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Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

bloombergquint.com

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Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#51

Post by routerl »

xyzelement wrote: post #27

I think the color purple is considered regal because whatever the dye used to be made from (crushed marine life or something like that) was very expensive. So if you had purple, it meant you were rich. It would be kinda funny if blue things became a sign of wealth because of this.

It wasn't just any purple, but the particular purple that came from a species of sea snail. For example, purple dyes were common in China many centuries before the Roman Tyrian Purple we're talking about, but never gained this luxury status.

So it's worth pointing out that Tyrian Purple was an exceptionally long lasting dye; it did not fade when left in the sun, or after washing. Compared to other purple fabrics, Tyrian Purple fabrics always looked brand new, and I suspect that this is the real origin of their high-status associations.

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#52

Post by archildress »

LurkingPenguin wrote: post #37
archildress wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s almost as if there are happy mediums in between the two scenarios. :)

2 years' worth of Christmas ornaments? 10 years' worth? The amount of crap that we consume is astounding. And in many cases, each specific type of crap requires a bunch of smaller crap (components). There is literally no way for a consumption-driven society as broad and deep as ours to stockpile years' worth of everything.

All planning really is based on assumptions, like safety stock levels. In organizations you typically have someone who decides "hey, this is the right level of inventory to keep, based on our demand right now." That's not a bad approach, but the problem is a lot of supply chain planning is top-down and dictates "we only want to keep $x tied up in inventory" and as you can imagine that number is driven by management as low as possible. When COVID happened last year, levels were slashed so low and now the supply chains can't recover.

Basically my view is that it's this over reactiveness and obsession with free cash flow has swung so far so as to create a too-painful jam.

I would agree that over consumption is a problem, albeit a separate one to the conversation at hand.

Cheers.

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#53

Post by aazaa »

junon wrote: post #20
aazaa wrote: post #16

That website is a catastrophe. The banner on the left prevents the intro text from being read. There's also a banner on the right which is similar in behavior. Neither can be dismissed. Text can't be copied without dragging along useless marketing material. There is no Reader view to nuke the bad design decisions. Strangely, the original story ran on Bloomberg itself, which isn't mentioned in the article. Fortunately…

These sorts of comments are against HN guidelines. It's not conducive to complain about the site's poor UX, as aggravating as it is.

You're right. Deleting...

Oops, can't do that, it appears.

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#54

Post by blix »

munk-a wrote: post #46
blix wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s quite natural, normal humans also don’t hoard everything they can possibly think of needing... For most of human history we did exactly that. The deeply interconnected "JIT Consumption" world is really quite new. And if consumption patterns suddenly change then you can't buy toilet paper anymore.

I'd actually disagree pretty strongly with this. For most of human history the spoilage rate of pretty much everything we produced was so high that stockpiling goods for the sudden economic shocks was solely reserved to governing bodies. Remember how you built ten bazillion granaries in Civ? Sure, the game has taken quite a few liberties with history but we have evidence of communal food storage going all the way bac…

For most of the pre-modern era, 'governing body' simply means a group with enough stockpiled resources, especially food, to project power. Anyone who could get in on this action tried to. Spoilage is an issue, but humans came up with many neat tricks to work around this, many of which are still used today (fermentation, for example). Anyone who didn't want to live or die soley by the whims of the local warlord during a harsh winter had to maintain their own food stockpile.

The great lie of Civ is to present this as centrally organized when for most of human history this power was very finely decentralized due to the expense of communication and logistics. But as socities become more centralized food stockpiles haven't disappeared. Many governments still maintain food stockpiles, especially poorer countries.

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#55

Post by [deleted] »

jdlshore wrote: post #31
archildress wrote: post #26

Thank you Toyota and practitioners of "lean" / "Six Sigma" that told us all about the wonders of just-in-time, to only carry exactly as much inventory was needed for demand. After all, we'd rather have that cash in a bank account than tied up in inventory. While well intentioned, the problem is that it all relies on assumptions, largely tied to demand. And when demand goes through a wild whipsaw, and everyone takes d…

I hear this complaint frequently, and I always wonder if the people making it are well-informed about supply chain logistics or are just parroting what they’ve heard elsewhere. Because my understanding of TPS and Lean is that it solved serious issues with supply chains involving waste due to outdated and rusted (figuratively and literally) inventory. It also doesn’t prevent the use of buffers to absorb shocks, as Toy…

[deleted]

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#56

Post by nightfly »

archildress wrote: post #24
oasisbob wrote: post #23

> "There is one basic color tint that is extremely difficult to get" Any idea of the possible tint which is being referred to? Wondering if it's a mineral source requiring mining, heavy-metal processing, or what?

