"Stock in trade" for Techs working in Broadcasting, where:-
"I have to wait for the manufacturer to fill up a container in Lower Slobbovia, with our part at the very bottom, then about a month for the ship to reach the wrong side of the country, then be emptied out, repacked in another container, trucked across to WA, sit around at the agent's store, then finally make its way here."
Just doesn't "hack it"!
Mostly, it is about those vendors, despite the very flashy IBC / NAB stand they've cobbled together, actually are ten people in a shed somewhere and while their gear is top notch, and you probably can get a nice pub evening out of them (if you're allowed to travel that is) the concept of reliable logistics is a bit further off.
Now, for old school analog and digital hardware, the product cycles are long enough (much like TE) that this model works, but once they put a general purpose operating system (usually a Linux kernel that's old a year before first shipment) inside their device and network them, and they still are same ten people in a shed, they are going to build nicely looking boxes that sometimes do very strange things to your system, because testing is lacking. And bug fixes take ages. And they invariably ship too early for their own good (to meet contract deadlines), so you'll be requesting missing basic features over and over again that just not are going to come because there's one or two people doing the software. In one case they were two. One was smart and the other one a poser. The smart one left. 
Nah!
My examples are with "old school analog" mainly, & stuff that has been installed OK, but after a few (or more) years, fails in service.
"Lower Slobbovia" was really just hyperbole-----most of the cases have been with UK & European equipment made by "prestigious companies".
They, in the main had been seduced by logistics groups into the "low cost" option of either waiting until they have enough stuff going to Australia to fill a container, or "piggy backing" on "somebody elses"..
Both of these choices meant very slow delivery of OEM parts, which were probably inadequately rated, anyway-----this encouraged the use of more readily available devices to get the equipment back into service.
In the main, during my time in Broadcasting, the Japanese manufacturers were the exception.
If you needed a Sony part, you rang up the "Sony bloke" in Sydney, who would, if it was in stock, put it on "tonight's plane"----if not, he would check around.
If it was in, say, Singapore, it might be the "day after next", from Japan, maybe a week, tops!
I think the Brits & EU people treated Oz as of little consequence, so lost business.
Your "10 men in a shed" is something else--------I have worked in such places.
Many years back, I spent just under a year in the UK on a "working holiday".
Like many others, I ended up working as a "meat robot" at a industrial labour hiring company, getting hired out to do labouring jobs at various places.
One such place was "Bardic Systems", where we had to clear up a bunch of cartons.
I had seen advertisements for this company in many old, & (then), current Aeronautical magazines, where they advertised safety beacons to use on rescue equipment, etc, as well as such mundane things as battery chargers, so expected a large factory.
Imagine my surprise, when it turned out to be pretty much " 10 people in a shed!"
Many years later,back in Oz, I worked for a while as a "rent a tech" for another labour hire place, & was sent to a local place which made highly regarded equipment sold world wide.
Pretty much the same thing, but in a weak moment, I signed up to become directly employed there.
AAARRRGGHH!
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Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread (Read 18606074 times)