Adjusting to the new norm - the impact of loadshedding on the kitchen industry and how we need to adjust.
The Kitchen Specialists Association
Protecting the kitchen industry and the consumer since 1989
Loadshedding has had an impact on all of us but none more so than the manufacturing sector. The South African kitchen industry has had to fight for survival over the past few years and if we are going to see it remain in tact then consumers, developers and industry professionals are going to have to embrace a change in attitude and become far more flexible.
The massive loadshedding, particularly in Gauteng, not only has an impact on the manufacturing process of a kitchen but the design (lack of power for computers and WIFI) and installation too (lack of power for tools on site). Other manufacturers linked to the kitchen industry like stone and surface fabricators are similarly affected.
You might say that any business worth it's salt should be able to put facilities in place to offset this impact, but most kitchen companies in South Africa are small to medium enterprises with niche skill sets that are in short supply. While most have taken steps to have generators or solar installed in their factories this is costly and can only power a percentage of the machinery needed and for limited time periods. The massive costs to install solar and the ever rising cost of diesel are also prohibitive for smaller businesses. On site the impact of load shedding continues. A simple solution - a generator on each site? The cost for a company to have a generator on each site they are working on is untenable. A kitchen company can be operating on multiple sites at any one time and unless they drastically increase their costs to the customer facilitating this is an impossibility.
All kitchen companies reply on their suppliers for materials, components and off-site production. Over the past few months we have seen this supply chain harshly hampered due to import issues, rising costs of transport, strikes and the war in the Ukraine. Loadshedding has added to these challenges. Basic logistics are hampered due to traffic lights being out and stock processing is slowed down due to computers being offline. All these small issues accumulate and have an impact on the company's ability to deliver a finished kitchen in a specified timeline. While the customer has paid good money for a finished product and, in an ideal world, should not have to concern themselves with the company's challenges, this is just no longer viable. Issues like these are out of the companies control and totally unpredictable and if we are going to see reputable, skilled kitchen businesses survive we need to adjust our expectation's.
Key to this will be:
•Establish good communication with your kitchen company so that all parties are aware of the loadshedding schedules that will impact them on and off site so that plans can be made to work round them.
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•Being flexible with completion timelines - while we can't give the companies an indefinite timeline to complete work there needs to be a leeway given, without penalties, should loadshedding or any other issue that may result due to loadshedding come to play.
•If timelines can't be flexible then negotiate with the company on how to cover the costs of an onsite generator.
•Ensuring contracts are fair and have an allowance for issues that are outside the companies control. Contracts like the JBCC contract are particularly inflexible when it comes to managing timelines for sub contractors like kitchen companies and require contract management often way out of the companies capabilities
In this time where we are desperate to retain key skillsets, increase local manufacturing and employment, protecting niche market manufacturers like kitchen companies and stone and surface fabricators, and their related suppliers is vital. For the foreseeable future this will take us working together - manufacturer, supplier, builder, developer, industry professional and consumer. In a time where we seem to have lost a little compassion, understanding and flexibility we need to dig deep and bring it to bear to ensure the industry as a whole is supporting one another rather than dragging each other down.