Plan by Project, Not by Part

You’ve got crews booked, permits in hand – yet the project stalls. Why? A truckload of parts was delayed. The site lead burns hours rearranging tasks, the make‑ready window closes, and Friday’s crew spends half the day idle. Multiply that by ten fiber broadband build areas and you’ve just lost weeks. In a market where many providers build at once, logistics – not ambition – sets the pace.

1) What’s changing – and why logistics now sets the pace

More broadband builds are happening at once, which means more moving parts. Even with the bill of materials (BOM) locked and crews booked, jobs slip if the right items don’t arrive at the right place and at the right time. Logistics belongs at the design stage: assign ownership for each handoff and define performance in terms of if crews are building or waiting.

Key shift: Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding and private capital increase activity, but rollout timing varies by state and can extend over multiple years. Practice scenario planning and keep flexibility in the chain.

Why this matters for Tier 2/3: Tier 2 and Tier 3 providers make up a large portion of the broadband marketplace but lack the deep, dedicated supply chains of national incumbents. When everyone builds at once, smaller operators will feel the shocks first. That’s why proactive logistics coordination becomes a competitive advantage.

If you don’t: missed in-service dates can trigger service-level agreement (SLA) penalties, grant/funding windows may slip, and field teams sit idle while fixed costs keep ticking.

Design‑stage logistics sets the playbook, but a playbook doesn’t move product toward you. You need a distribution partner that acts like an extension of your field ops – able to absorb schedule slips and keep crews building. That’s where treating distribution as a force multiplier comes in.

2) Use distribution as a force multiplier – not just a shipper

Direct-to-site shipping struggles when schedules shuffle. High-performing distributors add practical services that remove friction and protect labor time:

• Kitting/repackaging (complete work packets per crew/task)
• Palletizing & containerized site drops (organized arrivals, fewer on-site bottlenecks)
• Rapid emergency fills (no sending technicians to hunt parts)

These services carry modest cost but safeguard field labor, your most expensive resource. Set clear service-level expectations up front and hold the distributor accountable.

How SMC and Panduit help: Our project optimization and fulfillment approach aligns manufacturing runs with your project phases, and our distributor partners pre‑stage kits so the bundle you need shows up when that project phase begins.

Those services only deliver when your installation partners can see what’s coming. Give the factory and distributor a rolling view of demand and they can pre‑stage the right materials in the right order – that’s the role of a 16– to 18-week signal.

3) The 16– to 18-week window: how to signal demand

Short, sporadic orders create waste and delay. A rolling 16– to 18-week view lets manufacturing schedule efficient production and lets distribution pre-stage what’s needed.

What to include in your signal:

• Target locations/areas and phase sequencing
• Stock-keeping units (SKUs) and quantities grouped as work packets (how crews will consume them)
• Timing ranges (primary and alternate start windows)
• Known dependencies/risks (permits, access windows, make-ready)

This synchronizes the factory’s cadence with the field’s pace.

4) Plan by project, not by part (how to operationalize it)

Piecemeal orders keep everyone guessing. Instead, provide a project-level plan: “Build Area X in Week Y using these SKUs.” That clarity lets manufacturing prioritize what ships when, and lets distribution stage complementary items for that specific phase.

Panduit’s project-level approach “tags” production for your job and coordinates distribution to your schedule so each crew receives the needed bundle when the work begins. If you don’t, you over‑order safety stock to feel “safe,” yet the wrong mix shows up on site; change orders spike; and crews bounce between tasks, inflating truck rolls.

5) Balance the system – avoid brittle or bloated inventory

• Unbuffered just-in-time orders: one upstream miss cascades into field delays.
• Hoarding/stockpiling: ties up cash and often leaves the wrong mix on the shelf.

Aim for transparent, rolling forecasts plus project-level staging. Keep inventory moving toward the job – treat it like cash you want working, not parked.

6) Measure what matters: crew productivity

Your workforce is the production line. If materials flow, output climbs; if they don’t, you pay people to wait. Keep track of when and where waiting appears (start-of-day, mid-shift, end-of-phase) and adjust staging, delivery cadence, or distributor service levels until idle time disappears.

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Article Source: Panduit