
2006
Change (%)

May
30,901
16,606
Up 86.1%

January to May
159,572
97,677
Up 63.4%

Whever you have such explosive growth like this, "issues" of logistics are going to happen. Lenovo switching from their own mfging in Osaka Japan to out-sourcing is really raising quality concerns with me at this point. I dare say: Your Thinkpad of yesteryear will not be your Thinkpad of tomorrow.

Yes most everybody else out-sources as well but this is "different" for the Thinkpad and already we're seeing the ramifications of this. Lenovo's Thinkpad team is obviously less experienced with out-sourcing.







Compal obtains orders from NEC and Lenovo
Apr 13, 2006

Following the acquisition of orders for business notebook personal computers from Dell Computer Inc., Compal Electronics Inc. - one of Taiwan's leading contract manufacturers of PCs - will also add new clients including NEC Corp. and Lenovo Group. in the second quarter of this year.

An institutional investor noted Compal would see shipments top three million NBs in the second quarter of this year to hit an all-time high record.

At a recent presentation to institutional investors, Compal president J.T. Chen hinted his company would add two new clients from Asia, including a Japanese firm. Market watchers speculated that the two new clients are Japan-based NEC and the Lenovo Group, which has acquired the PC unit of IBM Corp. It is expected Compal would contact manufacture ThinkPad-series NBs for Lenovo and begin shipments sometime in the second quarter of this year.

Compal spokesman C.H. Lu said his company has signed secrecy agreements with all clients and cannot comment on the rumored new orders.

Over the past few months, NEC has been releasing contract orders on the ODM (original design manufacturer) basis to increase its competitiveness. Its contract manufacturers in Taiwan include Quanta Computer Inc., First International Computer Inc., and Asustek Computer Inc.

Compal has been making NBs for NEC on a trial basis since last year, with a shipment of 60,000 units of NBs for NEC. Since the beginning of this year, Compal has formally become one of NEC's contract manufacturers.

In the past, Lenovo mainly produced ThinkPad-series NBs in Osaka, Japan, while only a small portion of NB production, especially the lower-tier models, was outsourced. Recently, Lenovo has been thinking of increasing its competitiveness by releasing ODM orders.

The acquisition of orders for the ThinkPad-series NBs showed Compal has won Lenovo's approval for its strong competitiveness and quality.

Compal said it shipped 2.64 million NBs in the fourth quarter of last year, hitting a historic high for quarterly shipments. An institutional investor predicted Compal would see shipments in the first quarter of this year maintain the same level as the fourth quarter of last year.

Thanks to the influx of new orders from NEC and Lenovo, Compal is expected to see shipments of NBs grow 15% sequentially to reach three million units in the second quarter of this year, hitting another record high.

source & copyright: CENS

 

Sad, but what can you do?

 

How does Lenovo switching manufacturers over a year ago affect orders today? Seems like the answer to the delay was spelled out already

 

Not a year ago and this is the 1st time the T series is being out sourced. Thinkpads are now coming off of the same assembly lines as Dells, HP's Compaq's etc. This is new and therefore raises the issue of whether Lenovo can maintain their high quality standards given this new, lower cost assembly strategy. Time will tell, but already problems are surfacing.

Compal has been at this (OEM assembly of notebooks) for many years and yet Lenovo/IBM never choose that route. Businesses do not make decisiions like this in a vacuum. This is clearly, a striking change in the Lenovo-Thinkpads heritage. They had been unique in not out sourcing to the likes of Quanta, Asus, FIC and Compal.

Remember, that Compal and the others are not manufacturing anything. They simply assemble. A low margin, highly competitive business. Compal operates out of China and Lenove was assembling in Japan. Perhaps this means something for future reliability and perhaps it doesn't.

Dedicated assembly I would guess can result in a better finished product than out sourced, contract type assembly. That's just my experieince with other products.

 

Well, at least it's ODM. We don't have to worry about Compal OEM models being branded as TP's. *shiver*

 

hmm. my t61 hasnt been delayed yet. i ordered on the 23rd and it's still "in process" and set to ship on the 11th. with that being said, it wouldnt shock me if my laptop does get delayed.