Our company calls and checks on lead times and stock on hundreds of goods for our members every day.  It’s been a very apparent trend that fewer and fewer manufacturers are keeping items in stock.  For truly custom items, lead times are getting longer and longer.  It is not abnormal to now see 12-16 weeks when we used to see 8-10.  This makes good business sense for those vendors that we work with, but what can designers do to deal with the longer lead times?

1.  Ask vendors that you work with often to update you with a stock list.  This can be especially helpful when you’re working with a lighting or accessory vendors.  If you need that lamp for an installation in two months, you don’t want to keep selecting lamps with estimated ship dates 6 months out.

2.  Set client expectations.  This economic situation is largely outside of our control and everyone realizes that.  A reasonable client will too if you let them know the logic.

3.  Stay on top of your orders.  Check on them frequently.  Due to longer lead times, a delay due to miscommunication or missing information can really set a project back and add more weeks to an already lengthy lead time.