Carcass built, no runners
The chest of drawers is glued up and sanded. The drawer boxes are made. Then someone looks for the soft-close runners and realises they were never ordered. The supplier has them, but not the length you need, and the next delivery is a while off. The handles the client chose are from a small maker who makes them to order. Nobody checked how long that takes.
The piece sits half-finished in the corner, taking space and money, while the client waits.
Hardware is ordered by memory
Furniture hardware comes from many places: the big fittings suppliers for hinges and runners, specialist makers for handles and pulls, lighting suppliers, glass and mirror cutters, and sometimes overseas. Each has its own lead time and minimum order.
- Hardware needed for a piece is not listed until assembly.
- Orders are placed per job, one supplier at a time, from whoever remembers.
- Lead times for specialist items are not known when the delivery date is promised.
- Deliveries are not checked against what each job needs.
- Spare stock of common items is not tracked, so it runs out unnoticed.
What late hardware costs
A piece that stalls in the workshop delays everything after it, and delays the balance payment that usually comes at delivery. Rush orders cost more in carriage. Substitutions made in a hurry may not be what the client approved. And the maker's time goes on phoning suppliers instead of making furniture.
Hardware ordering from the commission
- Each piece type has a standard hardware list, and the design adds its specific choices: hinge type and count, runner length and number, handles, lighting, glass.
- When the design is signed off, the commission's hardware list is created, with quantities worked out from the design.
- Items are checked against your stock of common fittings, and what is missing is grouped into draft orders by supplier.
- Each supplier has its lead time recorded, and items with long lead times are flagged when the delivery date is being set.
- Orders are approved and sent, and deliveries are checked in against the commission, showing what is still due.
- Common items are reordered when stock drops below the level you set.
| Step | Today | With hardware ordering |
|---|---|---|
| List what is needed | At assembly | At design sign-off |
| Check lead times | When ordering | Before promising a date |
| Order | One by one, by memory | Grouped by supplier |
| Check deliveries | Open the box | Checked in against the job |
| Common stock | Runs out | Reordered at your level |
Assembly without the wait
Hardware is on the shelf when the carcass is ready. Delivery dates account for the slow items. Orders go out in batches rather than piecemeal, which can reduce carriage costs. And each commission shows its hardware status, so you know before assembly whether anything is missing.
There is a pricing benefit too. When hardware lists are built at design sign-off, the cost of the fittings is known before the quote is final, so an expensive handle or a specialist lift mechanism is priced in rather than absorbed. And when a client changes the handles halfway through, the list shows what has already been ordered, so you can decide whether to return, keep or charge for them.
Does hardware hold you up?
- Pieces have sat half-finished waiting for fittings.
- Hardware is ordered when assembly starts.
- Specialist handles have caused late deliveries.
- You pay for rush carriage on small orders.
- Common fittings run out without warning.