In the February edition of EC&M Magazine, staff writer Beck Ireland's article "Lights Out", was a follow up to the lighting ballast shortage story that first made news in June 2010.
In June 2010, Doug Chandler from Electrical Marketing Magazine, reached out to us when we started reporting news of this shortage. His article titled "Distributors Reach Out to Warn Customers on Lead Times For some Lighting Fixtures" appears in the June 23rd 2010 issue. While we didn't initially break the story, we certainly made a concerted effort to stay on top and in front of it. The better part of EC&M’s article consists of Beck Ireland's interview with our very own Kyle Hanson, VP of Project Sales.
The issues we were experiencing were a total breakdown or better said a shutdown of communication from the lighting manufacturing community. As a leader in the Chicago commercial lighting market, we felt a responsibility to our contractor partners and their clients to make them aware of these shortage issues to enable as much "breathing room" between the initial release request and the project's deadline. As much as possible and as specifications would allow, we used this time to offer recommendations for more readily available alternates and when necessary a total lighting redesign.
Kyle Hanson led this initiative with his project management and lighting design teams. Our team often had to dig deep for creative solutions, but fortunately, aside from a couple minor bumps in the road, our lighting team delivered the goods - literally. Was there a lot of technical skill involved? Absolutely. But the real secret sauce here was just communicating with our contractors and their clients. Being forewarned is forearmed. If you know about something beforehand, you can prepare for it.
A little further into the year, we started seeing sporadic communication from the lighting manufacturers. These were more perfunctory messages with no real insight offered into what was really driving the shortages or how long these shortages would impact delivery of product. You can view all of the information we've gathered on this issue consolidated on our Lighting Ballast Shortage Page. What you'll also find here are some of the issues driving the shortage. While the issues are complex (because of the global impact), simply stated, according to an industry source, about ninety-nine percent of components in lighting ballasts are sourced through China, and when the U.S economy was deep in recession, demand waned, and rather than the four plants making these components, China closed two and now there's two remaining (as of July 2010).
Many of these components are the same electronic components being used in cell phones, iPads, dimmers and other devices. The "lighting ballast shortage" was really a much larger electronic component shortage. Lighting ballasts became the "shortage issue" only because of how prevalent the need for light is in our everyday lives and on every new construction job. When suddenly manufacturers can't deliver fixtures it gets noticed - and when the manufacturers aren't exactly forthcoming with information - now you have an issue.
We're not naive. We understand that no manufacturer wants to step forward and announce to the world that they can't deliver product. But the issue affected all lighting manufacturers - there wasn't a tactical advantage to be gained by remaining silent. In fact, we would argue that there was everything to gain by getting out in front of the shortage issue and communicate openly. If you know about something beforehand, you can prepare for it.
Whether you’re a manufacturer or distributor, you need to sell products. It's what pays salaries, bonuses (are those still around?) and the mortgage (those are definitely still around!). It's how you get there that determines the real value of your brand. In the marketing world there's an adage that goes something like, "You don't create your brand. Your customers brand you."
Manufacturing shortages happen and they're difficult to deal with but in time they can be overcome. But if your brand goes sour because of a poor communication strategy, that could be a more costly and time-consuming fix.
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