As everyone in our industry knows, there’s always another challenge on the horizon. While writing this article in late February, much of North America is experiencing another Polar Vortex. It’s perhaps ironic that our first Polar Vortex was in 2019, right in the middle of the run on machinery that had begun in 2018. Now here we are again, and machinery lead times are again often 12 to 24 months. Our industry has been running full tilt since 2018 and there’s always something affecting our schedules.
In addition to machinery lead times, a second chip shortage and parts shortage has begun. Although we had devised a timely solution during the initial worldwide chip shortage (see my January article, “Turning Supply Constraints into Opportunities”), this second run has contributed to some slippage in our schedule. [For all photos, See PDF or View in Full Issue.]
Although we are doing our best to get everyone their Beasts on time, I’m getting calls daily from customers wanting their machinery as soon as possible. No one could have predicted record machinery investments during and after a pandemic, and the side effect of the labor situation becoming even more challenging for us and our customers.
Working longer hours and working weekends is a way for us to keep our heads above water. Plus, many of our customers prefer to have installations over the weekend, because that minimizes the impact on their production schedule (see my November article, “A Weekend Install and a Packers Home Game”).
When it comes to weather though, we are undaunted. We will not hesitate to install in 98°F desert heat right down to –17°F Polar Vortex conditions. (I personally would take the heat over the freezing cold any day.)
How cold was it? It was so cold at –16°F that, when we decided to rip out the wall to install a RetroC saw, our wind-breaking bunks of lumber and a 100,000 BTU Torpedo Heater became our best friends for that install in Pillager, MN in 2019.
Sometimes, physically getting to a job is difficult too. Trucks are hard to come by and trucking rates have been sky high as a result. On top of this, we had our first ever “trucking mishap” back in August, which threw an unexpected wrench into our schedule and our customer’s schedule. It took us both a month to recover (and we were thankful it wasn’t worse).
But this story is not about making excuses. I firmly believe we can only blame ourselves for schedule slippage, so we are pulling out all the stops to keep on pace. We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding. We’ll continue to work hard to bring you our Beasts. When the going gets tough, the tough get going, and we are a tough industry!
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