By / Shaun Ekert
Global logistics and supply and demand are starting to affect our industry. You go to your lumber yard and can’t get a certain product or home project components. Drywall is out of stock. At the grocery, entire shelves of a certain item are bare, while items of another variety are overflowing from the shelf. The store can’t get a certain brand of cola because the resources to make or can it have been diverted to a more important use. You can’t buy a snowmobile or a dirt bike or a tube for a bike tire or dehydrated camping meals or a laptop because the demand went up. The list is random, but it has been consistent over the past year because the global supply chain is stuck in a state of deficiency fuelled by unpredictable and unstable demand and, of course, other players in the supply chain.
So, what does that mean for us? Well, it means the onus on us as consumers is to be aware, take responsibility, and educate ourselves to mitigate our desires and expectations. Our mindset has always been, “I want it, so I will go get it,” and over the past few years our expectation for receiving the things we want has been shortened from weeks to days, especially with Prime. But these days, that is not realistic. It is time to differentiate between wants and needs and to go back to researching our educated choices rather than hitting the “one-click order” button on a whim.
Educating ourselves also means looking ahead to find out what the next thing will be. Meat? Raw lumber? Paving stones? Kleenex? As a society we must realize that this state of affairs will continue for some time, and as a result we will have extreme peaks and valleys and varying experiences with receiving the items we want/need.
As things open up across Canada, we are cautiously optimistic about the future. Our sector has been affected by the global supply chain and will continue to be, but on a lesser scale than some commodities. But that doesn’t mean it won’t change. Could insulation become the next global shortage? The metal industry is now being affected, and that basically affects everything. It is almost becoming a bidding war for logistics. Producers of extremely high margin products are paying more to get those products to market, and I think we can expect blips within our supply chain.
Let’s not forget human logistics. People aren’t travelling as much and in most cases aren’t permitted to travel—that means TIAC members who typically augment their labourforce with travelling labourers might be at a disadvantage at this time.
Now is the time for contractors to manage their expectations and relay this information to owners and clients so everyone is on the same page and understands that things right now aren’t like they used to be. That leaves open the potential for better teamwork, collaboration, and planning further out than is usually necessary. Anyone accustomed to working in a constant state of knee-jerk reactions is going to find this a bit of a transition—you definitely can’t get 100 widgets or 100 people by next week.
But that doesn’t mean it can’t be a positive experience. Think about the connection, the resilience, and the flexible thinking you are building into your teams. Consider the way people will remember you if you are reliable and steadfast during crisis. This is a priceless impression. Keep each other motivated, put one foot in front of the other, and focus on the good. The light is coming.
TIAC is hoping for the best with our conference this year. We are keeping a close eye on travel, provincial regulations, and what is happening in Atlantic Canada and will keep readers updated on the TIAC website, through the eZine, by email, in these pages, and on the TIAC Times website and social media. If you have any questions along the way, please reach out to the TIAC office.
We held a virtual board meeting in February and have adapted to focus primarily on the issues most pressing among our membership. Although we may not be as vocal as usual, rest assured we are focused on what you need most, and we are out there looking for solutions that will keep us all moving forward.
In closing, I want to ask you to make it a personal goal to check in with people in your network each week. There are too many unpleasant stories out there about the negative effects of isolation, so plan to reach out and touch base with a handful of people each week. Reaching out and keeping in touch does wonders for each other’s mental health and success. ▪
