PAUL - IH was one of the FIRST companies to put in a main frame computer for production control, they called the system I used in Material Scheduling "POFU", for Purchase Order Follow-Up.
Every plant and outside supplier had a code number. FARMALL was #1 company wide, E.Moline was #3, not sure who #2 was, LVL seemed like it was 6 or 7, Memphis Foundry was around #9, I forget where Melrose Pk, Indy, Ft Wayne, Springfield, and the other plants were, but most outside suppliers were 5-digit numbers.
At FARMALL We ALWAYS got what we needed. The winter of '78/'79 was really bad. Lots of BIG snow storms. We NEVER ran out of parts. Maybe several hundred workers couldn't make it to work but we had parts! The company was so ecstatic with our Dept's performace they took all of Us in Mat'l Scheduling Plus our spouses out to supper at the Plantation, the best restaurant in the whole Quad-Cities, special banquet room, drinks, food, all on the company. At our table for 6, three people had Lobster, two prime ribs, and I love shrimp, so I had that. All just to show how much they appreciated the fine job we did.
So because of the profit potential to IH company wide, making parts at ALL of IH's plants and shippng them to FARMALL, plus the profit we could make, We could have bailed IH out of debt just by ourselves in 1981 if we could have run to capacity. We might have even made enough money to cover the new losses from Construction & Truck!
FARMALL had so much clout, that our production person @ Steiger Tractor who had been a production control supervisor I knew well from my earlier days at Farmall, would call Me to get special tires like 30.5X32's that were on limited availability due to demand. I'd call one of my tire suppliers and get them shipped immediately and I could tell exactly when they were delivered. The Purchasing Mgr @ Steiger would call me and kiddingly chew me out about getting something He couldn't.
Girl that had My job at Waterloo sat behind me in Spanish class my Junior & Senior year in HS. I called her up and talked to her a couple times. From what She said and comments from the common suppliers we shared, We had less problems getting parts than they did.
So, to put your situation into perspective, if LVL had the choice of building a Cub Cadet, or building a 2+2 Transfer Case for FARMALL, building & shipping a transfer case to complete a $80,000 2+2 took priority over a $1800 Cub Cadet. Half the cost of a Cub Cadet was outside Dollars to suppliers, the engine, Hydro, tires,wheels, etc. The 2+2 used an IH engine, LOTS of castings, front frame weldment from IH Canton, Sheet metal hoods from IH Shadyside, Ohio, cab from E.Moline, etc.
Hardest place to get parts from was E.Moline, the production superintendent there seemed to think making $100,000 combines was his first priority, then making repair parts for combines his second priority, then making parts for all the other IH plants like Farmall, LVL, Canton, Melrose, Memphis, etc was his third priority and even though we were their biggest "customer", about $6-7 Million/month shipments, We waited in line but NOT patiently. That superintendent's SON was the scheduler for the EM plant, he replaced Me in that position I'd had for 5-6 months. If You called his Boss when he hung up the phone on you, He got the idea that you had a critical parts shortage and got you the parts you needed.
So anyhow, PAUL, I'd say your memory is 100% CORRECT. AG got priority.
