NDO Extrusions: Increasing Customer Cashflow
Reduce Inventory, Increase Cashflow, and Streamline Construction Timelines
In today’s fast-paced construction landscape, speed of service reigns supreme. The sooner a project is set into motion and completed, the more cost- and resource-effective it is for all parties involved.
There are a multitude of moving parts when it comes to commercial construction jobs, and in many cases, getting materials on time is priority number one.
A manufacturer who understands the importance of this more than most is SAF. The organization’s Next-Day-Out shipping program has been a valuable resource for project teams nationwide, offering unprecedented speed of service for aluminum extrusions.
The Breakdown: Next-Day-Out Extrusions
SAF leverages its operating hours (16 hours a day, five days a week) to ship extrusions out to the customer the next day. Yes, you read that right. The next day.
Here’s how it works:
- When an order is received, it is immediately processed by that first shift.
- The extrusions are then anodized overnight, part of the second shift duties.
- Second shift or first shift early the next morning handles packing up the materials.
- For the last step, the first shift (the following day) will prepare the order for shipping and get it out the door.
However simple the process may be for the expert metalworkers at SAF because of its vast stock of hundreds of extruded profiles, Next-Day-Out shipping is virtually unheard of in metals manufacturing and distribution. This makes the service offering so valuable to SAF customers.
A Value-Driven Mindset
The ability to have custom anodized extrusions ready for shipping within 24 hours is a unique industry offering. Naturally, SAF customers have embraced it.
“We have customers who anticipate anodized extrusions taking days or weeks, so they are astonished when we say that their order will ship the next day,” said John McClatchey, VP of sales and marketing at SAF.
This swift process streamlines project timelines for customers and has proven invaluable for glass contractors who have urgent needs for aluminum extrusion.
“Speed is everything,” added McClatchey. “The last thing that seals up a building are the windows and doors, so glass contractors need aluminum framing and trim as soon as possible. We regularly hear, ‘We need this yesterday,’ so it is really helpful to their business when we can ship these much-needed materials right away.”
Hitting Deadlines
Many contractors are contractually required to complete their portion of a project by a certain date so that other trades can get into the building and complete their work. If one contractor is late, it affects the entire project timeline. These delays have ripple effects and cost implications for all parties involved, from the developers down to the eventual occupants. Next-Day-Out extrusions from SAF have helped keep projects on pace since the program’s inception in the early 2000s.
In addition, many SAF customers cannot complete their portion of work until they know the exact extrusion sizes needed. Unfortunately, this cannot happen until they are in the field and can record measurements. Therefore, in some cases, ordering metal extrusions is a last-minute call.
In this scenario, customers can take field measurements and explore various profile shapes and sizes, ordering directly from SAF’s website. For contractors with drop-dead dates (because other trades cannot get started until they finish their work), Next-Day-Out shipping is immensely beneficial.
Cashflow and Inventory Optimization
Next-Day-Out shipping removes the need for customers to stock their shelves with a dozen different metal extrusions that they might or might not ever use.
“We have had customers confess that they stocked extrusions on the shelf for five years just to ultimately scrap them,” explained McClatchey. “That means they had thousands of dollars tied up in unused materials, money they will never get back in full by scrapping. With us, they can buy extrusions as needed and get them in a couple of days, eliminating all of those issues.”
The reliable Next-Day-Out shipping program from SAF helps customers manage their inventory, knowing that if they need material, they will not have to wait weeks to get it. Many think of SAF as their very own extrusion stock room because of how reliable, quick, and efficient the Next-Day-Out program is.
To support the demands of Next-Day-Out shipping, SAF utilizes a robust inventory management system that tracks turnover rates over 60 and 120 days to prevent overstocking or understocking. In addition, as the organization has expanded, opening locations throughout the United States has allowed for greater flexibility in servicing diverse customer needs nationwide. The program has evolved to ensure optimal inventory levels across SAF locations to meet demand without excess stock sitting on shelves unused.
And More! Three-Day-Out Paint Program
In addition to the Next-Day-Out extrusion program, SAF offers a similar program for painted extrusions.
The qualifications?
Orders must be under $5,000 and utilize a readily available paint or one that SAF can mix on-site. While this program closely mirrors the speed of the extrusion program, it is important to note that the paint line is located exclusively in Georgia, so shipping costs should be considered for customers on the other side of the country. Either way, this speed of service for painted extrusions is unmatched (and unheard of) in the industry.
With other fabricators, customers are looking at weeks for painted extrusions and coordination with multiple vendors. The customer most likely has to purchase the material from a distributor and then ship it to the finisher, painter, or anodizer that may only have a handful of profile sizes. On the contrary, a one-stop shop such as SAF has more than 200 in-stock profiles to choose from.
Setting the Standard
The SAF Next-Day-Out extrusion program has served as an invaluable service to customers for more than two decades. Not only has it differentiated SAF as a top-notch metals fabricator, distributor, and finisher, but it has raised the bar for the entire industry. The organization’s ability to offer custom anodized extrusions shipped out within 24 hours is a testament to its commitment to Make a Difference. Serve. Share. Create., all in the name of speed, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.