This will probably sound like I am making excuses for Ruger... Oh well. The more that I think about it, the more that it seems to me that this might not be entirely Ruger's fault.
The 2008 Ruger catalog also mentioned that they also implemented "just in time" manufacturing. These "lean production" approaches only work if your suppliers are able to keep up their end. In lean production, you basically don't keep an inventory of parts; you rely on your suppliers to provide you with what you need, just in time for your manufacturing run. The bottom line is that this approach only works if the company's suppliers can keep up with your needs. Any delays or backorders will prevent you from making your product in a timely fashion.
The benefit that you can gain from this approach is that it reduces your inventory and provides you with significant cost savings. I'm very familiar with "lean" production, but I have no first-hand experience with it. I work in a completely different industry, but I've seen long manufacturing delays because our suppliers could not hold up their end. I've seen backorders that have lasted months (and I've never worked for a company that used this approach).
I don't know for sure that this is what is happening, but this is usually the biggest problem/hurdle that companies deal with when they convert to "lean" production approaches. It makes sense that some of Ruger's inventory issues might be related to issues with their suppliers. I'm sure that the LCP, SR9, and the LCR contributed to the delays, as well.
Kel Tec P3ATs are sold out, too. Huge demand for small .380s for some reason. Even .380 ammo is hard to come by. That's sorta weird, don't quite understand the paranoia there unless people are thinking that small guns are going to be banned or something. 
