Supply chains, am I right? Boy, what a couple years it’s been. No, this is not a 2021 roundup article. To be honest, I’d rather have wrapped up 2021 back in February. Regardless, if you’re reading this, it’s likely you’re knee deep in manufacturing or distribution on some level and are experiencing delays and shortages not seen since the aftermath of 2008 financial crisis.

We experience shortages daily but are working our tails off to keep the supply chains flowing. Either by upping or quantities of raw material, stocking more parts or flying others in from overseas, we’re doing our best to keep the product you want flowing out the shipping doors. Overall, we’ve been luckier than most with our supply chain.

That being said, there’s no guarantee our luck will continue. The only guarantees in life are death, taxes and that your week-old car gets dinged by a shopping cart. I’m using this issue of Josh’s Opinion to ignite your planning fire so you look at your 2021 numbers early to predict your requirements for 2022. In many of our value streams, 2021 has already been our best year yet (such as our EconoMAX dump truck air cylinders). We expect 2022 to be busier still.

No matter your industry, expect that delivery delays will interrupt your own supply chain and those delays will have to be passed along to your customer. Please reach out to us with blanket orders, PO’s and requests as soon as humanly possible. The more time we have to order raw material, machine parts and assembled finished cylinders, the more precisely we can plan our production schedules to ensure you receive your orders on time.