SUPPLY CHAIN CRISIS The ‘perfect storm’ of Brexit, Covid and the Suez blockage has left the British building industry in the midst of a supply chain crisis, but it could bring about long-overdue change, says industry specialist Dan Grimshaw.
“From being dependent on next-day-delivery options and doing things in bits and bobs, adapting to the new changes will ultimately make the sector more productive.
Dan, founder of design and construction firm Bath and London-based Beam Development, says the present disruption, although tough to take, could ultimately hasten the modernisa“Ordering 10 bags of cement for tomorrow tion of the sector and deliver a fundamentaland then and then 50 in the next day or when ly-different ‘new normal’. you need it, is not necessarily the most efficient way of doing things. “If we look at the current dominance of nextday delivery options, we need to ask whether “Thinking and planning ahead a bit more is it is the most efficient and sustainable way of no bad thing. And from a sustainability point doing things,” said Dan. of view, the harder it is to get hold of something, the more valuable it becomes. Scarcity “Suppliers have little idea what is coming increases value, and in turn you attach more down the line, because nobody is looking value to it.” forward; they are just looking back at what they sold last week and the week before and Dan says the future may see the decline of basing the next week’s orders on that. just-in-time-style procurement and the increasing importance of project management “For the industry to adapt and flourish, we and says this will also require training. need to co-ordinate information across the supply chain and embrace the use of new “For the sector to prosper, we urgently need digital technologies, such as product configu- to develop and nurture the people that work rators or cloud manufacturing. for us. We need more home-grown permanent staff and to build teams and keep them, “It could lead to a visible shift to a more-conrather than just drafting people in. sidered, more-productive, more-planned way of working in the next five to 10 years.” “The key to a dynamic future lies in training, on-boarding and recruiting people into the Dan says employing a more vigorous project sector from an early age and who have an management process could also lead to a energetic outlook to their prospects and their reappraisal of geographic links and vulneracareer. bilities. “Without doubt the industry has a daunting “Each sector of materials has its own story, task ahead of it that will require bold and but all of those stories are interconnected by agile moves and deft navigation, but the size Covid and Brexit”, added Dan. of the prize is enormous.” “Hitherto builders and contractors have had little idea where their materials came from because they had no need to ask about the breakdown and traceability of products.
Dan Grimshaw is a design and construction specialist based in Bath and London who has worked on premium residential projects for more than 15 years.
“But since leaving Europe and the start of the pandemic, we are more tuned into how and why a supply chain might be affected. There is an appreciation of where materials are coming from and the challenges of procuring and transporting them.
Dan believes in the importance of nurturing talent and is a mentor to the British Library’s prestigious Innovating for Growth programme, and is on the jury for the BLT Built Design Awards 2021.
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