Originally Posted by Hiro11

In fairness, setting aside the usual supply chain issues every manufacturing company has experienced Shimano has had some unique additional challenges recently:
1. a huge fire in their main Japan production facility in 2018. This factory is where Dura Ace and XTR are made, so it's likely a contributing cause of the delay of new Dura Ace.
2. long term Covid-related shutdowns at their main Malaysia production facility, which is where every other group is made.
3. Like many big Japanese manufacturers, Shimano is a notoriously conservative company: slow to react, slow to make capital investments, works with a small groups of highly dedicated suppliers. This makes Shimano particularly vulnerable to disruptions like a pandemic.

It's worth noting that Shimano is now investing hundreds of millions in new production capacity, they're building a huge new factory in Singapore and they are doubling the size of the Japan production facility.