This Supply Chain Thing Is Real!
We hear about it every day in the news and see it for ourselves on the store shelves — the supply chain shortage is real. Worse yet, the cumulative effects will continue for quite a while.
The company that I work for deals with professional contractors of new home builders, remodelers, plumbers, electricians, and other trades for commercial and residential construction. In the first few months when things began to get somewhat normal, manufacturers were scrambling for components and the home improvement industry was out of stock of the most basic products. The lonely 2x4 piece of lumber was $1.97 for the longest time, until you couldn’t find it, and if you could, it became $9.50.
How does all this happen? If we go back to high school, we recall the basic theory of supply and demand and their impact on pricing. Most products are made of many components. The appliance that you ordered months ago is waiting on a 25¢ part. Without it — it doesn’t work. When they do get the part and assemble the product, it gets loaded into a sea container and floats like a bobber in a port waiting to get loaded onto a delivery truck. That whole process usually took 90 days and now it takes 9 months! As a personal example, I am in the middle of a significant improvement to my home. I am moving load bearing walls and changing the entire layout of my 80-year-old home. I ordered my kitchen cabinets, flooring, and other building materials in June. I finally received everything for the project right before Thanksgiving.
So what can you do to ensure a smooth project time line and minimize stress? First, plan your project with the finest of details. Secondly, order your materials months in advance and prepare for cost overruns. Finally, be very patient and willing to change in the event that a manufacturer changed a product. Component limitations may hinder production and require manufacturers to be patient and willing to change as well. Oh, and please … let’s not take out our frustrations on the customer service people. It really isn’t their fault that a 25¢ part is not readily available.