It use to be tournament officials and competitors would pay close attention to the weather man for the upcoming forecast but start including golf manufacturers, located in California. Last week with the rolling black outs that are plaguing Southern California, several golf companies were forced to involuntarily shut down operations for brief periods of time. The slight increase in the temperature appeared to be enough of a reason for utility officials to shut down operations last Monday at TaylorMade addidas Golf. According to officials at the company it lasted for approximately 90 minutes and came without warning. Last Tuesday was Callaway Golf’s turn as its golf club plant was forced to close down for approximately 2 hours around 9:30 am. Once it was back in operations, its golf ball facility took its turn. Due to the layout of the company’s facilities, the ball plant happened to fall into a different grind with the electric company. Since golf ball manufacturing is a more delicate and complicated process than for golf clubs, Callaway was forced to shut down its ball line in advance of the black out so that it wouldn’t occur during any of the intricate processes involved in manufacturing.
The Acushnet Company’s (Titleist, FootJoy, and Cobra) two buildings on Aston Avenue were affected last Tuesday as well. According to company officials, its sales and marketing, distribution and customer service were without power for a little less than two hours. However, its manufacturing building located nearby on Loker was not affected. On top of the frustration with a lack of juice to operate and little to no advance notice in the future companies, may also be presented with human resource issues. A two-hour lunch break in the mid-morning may not always be an option with employees. Lets hope that Mother Nature’s capacity doesn’t have a long and hot summer ahead for the manufacturing folks in southern California. Otherwise it may create supply problems for consumers, retailers and golf manufactures.
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