Managing Undercarriage during times of throttled supply

The COVID Pandemic has led to a number of new market forces affecting business. Some among others is the slowing of supply chains including the availability of replacement undercarriage components. There are probably a few factors causing this: –

1. Reduced manufacturing capacity at some period over the last 12 months, thus causing a backlog of supply.
2. Increased shipping demand and cost due to previous supply limitations
3. Reduced inventory being carried by suppliers due to the shortfall in production previously.
4. Increased demand from other users as they also require replacement stock to cover the uncertainty.

All of these factors could mean, there is the potential risk of reduced undercarriage component availability, and this could slow down or hinder your operations.

In order to mitigate this risk, you can do the following:

1. Inspect all tracked machines to determine the remaining available residual life of the components and the estimated date they will need to be replaced. (Contact us if you need access to an Undercarriage Inspection and Management system to perform this task. TrackTreads covers all makes and models)
2. Ensure you have inventory of swing chains and components that will cover the important machines
3. Secure stock by purchasing the components you may need for the potential period there will be limited stock available.
4. Reduce the Express Freight Costs by using the forecasting ability of the Undercarriage Inspection and Management System to calculate future order quantities and dates and then committing to these orders. Manufactures and suppliers give priority to future dated orders thereby securing replacements parts without the need for express freight costs.
5. Create an Undercarriage Maintenance Strategy and use the Undercarriage Inspection and Management system to measure performance against the strategy and assisting in the entire management process