If it was easy…
Doorco’s managing director Dan Sullivan explains why it’s not enough to be just a ‘slab’ supplier, and looks at the sometimes-tough journey the company has undergone in its bid to create a sustainable door prepping, glazing and painting business.
How long has the composite door market got left? How many more composite door blanks can be sold in the UK? What’s the next big idea in entrance doors? These are common questions and comments aimed at every composite door supplier and fabricator.
There is no easy answer, but the supply chain has evolved significantly over the last few years: fabricators have opened up their product offering and changed production methods to gain maximum efficiencies; just-in-time is a key process operated by small to large companies; online ordering composite door blanks, with further processes done, is now a must; and sized, hardware and aperture prepped, bespoke colour, glazed, barcoded, labelled, all part of the service from any reputable door blank supplier.
Responsibility for delivering (almost) everything required to go with a slab to make it into a door now lies firmly at the top of the supply chain. The assumption from fabricators is that all blank suppliers are the same, but this could not be further from the truth. Some blank suppliers do it differently, and it takes commitment and investment along with a can-do mentality to offer the full package, and not simply stock door blanks, or offer a limited prepping offer.
So, it’s in Doorco’s own facility that painting, glazing and prepping form just part of the full composite door blank supply package. But it hasn’t been a quick, easy or cheap journey to get here. I guess one of our objectives when we started several years ago, is that we wanted to create a sustainable manufacturing business. We quickly learned that to do this, we would need to offer a multi-tiered service that could be tailored for each customer’s needs. Some wanted a prepped blank, some wanted just painted blanks and prep the door themselves, some customers required the full treatment – a fully flexible manufacturing service that’s cost effective that can handle volume.
Learning and improving is something that we continue to do across the business every single day. While customers need us to broaden our services, their requirements have also become more complex. To put it into context, our warehousing and manufacturing teams look after 40,000 door blanks along with huge stocks of the ODL Trisys glazing cassettes and significant glass stocks from Claytons and RegaLead. This means we’ve had to invest in streamlined management and order processing systems, technology and automation across the business, and had to recruit, develop and retain the best talent to deliver these services.
If flexibility and a can-do mentality is key in manufacturing, prepping for any lock on the market is a given. If you’re going to offer a range of colour across the doors, invest in a painting facility that offers customers doors of any colour they want. If you’re going to offer a glazing service, why restrict it to the simpler standard traditional cassettes, and not offer it on the more time-consuming and skill-reliant contemporary glazing too?
If Doorco is going to do it, we’re going to do it properly and not restrict what our customers can have because it’s easier for our own business. Everything we do has started from the customer back to us, so we’re not forcing what we offer into pre-defined boxes that best suit our delivery model. Operationally, it’s not a fast or easy thing to achieve (and I admit it’s one that has given me sleepless nights) but thanks to the fact we had the foresight to start evolving the business several years ago, I believe we’re now in prime position to deliver what the door market of 2019 and beyond wants and needs.
All of this of course means that the supply chain has a responsibility to pay true value rather selecting a supplier based on price and price only. In this way, companies like Doorco can continue to invest sustainably to meet the new market needs as they arise.
Our Customer Charter pays testament to our commitment; we’ve set high standards for which we’re accountable across all customer demands, not just the easy ones.
Would I start the journey again now? Absolutely, as long as I wasn’t competing with Doorco.
