We all know that industries change, but different companies have different ideas of what progress is. Nick Dutton, Sales and Marketing Director of Synseal explains what progress means to Synseal.
It's one of the things we get used to, the idea of progress. Continuous improvement is built in to our concept of modern living. We expect things to get better and better. We expect our lives to become easier and more productive. We demand more from the products we use. And it never ends. We expect cars to go faster, perform better, do more, last longer, require less maintenance to keep them going, and cost us less. We don't get everything we want, but in general we are not disappointed. Year by year the differences may not be striking, but think back just twenty years and the gap between cars then and now is simply astonishing. Yet we are not astonished. We expect progress, and we get it.

Currents of progress
It's not just cars. It's the same in cameras, computers, telephones, TVs, machinery and appliances in general. In fact it is hard to see where progress does not apply. Even our clothes and buildings are cleverer than they were. Products do more, more productively, for less cost. On paper it looks impossible, and it doesn't happen smoothly or all at once. But over time, a combination of relentless fine-tuning and the occasional major advance from innovative thinking adds value and drives progress.

Everywhere you look it's the same. Stand still for a moment and the currents of progress swirl around you. Underestimate the speed and force of those currents and you may be swept under. What seemed slick and awesome ten years ago now looks awkward, slow, inefficient and costly.

More window for your money
Back in the late 1960s/early 1970s direct sell secondary glazing was the answer to draughty rotting timber windows. The frames were easy and cheap to make – there wasn't much material, you needed very little equipment, skill or space to make them and everyone recognised they were simple to sell. Prices were very high – people would do almost anything to get rid of the problem – and margins too were high. Then in the 1970s simple aluminium replacement windows took over. They required more space, more machinery and greater skills to make, and they had a higher material content. But they sold for broadly similar prices and the margins, though excellent, were lower because they cost more to produce.

Then at the end of the 1970s/early 1980s the first PVC-U windows hit town. To our eyes they were bulky, angular and ugly compared with aluminium, but with higher thermal properties and warm to the touch they were the next generation. Tellingly they did not sell in large numbers until in 1984/5 the national direct sell companies (Anglian, Everest, Zenith) promoted them at a 5% price discount to aluminium. Volume surged. The cost of tooling and investment in PVC-U systems was greater. The cost of fabrication was significantly greater. The frames needed welding and corner cleaning for a start. Prices were a little lower, costs were higher, but margins were still attractive. The final customer got a lot more for their money.

Over the next twenty years – particularly in the 1990s – the price of PVC-U windows came down. As each new improvement was added – chamfered profiles, sculptured beads, high security shootbolts, low E glass for example – the cost of material and labour rose and margins were squeezed. Systems companies have learnt to make profiles more efficiently, and fabricators have learned to become more productive to maintain their margins. What you get for your money has improved dramatically, both in quality and quantity. Window components are continuously improving too. In 1990 the industry was using Cockspur handles for £2.90. Now a much improved alternative, the Espagnolette handle sells for just £1.27. In real terms consumers get a much better window for their money than they did 30-40 years ago.

The final customer got a lot more for their money

Collapsing conservatories
It's a similar story in conservatories. The first ones were clunky and unreliable – needing lots of labour and time, bags of skill and ingenuity to make and to install. They consisted of window and door profile with just a handful of dedicated but crude conservatory components. The quality of the conservatory varied enormously with the skill of the fabricator and the installer. Heavy weather exposed poor workmanship. After some conservatories collapsed and made the headlines in the late 1980s, the industry crossed its fingers when it snowed. Nevertheless consumers were delighted with their new buildings. Prices were high – they needed to be to compensate for the labour and time that went into them.

More for less
What took 2-3 days to make – and had to be patiently assembled in the factory to ensure it would install correctly on site – is now made in hours, and in advanced systems like Global does not need pre-assembly. A roof could take a day or more to assemble on site. Last year a new 'quicker' roof was filmed being assembled by two men in 1 hour 27 minutes. At Glassex this year that record was smashed with a film of an equivalent Global roof being assembled by two men in 43 minutes – in less than half the time.

The conservatory market took off in the early 1990s as a stream of new components extended the range and boundaries of conservatories, and dramatically improved the quality of construction and installation. Component costs remained high though, while installed prices came under pressure as more companies got into conservatories. Installer margins were also squeezed to maintain a long supply chain. Unlike window systems companies, roof systems companies designed and bought in their components, rather than manufactured them. They then assembled or distributed them to a limited number of roof fabricators and stockists who supplied fabricators and installers. This long supply chain where a finished component – a moulding or an extrusion – could pass through up to five hands before ending up in an installed conservatory was a costly and cumbersome route to market, but what were the alternatives? Lack of effective competition in roof systems ensured that those who controlled the chain made fortunes.

Removing the middlemen
But in the last few years, new conservatory systems companies emerged. They looked at the product and the routes to market, the pressures fabricators and installers were labouring under. They came up with new products, and new routes to market that have liberated fabricators and installers. Some of Global's innovations such as assembling the roof from the inside, the swing gutter, box gutter, manufacturing all roof components from one material – PVC-U – to minimise colour fade and discolouration (no more complaints about pinking) save fabricators and installers vast amounts of time, hassle and money.

All supply chains are not the same, but by removing redundant middlemen, margins are improving and profit redistributed along the supply chain. Window fabricators wouldn't dream of buying window profile from anyone but an extruder. Equally forward thinking conservatory fabricators no longer have to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds with a non extruder for conservatory components. Global fabricators get more for less: more product and more features at better margin and lower cost. Conservatories are no different from other products. A healthy sustainable market requires continuous product development, innovations that add value and take time and cost out of the system, and a supply chain that balances the needs of both ends of the chain. Suppliers need to ensure that their customers make the money they need to develop the market and thrive. No mystery, no magic bullet, just common sense and fairness. Legacy suppliers, even once dominant suppliers that rest on their laurels get left on the shelf. Pause to rest, and you may be left to Rest In Peace. That's progress.

Source

Glass Age