IIBEC President Sends Out Important Message on Supply Chain Disruptions

By Evelyn Witterholt, RCS Reporter. 

Edward A. Sheridan discusses how supply chain issues have impacted him directly in his latest message. 

It’s well-known by now that most industries, including the roofing industry, are facing supply chain problems. In his latest message, President Edward A. Sheridan of the International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants (IIBEC), describes how these issues are impacting him and how he’s getting through it. 

Edward opens his message by discussing how he too is struggling to meet deliverables for his own work. He expresses disappointment in the fact that he is facing difficulties in completing an order for Director of Publications and Communications Christian Hamaker due to supply chain issues. 

He goes on to explain how complex the construction industry really is and why exactly these issues are so prevalent. He writes in his message, “Like other industries, construction supply and demand has always been characterized as self-balancing, but demand has mostly been king, whether it be high through boom times or low during economic downturns or natural disasters.” 

Edward adds to this by highlighting the reasons that these issues seem to last longer than they usually do. He makes it point to expand on the name ‘supply-chain’ as being too simple of term, as the word ‘chain’ implies something simple and linear. Edward believes that his experiences with these disruptions has shown him, and others in the industry, that the model is flawed and deserves to be re-examined. 

“One scholar has even suggested we should change ‘supply chain’ to ‘supply ecology’, to paint a more accurate picture of the complexity and interconnected relationships in the construction world,” Edward says. Rather than viewing the supply chain process as a straightforward model, he suggests we start viewing it as being more complex than we initially believed it to be. 

Once this re-evaluation occurs, Edward says that we can then know how to handle these problems in the future and reduce how often they happen. 

Read the full statement from Edward A. Sheridan here.

Learn more about IIBEC in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.iibec.org.