Despite making cameras that so many people love, Nikon seems to be suffering a severe camera parts shortage at a number of its repair facilities for certain cameras. While these tend to be older cameras like the D7100, others are still in production, like the F6 (which has been the same camera since its release in 2004). Still, many professional, pro-sumer, and hobbyist photographers rely on these tools every day. Such lengthy or indefinite wait times for repairs are unheard of and could severely hurt the company's reputation as a brand of professional imaging.
The part (no pun intended) that makes a repair parts shortage so bad is that it's hard to believe there could be any kind of genuine manufacturing issue plaguing the company. Because the parts shortage is affecting multiple bodies, it's not like an assembly line had a fault or that a supply line was lost.
Moreover, cameras are not large objects by any means. A camera repair facility should easily be able to stock an array of extra camera parts just in case. Again, this doesn't seem to be affecting one particular body or one particular component across several bodies. And as such, it's also unlikely that a secret flaw is wiping out inventory of a key set of parts.
Nikon took many weeks to repair my 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II some time ago. They had a great response, however, and gave me a sizeable discount on the repair cost in the end, which made up for some of my rental costs at the time. However, having to wait for some screws (literally) to come in from Japan pushes me to — in the light of recent events — wonder if some serious mismanagement and poor planning is at fault. If it had been an uncommon lens, I might understand. But to wait on an item that would take virtually no storage space in a facility for a lens that is extremely popular? It just doesn't add up.
Thankfully, these repair part shortages seem to only be affecting slightly older and recently out-of-production models; so, anyone with the latest gear should be safe in the event that they need a repair. Many of the camera bodies affected, however, are still under warranty and should be able to be repaired in a reasonable amount of time.
Lead image by Sean McGrath, used under Creative Commons 2.0 with modification.
[Via NikonRumors]
how does a giant company like Nikon run out of parts ? that blows my mind. someone in the parts dept should be looking for a new job. same goes for and company that does a decent volume. but then again they probably don't really care since they already have your stuff.
Fortunately NPS exists. When my 70-200mm VR1 was on a parts hold for 2 weeks, I had a 70-200mm VR2 loaner within 48 hours.
That is nice...but it's really not good for people whose equipment is still under warranty (or not, for that matter) who aren't eligible for NPS...
I waited about 3 weeks to get a rubber cap for my nikon D800. It is kind of scary knowing how bad Nikon manages their repairs. Actually trying to get them to honour their warranty is a near impossible task. It makes me consider switching to canon.
Poor quality control in relation to multiple camera defects at launch as of late, shoddy customer relations and now this. I don't know about Nikon these days. They seem to be operating like it was 10-15 years ago when it was just themselves and Canon as the big two goto brands and there would be no real repercussions from something like this. Now there are more options for the consumer from Sony, Fuji and Olympus and their string of fails lately has the potential to drive more customers away from the brand.
Camera manufacturers are having a very rough time with their bottom line. Right now it looks like only Nikon and Canon are still on the blue. Reducing inventories is a way of reducing cost.
Cameras and lenses have many parts and keeping them all in stock is a very difficult task, it's not about the space they take but the enormous variety. Just check how many different camera models and lenses Nikon launched in the last 5 years.
Repair long delays are very annoying and I'm in no way trying to justify Nikon, recently it took them 3 weeks to fix one of my SB-800s and it was just about replacing the flash head, a pretty common part.
This parts shortage, especially for older items, will keep getting worse. Managing a parts inventory of tens of thousands of items for a lot of subsidiaries worldwide is a daunting task and may be that's why they stopped supplying parts to third parties repair shops.
Let's keep complaining but with a tad of understanding on what's going on.
I just have no sympathy. A car shop has to keep many parts in stock for all of their cars. Many, many times they have what you need. And look how big those items are. It's silly.
Computer-managed systems take a huge pain out of the difficulties of managing huge inventories. Some things might go missing, but it should be easy as cake these days to keep a realistic inventory. Worst case, have a warehouse in the US that has EVERYTHING while each repair center had at least a lot of parts.
Add to that the fact that they're taking many weeks and often even months to get parts in... Shipping just doesn't take that long anymore. This is a larger issue than a surface-level "it's hard to manage all these items" problem...
People are obviously growing tired of it.. We'll see how long it will last. But another obvious solution is to do what I've been campaigning for for years: consolidate the product lineup. Offer 3 consumer cameras and 4 or so pro/advanced DSLRs, produce more of each at reduced cost, make the choice simpler for the consumer, save the company a lot of headache, and call it a day.
Obviously you have not had to repair a car recently. Yes, generic parts like brake pads or air filters are common, but try to find a new hood for a 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier outside a junkyard.
There is also a cost associated with producing, storing and managing inventory of a large selection of parts. This cost must be incorporated in the price of new items which makes consumers unhappy.
Yes we live in a disposable society. Maybe in a few years, 3D printing will get to the point where many parts can be manufactured on site as needed, but we are not there yet.
A car shop never "has" any of these of these parts on hand (save, as mentioned, for ultra common consummables) but neither is it a comparable industry against which to measure camera repair expectations. The auto industry has a litany of 3rd-party parts manufacturers whose business it is to provide for car repairs. Even then, that demands some context: a single rear strut assembly for my old 1999 Tercel was $485+installation and that was literally 7 pieces of metal being bolted onto the chassis, and took a week to get in. It hit almost $700 for the overall cost of repair.
And unless your camera parts are being *flown* in priority from Japan, yes — 2-3 weeks is a reasonable wait time when there isn't already a whole domestic industry dedicated to that kind of maintenance. That's nothing compared to my 12 week wait for multiple D700 parts after it suffered a severe electrical malfunction.
And, it's clear you have little experience with manufacturing. Working in a factory, I've seen first-hand the systemic issues that affect production lines and logistics operations—there are at least 10 steps of refinement and inspection from the point of casting or machining the original material before it even leaves the factory to go to a warehouse, or to assembly. And in those same 10 steps, you still see, every day, defective parts making their way through to the end, despite multiple sets of eyes and processes of inspection designed to prevent this. Heaven forbid one of them makes it to packout for delivery, because then the whole shipment has to be taken apart and re-inspected, part by part, before anything else can go out. There's no magic solution to any of the woes of production, and much of it has to do with companies not wanting to spend/"waste" extra money on salaries designed to enforce/provide redundancy (unlike in, say, IT and information systems).
Finally, digitized, integrated tracking isn't an automatic given for a particular industry. How, exactly, are manufacturers supposed to track tiny 3mm screws? Do you see any space on them to stamp a QR code for scanning? They can barely design a process for them to even automatically align properly in movement while simultaneously accounting for the physical variations in dimensions and surface finish, which at that size is a significant factor (a +/- 0.1mm tolerance is a huge variance for something with an overall length of 3-5mm).
So Apple bought Nikon, but didn't tell anyone? Because this sounds as bad as dealing with Apple.
Sorry, but this is a bit of a non-article. It sounds like the author has very little experience in business. Yes it is frustrating that parts are not readily available for all items. Unfortunately there is a cost associated with overproduction, storage, and managing inventory of these parts. Yes, even small screws have a cost associated with them.
A good repair shop may have some old broken lenses, etc to pilfer the parts from, but common parts will disappear quickly.
It's a mixed bag. They have been bad about repairs for the 70-200 for quite a while. But my Nikon 9000 scanner repair was done quickly and efficiently.