Within the US, you guys just passed a USD52b semiconductor spend!
JIT worked well in Japan because of the keiretsu subcontractors and the physical distance between plants. Made-in-Japan was mostly exactly that. Having duplicated supply chains and non-local suppliers significantly complicates any "pure" JIT process. Blocking the Suez Canal was another unexpected supply chain issue in general and hard to quantify
I ordered mine from B and H about then; took about 2 weeks or so to get it. I actually bought my 15-35, 34-70 and 70-200 f2.8 before the R5 and R6 dropped. I figured I’d switch to RF eventually and bought them over about 6 months. Back then, easy to do. I never thought the demand would ever take off like it has.I bought the Canon 100-500 from Adorama in March. I’ve been the “next 10” lenses for 60 days. Hopefully they get a dozen soon. 
Whilst I am certainly no expert on the subject my understanding was that Toyota realized because of the chip manufacturing issues after the earthquake and tsunami that it was imperative they hold a stock of items that couldn’t be outsourced to another manufacturer and or location in a timely fashion.
Nope, that 100-500mm lens is on constant backorder. I know few photographers who placed order and had to wait 2-3 months to get that lens(from local retailers). If you want to see how bad the situation is right now just look at PC industry - GPUs and high capacity storage are almost always out of stock or are being price gouged by scalpers and retailers alike. Even for cameras some high demand cameras are being scalped(though not to the extent of PC components) for eg you can find brand new R5 on ebay for 4000$(have seen some go as high as $4500) while its usually on backorder with most big shops, same story with Sony cameras as well.
Yep, that is the standard inventory management model. 4 quadrant matrix from sole source/strategic to general commodities/multiple manufacturers and then a dedicated inventory/ordering strategy for each. The issue here is that the low value driver chips that had alternative suppliers are being smashed for orders so there is nothing to find anywhere. I remember having multiple suppliers for DRAM chips for instance and yet the whole industry had problems delivering. We were pushing the engineers to qualify more suppliers just to get some options and that took R&D effort as well taking them off other projects.
Okay, I guess I should have been more explicit. Since the announcement that "demand" was greater than expected came within days of the announcement of the lens itself and before they even know what preorders retailers are receiving, they could not possibly know what the demand really was and the more honest answer would be that "we announced this lens and set an availability date that we knew was bs when we made the announcement."
Not really. The waiting lists are open-ended. So if someone ahead of you cancels, it just moves you up one spot in the line. Presumably, people will be responsible enough to cancel an order from one retailer if they receive a shipping notice from another. This isn't quite the same as the jerks who order two or three copies of a lens, try them each out and keep the one they think is best and then return the others.
I agree. Once I get my lense I'll immediately cancel my second order. One RF 100-500mm is expensive enough, no need for a second one, especially with no second camera body right now. People will just get bumped up on the waiting list. And if worst comes to worst and there actually is an extra lense, that'll just mean that FINALLY one store will have a copy for touch and try! But I honestly believe, the mentioned lenses won't be available for "touch-n-try" events until Q4/ 2022 or Q1/2023
For the RF100-500, I preordered it at a store that requires a €99 down payment and is know to get a decent batch on launch. That kept their list a lot shorter
Lucky is right. My local retailer received my RF 100 mm macro, but did not receive any shipments of the RF 400 mm f2.8 lens. Might I ask where you purchased? I am hopeful that I will have the RF 400 mm f2.8 by the end of Aug / early September.
