TED Magazine - February 2017

the door at dawn the next day,” said Albert. “If they would get in front of their orders by at least a few days or a week, then it would be a lot less stressful and a lot easier to service ac- counts properly.”
Tight Schedules and
Even Tighter Margins Electrical contractors point to the pressure applied on them by owners and general contractors in managing projects so tightly. According to Stod- dard, “There’s very little time for de- lays. Frankly, general contractors don’t want to hear that it takes so long to get stock because the factory is shipping in two to three weeks. They want the job done.” Stoddard noted that this kind of pressure puts him in the position to have to shop around on many orders for the availability of goods. According to Doyle, the minimalist approach to staffing jobsites is part of the reason electrical contractors are regularly sending in orders at the end of the day. “Just about every job these days is bid with razor-thin margins,” said Doyle, “and this means that we have to watch every dollar when it comes to staffing.” Although many jobs should have several project managers and superintendents, most end up with just one because of the tight margins. “The superintendent and project man- ager typically have so much going on that they sometimes send in com- modities orders very late in the day,” said Doyle. “It may not be the most efficient way of doing things, but it’s the way business is done now and dis- tributors need to accept it.” So what are the actual items that electrical contractors are having is- sues with regarding inventory? While this can vary, one common thread seems to be colored wire. Both Stod- dard and Doyle note that it’s relatively common for a distributor to not have all the colored wire needed for a proj- ect site. “They all say that they carry
it,” said Stoddard, “but when we try to order it, they might have three out of the four colors that we’re looking for. Or if they do have it, the wire is three to four weeks out, not including freight time.” Doyle noted that when wire has to be ordered from multiple distributors, it becomes logistically challenging on the jobsite because multiple trucks will be delivering at different times. “This eats up time and money because we have to have a superintendent meet with the drivers and coordinate the deliveries,” he said. Another item referenced by electri- cal contractors is plastic new work boxes. “Everyone has to get the large orders from the factory, which is fine, but again it is two to three weeks to get, not including freight time,” said Stoddard. He noted that this is partic- ularly frustrating because of the mul- tifamily housing boom in the Boston- area market. Distributors note that some of the expectations of electrical contractors are simply not realistic. “Sometimes we may get wiped out of plastic boxes by a single large residential building order, and then it takes a couple weeks to replenish,” explained Albert, adding that it would be more efficient if large orders were placed in advance. “The electrical contractors know what they need, but they still want hun- dreds of boxes delivered the next day. We’re not going to turn down an order because a competitor will jump on it, but it does place us in a tough position if another customer needs boxes be- fore we can replenish.” While Stoddard admits that the de- mands placed on distributors can pre- sent challenges, he expects them to adjust to current business practices. “Distributors should be able to see the trend in their areas and meet the sup- ply and demand,” he concluded. ;
Seitz is a Philadelphia-based freelance
writer. Reach her at Rachael.Seitz@
mail.com.