SUPPLY CHAIN
Navigating stormy waters
In a time of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, supply chains face pressure from all sides. Predicting demand becomes challenging, and meeting changing demand conditions has become a difficult task for OEMs and suppliers trying to balance reliability with profitability. Here, Jim Banks looks at how the lifting needs of major industrial companies are evolving, and what they are looking for from their suppliers to make the supply chain run smoothly.
F
rom one day to the next, the global economy seems to shift gears and the geopolitical climate becomes increasingly uncertain.
The prospect of trade wars looms and then recedes, international conflicts threaten to destabilise supply routes and push up energy prices, and short-term fluctuations in costs and resource availability pose grave problems for long-term industrial projects. Amidst this uncertainty, however, lies opportunity. Major industrial projects, and the companies behind them, know the cycle of change in the economic landscape well, and they are not easily deterred from their strategic goals, though their approach to managing risk may change in line with the evolving business environment. So, what do they look for when choosing lifting equipment for such projects, and what factors influence their decisions? For large industrial companies, the decision always begins with engineering and safety, but operational risk and total life cycle cost – not simply the purchase price – are ultimately the key factors. The first consideration is whether the equipment is correctly matched to the application, so they assess the maximum and typical load, lift frequency, travel distances, required positioning accuracy, operating environment and consequences of failure. After all, a 20t crane used occasionally in an assembly area is fundamentally different from a 20t crane working continuously above a steelmaking process. Regulatory compliance; reliability; maintainability and the expected cost of downtime; the availability of local inspection, repair and emergency support; a ready supply of spare parts; load control and safety features such as anti-sway, overload protection, collision avoidance and restricted operating zones; and many more factors figure in their purchasing decisions, as do initial cost, installation cost and total cost over the equipment’s working life.
So far, so predictable. But something in the decision matrix has changed, namely the weight assigned to availability and supply chain resilience. Until recently, buyers could optimise a specification and expect the supply chain to deliver it within a reasonably predictable window. Today, they are asking much earlier whether the selected motors, drives, radio controls, brakes, gearboxes and electronic components are actually obtainable – and whether replacements will still be supported ten or 15 years from now. “The key factors have not changed from the traditional ones: quality, competitiveness, customer care, and delivery time,” explains Sergio Robledo, Managing Director GH Cranes & Components USA. “Recently, however, we have seen delivery time playing a much larger role in the decision-making process, especially on projects with aggressive schedules.” Certainty of delivery, service and parts
resilience, standardisation, life cycle value and options for modernisation rather than replacement are considerations that have moved higher up the decision hierarchy. So, too, have questions around source visibility and flexibility, as procurement teams demand more clarity on where critical components originate, whether tariffs or trade restrictions might affect them, and whether approved substitutes exist. Dual sourcing and regional manufacture have also become much more meaningful differentiators.
The industry responds to challenge Amid this customer uncertainty, the US overhead crane supply chain has remained resilient. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and in its immediate aftermath, the market was characterised by acute, across-the-board shortages, which have since eased, but predictability remains a challenge in engineered
ochmagazine.com | Fall 2026 51
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