Navigating Supply Chain Challenges

Supply chain challenges continue to demand close attention and creative thinking as lead times on many materials still extend far beyond historical averages. Over the past 18 months, we have closely monitored a handful of situations impacting the supply chain:

• COVID continues to impact international manufacturing, shipments and deliveries as China is just now emerging from prolonged shutdowns in some of its major cities.

• Congestion, equipment imbalances and increased fuel charges continue to challenge international shipping markets.

• North American port congestion, while improving, still slows down delivery.

• Contract negotiations between West Coast port operators and dock workers continue with talks restarting on 6/1/22.

• Domestic trucking has improved but is still expected to remain volatile with capacity challenges and increased fuel charges.

These challenges certainly put additional pressures on property management and construction teams. While delays impact costs, scheduling, sequencing and material selections, proper proactive planning can help mitigate the impacts of these pressures. At Landmark Properties, we leverage our vertically-integrated structure to tightly control the cradle-to-grave delivery process. By focusing on product type and design while leveraging relationships and buying power, we are able to continue to develop and deliver high-quality projects across the country. 

Product Type: Having a standardized product type allows us greater control over the elements that go into our projects. We gain buying power by operating at a larger volume. For example, we use a lot of the same materials across our footprint. As we navigate supply chain delays with specific items, we are able to holistically evaluate our projects in the pipeline and make changes or substitutions where appropriate. 

Design Involvement: Landmark is heavily involved early and throughout the development process when it comes to managing design to meet the needs of the market and fit the budget. Our construction team works closely with design partners and subcontractors to find the most cost-effective way to build projects, which is directly impacted by materials and leadtimes and putting both in the context of the broader schedule.

Relationships: Leveraging relationships and buying power is also critical. Longstanding subcontractor and vendor partners help us best navigate the ups and downs of supply chain issues as they relate to construction. With such a large footprint of projects, our subcontractors and vendors are high volume purchasers of goods. They have buying power and often get better terms. We prioritize our relationship with these subcontractors who bring valuable business to material sellers.

Despite the challenges faced by construction teams, our outlook remains positive when it comes to future supply chain disruptions. To successfully navigate this new normal, companies need to be nimble and flexible within the broader scope of a proactive plan to mitigate supply chain concerns. At Landmark, we have the best-in-business employees, partners and vendors. We are confident in our ability to work through and manage what the future holds.