The past six weeks have shown us Mother Nature’s not-so-nice side. We’ve had our share of nasty weather here in Michigan. Yesterday, there was a foot of snow on the ground and today the weatherman is calling for fifty degree weather and thunderstorms. Conditions are right for flash flooding! Luckily, JB Cutting hasn’t had to shut down due to the inclement weather, but we have seen our share of delays in shipping our 3DL products to our customers and receiving products from our vendors.
Quite a few of our vendors are located in NJ where the ports have been closed again and again by snowstorms. In today’s day and age when so many of us are running “lean” to save money, we don’t have much inventory to fall back on. We keep close track of our inventory (thanks to the sharp eye of our purchasing agent, Natalie Abele) and have not run out of materials during this crazy-busy time!
We consider ourselves one of the lucky ones; the government recently reported that factory production fell sharply in January. Due to the slowdown, many workers saw their hours cut along with their pay. Less money means less spending even when the circumstances are completely out of our control.
When shipping companies shut down, it causes a huge domino effect. When our shipments are sitting on docks, our customers aren’t getting product which delays their installs and in turn delays payment from their customers. We are hoping with the onset of spring these problems will fade and become distant memories! We want to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for their patience; everyone has been really understanding during this time of shipping turmoil!