Sunday, August 12, 2007
Lead Times for August and beyond
We're now back from our summer shutdown. While we were shut down, a lot of new orders came in. There is no more free time in August for any of our machines, and most of our machines are tied up for much of September.
We also notice that steel lead times are rising. Some materials you can readily, a week or less from order to delivery. But some materials are taking many weeks. There seems to be no particular pattern to what's fast and what's slow. I suspect the service centers are drawing down their inventory, and it's the luck of the draw whether the material is available here or not.
Therefore, we are strongly recommending that people who are not operating under blanket purchase order agreements place their orders a minimum of 1 month in advance if the part needs no post-processing, and 2 months is better. If your parts need heat treating or plating after manufacture, you should add 2 weeks to those numbers.
We also notice that steel lead times are rising. Some materials you can readily, a week or less from order to delivery. But some materials are taking many weeks. There seems to be no particular pattern to what's fast and what's slow. I suspect the service centers are drawing down their inventory, and it's the luck of the draw whether the material is available here or not.
Therefore, we are strongly recommending that people who are not operating under blanket purchase order agreements place their orders a minimum of 1 month in advance if the part needs no post-processing, and 2 months is better. If your parts need heat treating or plating after manufacture, you should add 2 weeks to those numbers.
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