September/October 2022

Health & Safety
HARDWARE & ACCESSORIES
FOCUSING ON FIRE SAFETY
As the global supply chain continues to face vast challenges, Daniel May, Director at
Consort Architectural Hardware, explores how construction has been affected and the
potential impact on fire safety and security.
Since early 2020, the volatility of the global
supply chain has plagued industries far
and wide. The construction industry has felt
the full force of it, with a lack of materials and
long lead times inflating construction costs and
placing constraints – and unavoidable delays –
on projects large and small.
Despite many predicting economic recovery to
stabilise, new challenges such as a surge in
consumer inflation and HGV driver shortages (to
name a few), means construction is still facing a
disparity between supply and demand.
As a result, year-on-year costs for building work rose
by 24.5% from March 2021 to March 2022, with
raw material costs for work involving steel, concrete,
timber and glass rising by 23% in the 12 months to
September 2021, according to the Department for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
This cause and effect looks set to continue
throughout the remainder of this year, with
a substantial rise in costs and a decrease in
production output documented as recently as
February 2022. This follows predictions from
the Builders Merchants Federation and the
Construction Products Association who raised
concerns that the demand for construction
products would exceed supply well into 2022.
The weakened supply of key building products
becomes even more problematic when you
consider life safety and security.
Whether a new project, or the upkeep of an
existing building and its hardware, the stable
supply of quality materials, components and
hardware products must remain a critical priority,
albeit one that is currently met with several
setbacks.
Daniel May
“Amongst many things,
the coronavirus
pandemic taught us
how fragile the supply
chain can be”
The industry is seeing the cost of
raw materials and transportation
growing exponentially
Yes, external factors can create uncontrollable
circumstances, but the industry must continue
to focus on quality control, so to not lose the
progress that’s been made towards a safer
construction infrastructure.
Daniel May of Consort Architectural Hardware
explained:“From a construction standpoint, a
supply chain begins with raw materials, contains
up to thousands of companies, and ends with
finished goods for the industry and end user – of
which many are vital components to the way our
buildings safely and securely operate.
Amongst many things, the coronavirus pandemic
taught us how fragile the supply chain can be,
with various cogs in the machine being caught off
guard by the circumstances.
In turn, this has created a backlog and led to a surge
in demand for key materials and products which
supply hasn’t always been able to keep up with.
“As a manufacturer, two core elements have
encumbered the fire safety and security hardware
sector, those being cost and production output.
Crucially, almost all organisations possess links
to an international supply chain and regardless
of where products are manufactured, the scarcity
of raw materials has had a knock-on effect,
especially when you consider pricing.
“The cost of raw materials has surged and so too
has the cost of transportation, where a shortage
of containers and increased freight times has
fallen short of demand.
In turn, and when paired with a disjointed
production output, we have seen a backlog of
orders leading to project delays that can incur
additional penalties for those involved.
Continued on page 50
48 T F SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2022 CONNECTING THE WINDOW, DOOR & ROOF FABRICATION SUPPLY CHAIN