Tips For Supply Chain Success by Krista Mund, Executive Vice President
Homebuilding supplies are in high demand and short supply - from the electricity feeding developments, to the 2x4s framing up the houses, to the appliances and fixtures equipping them. It’s a crisis that is not going away soon. HBA of F-M asked trade partners for their advice to builders, contractors and developers as the global pandemic advances.
TERRY LIPP
Builder Sales | Ferguson Kitchen Bath & Lighting Showroom
Associated trade partners are dealing with the most volatile manufacturing environment we have ever encountered. Countries are mandating factory closings due to the virus and this has put a tremendous strain on inventory. Parts facilities are the hardest hit as a lot of manufacturers source inventory from the same location. In addition, we work with vendors that have made personnel cuts so responses to our inquiries are delayed. A factory that is open today may be closed tomorrow due to a positive test resulting in the facility having to be sanitized and new safety measures put into place. Once the building is reopened, worker pods that had six associates in an area to assemble a product may now be down to two due to social distance guidelines. Productivity is typically then about 60 percent. And on top of that, we now dealing with “alive” inventory versus what we could see on a screen and rely on. By “alive” I mean just that. I had this happen to me recently. I called a vendor to check stock on an item and within one minute their on-hand available inventory changed three times.
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Plains Builder September 2020
