Crystal Ball 2022 Pt. 2 | Supply Chains & Trades Issues

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Welcome back, if you missed Part 1, you can access here.

Part 2 – Supply Chains & Trades Issues

While the pandemic seems to be drifting away, at least in its economic impacts, construction materials supply chain problems and availability of Subcontractors will continue to remain a challenge to credit unions and community banks looking to open a new branch in 2022 or 2023.

A critical component to executing a Branch plan is to have the right partner on your side.

Advance Planning, Advance Savings

During the past 2 years, more and more of LEVEL5’s clients have been opting for advance design and planning of multi-year, multi-branch rollout strategies for their prototype branches. We believe this is happening largely because the antidote to such an unpredictable construction landscape is predictability that translates into advanced planning with the benefit of cost savings.

So how does working with our team help you plan for the future and reduce your spending?

Establishing a supply chain means that you have a defined product to execute upon. Let’s use a branch prototype as example. Once you’ve worked with LEVEL5 to design and finalize your prototype, this means that you’ve already specified materials needed for the majority of your branches. At this point, our team can work proactively with different manufacturers, subcontractors, suppliers for furniture, equipment, fixtures and so forth.

This advanced heads-up will give our sourcing partners an upfront and predictable way of understanding allocation needs. It will in turn helps to bring down prices for you.

The Design-Build construction method allows you to make material selections based on current availabilities. We factor this in with you in the design process.

Conversely, in the Design-Bid-Build process, a stand-alone architect designer may not be as privy to current materials costs in the design stages. Not being able to account for fluctuations here can result in unexpected costs once bids are turned in.

Think of the saying “knowledge is power.” In this context, we’re talking about the knowledge of future needs. It is a power that keeps costs down for your financial institution.

As you can see, advanced design and planning of rollouts can certainly drive down cost.

Knowing Costs Now Helps You Make Better Business Planning Decisions

To your advantage, you have an annual business planning cycle that needs to be built on sturdy information.

Once your professional credit union and bank consulting is complete, you’ve decided on the prototype and strategy. Then, we supply you with an accurate price estimate on your new branch or branches.

Having an accurate estimate now takes a huge unknown out of your organization’s plans, giving you more assurance and a realistic scope of your budget. It also allows you to make effective projections and preparations for changes in personnel at varying locations.

Secure Necessary Subcontractors Amid Shortage & Strain

Subcontractor labor shortages have been an issue even before the pandemic. Think all the way back to the great recession in 2008. But now, it’s become even more strained due to the aftermath (or continued impact) of COVID-19.

Because of these circumstances, the ability of your General Contractor to secure the right kind of Subcontractors for your project will only become more difficult the longer you wait to get things started. Less time to plan ahead and communicate properly with Subcontractors on their availability can cause obvious hurdles for your goals.

This goes for both singular branch builds and multi-branch rollouts. However, we want to note that Subcontractors will be more aggressive sometimes. For example, bidding and staffing for projects that are part of an integrated/multi-location rollout will be aggressive. A one-off branch project will be much less so.

Regardless of the branch rollout volume, you can see how moving forward with long-term action now will put you in a preferable spot. It will minimize unknowns in both project staffing and pricing.

Don’t linger too long when making growth decisions – it could cost you greatly in finances, stress, and timeline goals for your bank or credit union.

Contact us now for help avoiding unnecessary expenditures and longer–than–necessary lead times. Our 20+ years of growth consulting for banks and credit unions, coupled with our nationwide relationships with manufacturers and subcontractors, Is the added muscle you need to get a well-executed project off and running.