If your supplier can’t deliver when it counts, you’re the one who takes the heat.
At a large hospital project in Chicago, a high-volume supplier of laminated low-E panels missed three milestone deliveries due to plant backlogs. The distributor—relying on verbal ETAs—had no backup plan and couldn’t source alternates fast enough. The contractor imposed late penalties and rerouted future orders.
Takeaways for distributors:
Build vendor scorecards (OTIF, responsiveness, quality incidents)
Implement secondary sourcing for core SKUs
Include performance clauses in supplier contracts
Reliable vendors protect your margins. Unreliable ones expose your blind spots.
