Oct. 24—When staff at Pet Expo put in dozens of pages of orders, almost every day, they know they won't see much of it soon, if at all.
"It's frustrating for us," said owner Tom Yenish. "I pay staff to go through the store and see what we need and put orders in and we order almost every day. You put all that staff time in and you get very little of your orders."
Yenish also owns Motel 6. "You can't get pillow cases or sheets or even toilet paper. It's a problem running a hotel with no toilet paper. So you just have to scramble to find things."
At Mico in North Mankato, Brent Turner oversees purchasing and said they continue to see delays in getting the raw materials and parts they need, and shipping finished products out overseas is often a struggle.
"Depending on the commodity, we're seeing extended lead times from several different suppliers and some logistical issues in getting things from overseas because of the ship container shortage," Turner said.
At Jones Metal, Vice President Dave Richards said they haven't had huge issues in getting raw materials as they source most domestically.
"But some specialty grade materials, it's been difficult but not impossible. We had one order that we had to do a direct-to-the-mill run, which took four months to get. There was none available anywhere else."
Worker shortage adds strain
Turner said shipping finished products out to stateside customers hasn't been a big problem. "But overseas it's an issue."
Mico makes off-highway hydraulic braking systems for heavy agriculture, mining and construction equipment. They were recently purchased by German company ZF. Mico is transitioning into its new name of ZF Off-Highway Solutions of Minnesota.
Turner said he has some difficulty find enough plastics and resins. "Iron castings have been the biggest problem. There's a two- to five-times longer lead time than normal."
While a shortage of cargo shipping containers, backups at Los Angeles ports and other shipping bottlenecks are a problem, Turner and other local businesses say most of the supply chain issues are tied to the shortage of workers.
"The biggest issue for us and our suppliers is just finding employees," Turner said. "We're still struggling to fill certain positions."
Richards said labor shortages at suppliers and manufacturers mean fewer products available and general delays.
"We installed five or six new machines this year and it actually went well. But if you're thinking about buying a piece of equipment and you call the dealer and they say that have one on hand, you'd better say yes and be ready to buy, because tomorrow it might be gone."