As a large part of the Jenkins team takes a breath and winds down from a busy and challenging season, my role in the company is ramping up with equipment sales and inquiries at their annual peak in preparation for the season to come.
As the packing season comes to an end, our clients get to draw breath and turn their attention towards planning for the season ahead. Considerations include, updating equipment, reconfiguring and expanding capacity, automation, H&S upgrades and better utilisation of staff and/or workspace.
For me this is the busiest time of year with designing and quoting, solutions to be ordered, manufactured, shipped, installed, and commissioned prior to the season to come.
I thoroughly enjoy the dynamic demands of this time of year, working on exciting solutions and confirming orders. This time round the window to do this after this year’s season has become incredibly short due to issues with Covid 19 and shipping. Manufacturers are incredibly busy, shipping is slow and expensive which equates to longer supply lead times and far less time for us to carry out installations before the new season. I anticipate we will be required to change the way we look at our windows for equipment installation in the future, with the window to order equipment to do this all but closed for the coming season. We have pre ordered a limited selection of equipment to anticipate our clients’ needs for it to arrive in time for the coming season. This is one of the many ways we are working to accommodate your needs in what is to be shaping up to be one of the biggest years for the Jenkins equipment and automation business. I know that with the current Covid environment, we will be required to change the way we look at our installation windows for equipment not only for the coming season but into the foreseeable future too.
We have several exciting large-scale projects which we will be commissioning this year that will offer our clients, and the wider industry, game changing automation solutions – more on that in a later issue.
Another positive element is that we have many clients talking to us now about solutions and equipment for the 2023 season. This is invaluable given the current longer lead times we are experiencing and although this may seem a long way out, having the luxury of time to design, price and discuss solutions 18 month out allows for earlier production and shipping. The opportunity to schedule production of different projects together allows us to consolidate freight and container space, this saves costs for all parties by achieving earlier arrival times into New Zealand and allowing more time for installation.
An example of this is being able to discuss designs and solutions in October 21, confirming by January/February 22 for production, with equipment arrival in September/October 22. This timeline allows clients to secure their orders prior to the traditional pricing release from our suppliers which is another nice benefit of moving early.
So, once we are all released from the level 3/4 restrictions I look forward to the opportunity to engage with clients on site to continue discussions on how we can add value to your operation. In the meantime stay safe in your bubbles and please reach out if you want to discuss your automation requirements further.