Across the Table: What If?
What would you do if your primary contact with a vendor—the only person trained to do her job—told you on Thursday that she would be on pregnancy leave beginning Monday? For a year? It happened to me and our project was delayed for months.
What if a vendor whose product is delivered toward the end of a project has a tornado hit most of its factory during the busy season? It happened once in our industry. Once is not bad, unless you had a project with them.
What if a vendor—the only public source for a key, non-patented product used on almost all laboratory projects—had much of their factory destroyed by a fire? Those projects faced dramatic delays until alternative materials were evaluated and approved. Eventually, that factory was repaired and back to full production. And then had another fire. Now additional companies are providing that material, but do you have other products with only one public source that can realistically provide those products? (You do.)
What if a vendor tells you their lead time is eight weeks, but it becomes 26 weeks when the order is placed? “Lead time” is typically based on production capacity. The vendor may honestly have the capacity in eight weeks. What you don’t know is their capacity for weeks 10-25 is already full or will be by the time your order is placed. Order placement into the production queue is often delayed because the factory doesn’t want orders from dealers until all information is known (e.g., colors, ship-to address, submittal drawings approved). Why are submittal drawings even necessary if architects have vetted the vendors they have approved? Why are colors and ship-to addresses required months, even years, before needed?
What if a key vendor announces they are shutting their doors and going out of business? That has occurred all too frequently. When that happens, how is a replacement vendor selected? Are they willing to accept steep fines if they do not deliver on time? I remember a project facing this dilemma. A vendor was selected, promising they would deliver on time. Two weeks later they announced the product would be delayed by several weeks.
No one wants to think any of these challenges could happen, and truthfully none will happen for most projects. It does happen, though, and much more frequently than you realize. Architects and lab planners are your first source of solutions, IF they have properly vetted the vendors they have approved.
Tip: be skeptical if they say they have vetted vendors unless they can explain their process, the results of their visits—they often have never visited factories—how they keep current on the economic status of the vendors, and how they have handled “what if” situations like the above.
This may be the only laboratory project you manage for your institution. You don’t want it to be the only one that isn’t finished on time, do you?
Dave can be reached at dwithee@alum.mit.edu or 920-737-8477. All opinions expressed in Across the Table with Dave Withee are exclusive to the author and are not reflective of Lab Design News.
