There are a number of good reasons that a new product can't be found in the stores. And a few not so good reasons.

It is true that on occassion, some products are announced and then not even shipped to dealers for many months. This can very aggravating and begs the question of "why did you introduce it if you aren't even ready to produce the product?" You have seen this happen -- and it drives you crazy. 

Sometimes, however, this is the best thing to happen. And you, the consumer benefits greatly from it. Here's why . . . 

A few things that can affect the availability of newly introduced products:

Making the Right Versions.

Unless you are in "sales" yourself, this reason may be hard to understand. The sales and marketing departments of many modern companies sometimes try to give enough lead time between the announcement and the start of production to take pre-orders from customers. This lets the company schedule the factory to make the right number of the right versions of the new product. Even though this can make products seem annoyingly late, it also serves a very positive purpose of allowing the right versions of the new product to be made. Having a bit of time between the announcment and the start of production makes it more likely that when the products show up in the stores their are adequate numbers of the versions you and other consumers will actually want.

Often it means that we are "playing it safe." We don't know which products or product versions will be most popular. So we wait. But that is not always a bad thing when it comes to creating new products. You will be happier when the dealers have the right versions that you want. 

An Abundance of Enthusiasm.

It is always good to remember that Browning is made up of people. People like you. In the course of new product development plans are made, schedules are set and deadlines plotted. In the enthusiasm to get new products to market sometimes the schedules just don't come together. In many cases the enthusiasm of the sales and marketing team is much further down the road than the actual R&D development of the product. And it is not until ads have started to run and announcements are made that this fact is realized. Sales and marketing's schedule is often months ahead of R&D's schedule. In fact, you should usually expect this to happen.

This "optimism" is the most common reason for products being announced before the product is ready to ship to dealers. It can often result in the dreaded "Coming Soon" announcements. It just happens sometimes no matter how much we plan otherwise. It's just a human thing. Is it bad? No. This enthusiasm is what drives the development of new products and innovation. John Moses Browning was an extremely motivated, enthusiastic, optimistic guy. Without his "American West, risk-taking enthusiasm" we would not have the legacy of great Browning-designed firearms that we revere so much today. 

New Information and Testing.

You may have watched as companies introduce new products and ship them to dealers before realizing that they were not really ready to be produced and sold. For all the testing and proving of products companies do, sometimes you really haven't tested a new product until you have delivered it. Often it is not until products are in the hands of actual outdoor writers, magazine editors and even consumers  that you learn that there is something that is not quite right.

In the worst cases, products have to be returned to the company for reworks or improvements. This is generally a horrible thing to do to the purchaser. We don't like it and you don't either.  Producing a product that is not quite ready for "prime time" is something Browning works very hard to avoid.

You would think that the best way to avoid this is to never set development schedules that are overly aggressive and optimistic. You would think you could avoid it by taking all the time you need to make sure the product is perfected before you ship a single one. But in the real world most things just won't move forward without a schedule. Like most people and companies we set deadlines because they help. Because of this it is possible to introduce a product, ship it and then find out that it was not quite ready to produce.

Some companies go ahead and ship even while "field" results are coming in that are showing problems. But we don't. We would rather slow or even stop production and get the product ready. Again, this often results in the dreaded "Coming Soon" announcements. The result is a better, higher quality product. 

Prototype to Production is Hard.

The most common reason for new products not being delivered to dealers on time concerns getting products ready to build in the factories and setting up the production lines.

Once a perfect product prototype -- like a new firearm --  is produced, it requires what is called "industrialization" before the production line is started. This process gets the product ready for being made in one of our factories. Although the product may be excellent as a prototype, we can't sell you prototypes. Many prototype parts are not made by production processes. Some prototypes use special, costly materials and are made in a "one-off" way.

To begin production, every aspect of the product needs to be engineered to make it practical for production in a factory. All parts and processes must be optimized so that the product -- in addition to working as desired -- can be made at a price that will ultimately be affordable to you. It is possible for the process of pre-production to drag past the announcement of the product. This is especially true if some aspects of producing the product prove more difficult than expected. The result is that the product can be late -- well after it was announced. Again, this can result in the dreaded "Coming Soon" announcements. However, the result will be a better, higher quality, more affordable product in the long run. And that is what you really want. A few months wait is worth it if you get the best possible product.

A few other related questions:

Why don't you make more if demand is high?

Sometimes people comment on social media that others are finding the new product but they can't find one "anywhere." This is usually true. The answer to this question is all about math. Generally when a new product starts production the actual numbers made per day are very low compared to what the eventual rate will be. If the rate is low -- with thousands of dealers -- it does not take long to ship all the available production and literally leave thousands of dealers without the new product to show or sell. This problem is made worse by the fact that some dealers step up very early and order larger quantities of the product before other, smaller dealers have ordered. These more aggressive dealers can get a disproportionate number of the new products. Sometimes this puts more products in some regions of the country than others. So it can be true that in your area you "can't find any." 

If a gun is in production why are there no spare parts?

So you have a fairly new product and you need some servicing done and the service department tells you they don't have the parts. Yet you see new products in the stores every day. What gives? Generally this is due to parts production scheduling. The production of parts is generally scaled to the production rate of the finished products. Periodically time is scheduled in the factory for the making of spare parts. However, the need for spare parts is a very extreme ratio to the actual production of the new guns. For example, if 1,000 of a certain version of a certain new model are made, then only a few -- sometimes less than a handful --- of unique replacement parts will be needed. If the demand doesn't work out as expected, there may be too many of one part and not enough of another.

Legitimately there may not be a part needed to service your new firearm or other product. Yet when someone else sent his or her gun in for service there may have been dozens of parts to take care of their problem. Since spare parts are only produced periodically, it can be a while before the next run of parts is made at the factory. This can be VERY annoying. But it can and does happen on occasion. Browning does everything it can to plan for and eliminate this problem, but because there are many unknowns for mechanical products there will always be surpluses of some parts and shortages of others. 

If there is so much demand why don't you just make more?

For some companies this is an easy one to solve. If you are making a product that can be made just about anywhere by any mildly competent factory you can just contract with more parts suppliers and factories. Smart phone companies do this. Shoe manufacturers do this. TV makers do this.

But we don't.

Browning firearms are made in our own factories and special long-term partner factories. And when we need special components we use a very exclusive group of top quality parts suppliers. We do this for a variety of reasons. First, we are in business for the long haul. If a company does not care about the cost of building on to factories and hiring new employees and then closing the factories and laying off the employees then they might be decide to just "increase production." Browning's long view approach means we work hard to keep our production rates within the reasonable limits that match our human and factory resources.

Plus, a Browning firearm is not simple to make. We create and maintain a great deal of what is called "organizational knowledge." That means we have smart people doing things in proprietary ways. Our employees are "The Best There Is" and our production is geared around this expertise. Because of this you get the quality and performance you want while helping us to maintain the livelihoods of those who produce the products for you.

This is just our way of doing business. So we generally don't make enough of any new product in high demand. But we do our best. Some are critical of Browning for this long term sustainable view, but we know it is the best way to preserve the quality of our products and preserve the quality of life for our workers.