Industry Wary of Supply Chain Disruptions

Over the past few months, it’s grown evident that the pandemic has prompted supply chain disruptions that

could affect the planning of capital projects in condominiums.

Some sectors are “suffering more than others” and some companies within those sectors are experiencing greater setbacks, Mina Tesseris, senior forensic engineer at Arbitech Inc., said during a recent CCI Huronia webinar about the current state of condo communities.

The lumber and pre-cast concrete industries are examples he pointed to as clogging the flow of equipment and materials onto job sites.

Two-by-eight pressure-treated wood is hard to find, while the backlogs in the pre-cast concrete industry resulted in projects, slated to begin in summer, being set back due to COVID-19.

“A lot of the facilities producing pre-cast concrete were shut down, or on reduced hours or labour,” he said. “That’s starting to catch up with us now.”

He’s finding some manufacturers within the roofing industry, shingle supply for instance, are very slow to deliver, while others have not been affected at all.

“Were also seeing delays at the border with products coming from the U.S. and that is affecting projects as well in terms of delivery times.”

There are a few items condos, and contractors, should consider when planning and delivering a project.

“From a planning perspective, you’ll definitely want to check on availability of materials before you go to tender; talk to the manufacturers, talk to the vendors, see what the delivery times are for the materials and whether or not they are available. You don’t want to be specifying materials that aren’t going to be available when needed and delay the project.”

During construction, contractors should ensure that they’re proactively ordering materials.

“In the past, we were working on a just-in-time type of system, where materials were delivered to the job site or ordered and expected to be delivered to the job site when needed,” he said. “Now, there is potential for delays. Planning ahead and receiving materials in advance will help minimize some of those risks.” 1