Door Supply Issues surrounding COVID-19
The past few months, we have begun to hear information from clients regarding how difficult it is to remain on a timeline due to supply issues with materials on their projects. Many doors in particular are causing a major issues for timeline. The COVID-19 pandemic has directly affected where most door suppliers manufacture their goods. When a manufacturer’s plant is not located in the USA, it is difficult to foresee these issues and plan for them.
What to do
We have been working with some developers throughout the nation, that have mentioned their contracts with suppliers, due to the pandemic only, are able to reimburse funds when they aren’t able to comply with the contract’s original schedule. This is something to be investigated if it is a major issue for timelines on a project. Of course, this is all depending on the project, supplier, manufacturer, and so many other factors.
I’m able to get a reinbursement. . . now what?
The best way to deal with finding a door supplier for your project, would be to look for a supplier in the same country as the project. That way, you are familiar with the current COVID-19 restrictions that are in place for that country. For example, Asia was shut down about 3 months before the USA. This effected any door manufacture who had plants in that area from January-March (estimate). The United States then shut down March-May (estimate). Therefore, when the manufacturing plants were just getting ready to gear up again, they had no where to ship if their projects were located in cities that were halting construction. At Landquist, we were personally able to help a few clients out with a fast turnaround, since we were able to comply with CDC guidelines in our manufacturer’s plant.
Moving forward
Nobody in whatever industry they are involved in can foresee the future. If there is anything we have learned from this pandemic, it is that. Moving forward, in order to facilitate a project with minimal door interruptions, it is suggested to find a door manufacturer that is in located in the same country as the project being built. Another tip, the less people involved in the transaction the better. Look for those manufacturer’s that go direct to a project site. The thought behind this is, what happens if you start a project, the supplier orders doors from a manufacturer that is out of the country, that country gets a 2nd wave of COVID-19 and has a forced shut down. The doors will be behind by months for the project in the USA, where their may NOT be a 2nd wave at that time of COVID-19. When the door manufacturer is back up and running out of the country, they go to ship but the supplier is forced to be shut down since they have over 300 people working in their factory. I know that was quite a crazy last couple of sentences, but it is something that may be very real in the next months leading up to the Winter in 2020. On the contrary, if a GC orders direct from a manufacturer, they may place an order for the job, and the doors ship within 3 weeks to the jobsite.
Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
