Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1426508
54 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2021 Matties: You were talking about a lot of points of contact in the quoting process, and one is the supply. Supply lines are challenging these days. How are you dealing with that? O'Neil: It's difficult. Matties: Day by day. O'Neil: It really is. Our laminate vendor ships prepreg to us with dry ice because it's too expensive for refrigerator trucks from Califor- nia. She called me up and told me there is no dry ice available. I said, "What? CO 2 gas is not available? How could that be?" So we came up with a different way to pack with regular ice, and it worked, but that's a challenge when you're talking about a huge supply chain. Matties: ese are the kinds of supply chain issues that you don't think of, like dry ice. O'Neil: It's not really a go-to, no. But you must adapt and be ready for those types of things. Every day it's a different thing with price increases along the way. I just got one from a welding place where we get our gasses for plasma; the price has gone up. ere's no CO 2 ; there's oxygen going to the hospitals and what- ever. It's just a chess game that has become that three-tier thing that you used to see on Star Trek. It's not easy at all. Matties: How is that affecting the turnaround times, deliveries and such? Are customers more patient? Are they building in more time? O'Neil: I think they're probably building in more time, but we have a few customers where their business model is quick turns, and they always expect five days. It's always five or fewer days, but now they have started to say that maybe five days is just fine. Some other customers are having a difficult time with our lead times going forward. ey're now starting to get affected by supply chain issues in the assembly side of things. It is just a huge thing, so we still quote our five days at standard and if we have material issues, we're getting some lead times that are six to eight weeks out. It's just a way of life today. It's not next door, it's hard to get. Matties: Kim, we're excited to have the new column. What advice would you give designers today from a fabricator's point of view? O'Neil: If you've got a difficult design that you're working with, maybe get in touch with your design group (if you have an organization locally) and join that because there will be fabricators there. Look online; there are not too many fabricators out there anymore but give them a call. I've had calls cold calls from designers, if you will: "I'm this guy from here and I'm in the middle of a design, and I have this question, and this question." I get those all the time, maybe about four or five a month. at's good marketing for us, to be able to say you can call me anytime, and we've helped folks out, whether or not you get the board to build. I feel it's part of the responsibility as we go through this because the industry has been decimated; many shops are no longer there.