Could be Titanium Dioxide that is involved in whitening. Have seen enough from my view that this would be my guess. And what could be more basic than that. :)

If that was the problem then white wouldn't be available either

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#57

Post by wongarsu »

philwelch wrote: post #44
jdlshore wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear this complaint frequently, and I always wonder if the people making it are well-informed about supply chain logistics or are just parroting what they’ve heard elsewhere. Because my understanding of TPS and Lean is that it solved serious issues with supply chains involving waste due to outdated and rusted (figuratively and literally) inventory. It also doesn’t prevent the use of buffers to absorb shocks, as Toy…

The problem isn't with the methodology itself but with how it's implemented in practice. Lean makes your buffers a lot more visible to management, and if you combine that with a culture of short-sighted cost-cutting, you run into issues. The problem isn't lean; it's a management culture of short-sighted cost-cutting.

And that management culture is an effect of how compensation works. Cut costs, put "reduced overhead by X Million" on resume, either get promoted or switch jobs before negative impact happens.

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#58

Post by DoreenMichele »

routerl wrote: post #51
xyzelement wrote: post #27

I think the color purple is considered regal because whatever the dye used to be made from (crushed marine life or something like that) was very expensive. So if you had purple, it meant you were rich. It would be kinda funny if blue things became a sign of wealth because of this.

It wasn't just any purple, but the particular purple that came from a species of sea snail. For example, purple dyes were common in China many centuries before the Roman Tyrian Purple we're talking about, but never gained this luxury status. So it's worth pointing out that Tyrian Purple was an exceptionally long lasting dye; it did not fade when left in the sun, or after washing. Compared to other purple fabrics, Tyr…

So it was expensive to make and worth the expense involved because of it's unusual durability. It wasn't some artificial scarcity, like modern day diamonds, nor "valuable" merely because it was scarce.

Thank you for that. That's a wonderful bit of trivia.

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#59

Post by yunohn »

blix wrote: post #43
yunohn wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Thank you Toyota and practitioners of "lean" / "Six Sigma" that told us all about the wonders of just-in-time, to only carry exactly as much inventory was needed for demand. While Toyota might have popularized the concept, it seems odd to blame them for the common-sense idea of just-in-time. It’s quite natural, normal humans also don’t hoard everything they can possibly think of needing, nor should companies. It’s…

> It’s quite natural, normal humans also don’t hoard everything they can possibly think of needing... For most of human history we did exactly that. The deeply interconnected "JIT Consumption" world is really quite new. And if consumption patterns suddenly change then you can't buy toilet paper anymore.

Do you have some sources to prove that “most of human history”, everyone was hoarding?

Necessity leads to JIT, only in times of surplus can you even try to hoard. Famines were common before, and still occur now - you just don’t notice now thanks to globalization and in part, essential reserves maintained by governments and companies.

Re: Paintmakers are running out of the color blue

#60

Post by tonyedgecombe »

TomAbel wrote: post #49

After the 2011 Japan earthquake automakers ran into a the same problem, they ran out of a pigment called Xirallic made by Merck >After the earthquake, automakers worldwide were forced to stop making cars of certain colors because they couldn't get the aluminum-flaked Xirallic pigment that makes the paint sparkle. Merck was making the pigment at only one plant worldwide -- its Onahama plant in the quake zone -- and ke…

Just how much stock would companies need to avoid the problems we have now? This isn't just a supply side problem, demand for some goods has gone through the roof. How can a business compete on resilience when all their competitors are cheaper because they carry less stock.

I'm not even sure I'd want that as a consumer. Mostly I'd rather wait than pay more (although obviously not for food).

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