Getting notices that switchgear is back at 48-52 weeks and RTUs are being allocated, which is blowing up our Q1 milestones and contingency. For those juggling tight budgets and limited storage, are you locking prices and prebuying to stage in offsite warehouse space, or baking escalation and alternates into the GMP and riding the risk? How are you tracking buffer stock vs. carrying cost so finance doesn’t spike the plan?
We’ve been using “slot reservation POs” for switchgear — small deposit to hold the factory slot with a release window and a cancel/reassign clause — then we pull the trigger at about 90% CDs to skip storage and most escalation. For RTUs, we pre-approve two equals and price a 6–8 week temp-cooling contingency into the GMP (keeps the cheese in the vendor’s fridge); @mateo51 have you tried vendor‑managed inventory or bonded warehousing to keep carrying cost off our books?
For switchgear, I pair @lucas467-style slot holds with vendor-owned consignment — “title transfers at release” — so we keep the factory slot without stuffing offsite; then tie price to a narrow PPI band (e.g., ±5% to PPI 3353) with shared-savings if it drops, like holding a hotel room with late check-in. Anyone getting legal pushback on that consignment clause?
If we prebuy and stage offsite, we perfect our interest with a UCC-1 on the gear and make sure it’s covered under the installation floater with the owner named — got burned once on a supplier insolvency and this kept us whole next time… @nora_hil71, do you push that through the PO or bake it into the GMP?
With gear at 48–52 weeks, I build the GMP with an indexed escalation allowance tied to PPI 335313 and a hard cap, then pre-approve “submittal-to-release” so we can commit copper/bus the day the permit hits without renting offsite space. For RTUs under allocation, we pre-approve two named alternates and allow coil/drive swaps so capacity stays while model numbers change. Anyone getting owners to do a shared-savings split if the index cools, @nora_hil71?