What to expect with your joinery lead times
As a nation, we have become used to the fast turnaround we have with not only purchasing our products, but having them delivered directly to our doors. The emergence of eCommerce and online retail since the pandemic has had a huge impact on the way we complete our shopping and for this reason, we often become impatient when we have to wait what seems like a considerable time for our items. For clients who have yet to purchase bespoke joinery products therefore, lead times of 16-20 weeks can seem like an incredible long time and often clients get frustrated and disappointed by this.
This month, Hinson Custom Made take you behind the scenes to explain why your lead times are likely to be longer when ordering bespoke joinery products. There are a lot more factors than simply having your product manufactured!
5 reasons why your lead times are longer
As mentioned in the paragraph above, there are many reasons why you will have a long lead time for any bespoke joinery products you commission. Take a look at our top 5 reasons below/
Labour shortages
The UK is currently seeing unprecedented labour shortages in industries throughout the country. Primarily due to the pandemic and subsequent exit from the European Union, we have lost many workers to redundancy, career change and relocation to different countries. In a climate where the current financial position for 2023 is unknown, many employees are not wanting to jump ship into a different position, so labour shortages will continue for the foreseeable future.
Timber shortages
Alongside a shortage in skilled workers, there is also a big shortage of timber supplies across Europe. Again, the pandemic has a lot to do with shortages, leaving a lack of employees to source and supply the timber, a lack of transportation bringing the timber into the UK and the huge rise in prices we have seen to obtain the timber in the first place.
Creating a bespoke piece
When purchasing a mass produced product, you can buy this product off the shelf and it is available immediately. This is because the product has been made ahead of time in a factory. Whilst you are able to purchase the product when you need it, every one created looks exactly the same. This is not the case with bespoke products - particularly wooden windows and doors. They are made to measure and built to each clients specification, meaning they cannot be made ahead of time.
An increase in demand
Bespoke joinery products have increased massively in demand as more and more people understand the benefits of having wooden window and door products as opposed to UPVC products. This has been great for the joinery industry as a whole, however in some situations the demand for bespoke joinery products overtakes the amount of skilled joiners available to assist.
The actual creation process
Unlike purchasing a sofa, your joinery products go through several stages of amendments before the plans are even signed off - let alone the work beginning. Measurements, surveys and calculations have to be made. The correct materials have to be sourced from (sometimes) a variety of suppliers and work needs to be scheduled alongside other projects that are currently happen in the workshop.
Parts of the overall product are manufactured separately and then assembled before the wood can be prepared, primed, painted and set. Even the natural elements play a part in the process of creating your wooden windows and doors. We are not able to fit timber products in wet weather as this can cause future problems. Needless to say, the British weather has a lot to answer for!
How are we managing the current issues with lead times?
Whilst lead times for bespoke joinery products may sound like an incredibly long time, when you factor in the process and the finished product, it actually becomes a little easier to understand why your products take longer to manufacture and finish. That being said however, we understand that as clients you are keen to get your finished product into your homes as quickly as possible and for this reason, we are working hard to improve our lead times by implementing support in a variety of ways.
Encouragement of young people into the industry - It is important that we continue to source new potential craftsmen to begin in the industry and learn the skills needed to become a joiner. This will help with labour shortages and assist to balance out demand vs workers.
Training and investment in our team - The team at Hinson Custom Made work incredibly hard for every client we work with and its important to invest in our team so they can continue to learn skills and further their knowledge. Alongside training and support, we ensure we have the latest equipment available in our workshop to assist the team with the work they undertake.
Relationships with suppliers - We have a great relationship with many of the suppliers we work with and wherever possible, we try to work with local suppliers. Not only does this reduce our delivery times between workshop and supplier, but it also supports the local community and small businesses. Together with our suppliers, we are always looking for efficient ways of working and ways to improve our supply chain.
Effective time management - As a small but effective team of skilled mastercraftsmen, we often juggle a variety of projects for many different clients. Part of our effective management means working on each of these projects effectively and to the best of our ability so we can finish projects on time without causing delays to our clients.
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Hinson's promise to their bespoke joinery clients
Since our humble beginnings in 1984, our focus has been on creating beautiful bespoke joinery pieces for clients in an efficient and effective manner. Our aim at Hinson Custom Made is to always be transparent and honest with our clients, to under promise and over deliver and ultimately to ensure the products we create for you go beyond your initial expectations.
We hope that the information we have provided above helps you to understand not only our processes, but the beauty of bespoke wooden windows and doors and the reasons behind extended lead times that may initially seem difficult to work with. If you have a project coming up and you would like to discuss you option for wooden windows and doors, get in touch with our team today - we would be more than happy to work with you on achieving a unique and ideal look for your home.
