Guaranteed vs Estimated Shipping Dates at Cutting Edge
Updated November 27, 2024
Explore why Cutting Edge provides estimated shipping dates instead of guaranteed ones, and learn how this approach benefits your planning.
As a cabinet maker or contractor, you know that late cabinet doors can create significant challenges for your projects. A delayed shipment might force you to reschedule installations, work overtime to catch up, or even pay penalties for missing completion deadlines. These setbacks aren’t just inconvenient – they can harm your reputation and bottom line, leaving you wondering how to avoid such costly delays. Is there a way to ensure your cabinet doors arrive exactly when you need them, or are you left hoping for the best?
At Cutting Edge Doors & Woodworking, we understand how critical timely deliveries are for your success. With over 20 years of experience crafting and shipping cabinet doors, we’ve honed our processes to provide reliable timelines. However, due to the unpredictability of natural materials and production variables, we offer estimated shipping dates rather than guaranteed one. We’ve designed this approach to help you plan more effectively without overpromising.
By the end of this article, you will:
Why Guaranteed Shipping Dates Aren’t Available at Cutting Edge
The reason we can’t guarantee a shipping date on your cabinet door order is simple: there are a lot of unexpected delays that can occur. Some of the delays are obvious, like staffing or material shortages. Others are more specific to the cabinet door industry, like remakes.
Regardless of the reason for a delay, your guaranteed shipping date can quickly become a ‘we wish we could have shipped your order by that date but…’
This is not an ideal scenario. Suddenly, your schedule is in chaos as your order’s scheduled delivery date order comes and goes.
What could cause this scenario? A lot of things. Below, we go over some of the most common reasons for order delays.
1. Unpredictable Product Lead Times
Every cabinet door order we produce requires a certain amount of raw material. We do our best to ensure there is enough material in stock to complete an order, but things can go wrong.
For example, the material in stock may be unusable for your order due to defects, meaning we have to order in new material. Other times, we schedule an order based on the estimated arrival date of the raw material.
In either of the cases above, your order shipping date will vary depending on when the material arrives at our shop. This is something we and our suppliers have little control over; most lumber is shipped from the lumber mills by rail which can be subject to delays.
2. Working With Natural Products
Sometimes, our raw materials are inconsistent or don’t meet our quality requirements. Usually, we can work around this but it may take additional sorting to get enough of the material we need for your order.
Wood is a natural product – no two boards are the same. It can move and twist over time, or react unexpectedly to machining. When the wood used in a door twists, the door will warp. Doors that are warped by more than ¼” have to be remade.
At other times, the wood we use can have natural defects that react to being machined. Knots in a door can fall out. Unusually soft or hard sections of wood can be rough after machining. These issues can mean a door has to be repaired or remade.
Internally, we can notice defects at any point in the production line. If our team notices an issue at any of our quality assurance checkpoints, your order may be delayed while we remake the defective piece.
When custom pieces are manufactured, the slightest error or defect on one of the components can mean we have to remake the entire piece. Custom products take more time in a best-case scenario, so remaking a custom piece can cause a big problem.
Worse than that is when we have to remake a large order due to defects. Because remakes take priority over new orders, delays can snowball through the entire production line.
3. Machinery Breakdowns
Another major cause of delays is machinery breakdowns. We use specialized machinery that can be very delicate. When machinery breaks down, it can require a specialist to fix or replace parts.
Regular maintenance prevents most machinery issues, but unexpected breakdowns do occur.
Depending on how long the repairs take and how many production lines are affected, machinery breakdowns can cause massive delays.
4. Human Error
At Cutting Edge, we have a great team in place and we stand behind our work and our team 100% of the time.
However, we understand that our team members are human, and we do make mistakes that cause delays. From forgetting to order raw materials, to producing orders in the wrong profiles, to building pieces the wrong size, to losing doors… you name it, we’ve probably done it at some point.
The gist of all these reasons is that working with wood is unpredictable.
You may wish that we could guarantee shipping dates – we wish that too. So what can we offer you instead of a guaranteed shipping date? Enter estimated shipping dates!!
Why Estimated Shipping Dates Are an Acceptable Alternative
As we have already mentioned, we provide you with an estimated shipping date when your order is scheduled. Why does this option work?
The key to making estimated shipping dates an acceptable alternative is increased communication. At all stages of your order, our team focuses on working with you. Although we are currently shipping 92% of all orders on time, delays do occur. From the date you place your order to the date your order ships, our team monitors your order and notifies you of any delays.
There are a couple of major benefits to this system as opposed to having guaranteed shipping dates.
Personalized and Flexible Shipping Dates
When you place your order, you can request a specific shipping date. Our team uses this information when we schedule the order, and we aim to get as close to your ideal shipping date as possible.
Typically, we ship orders within 1 day of your requested shipping date.
Once your order is scheduled, you are sent a finalized confirmation with our estimated shipping date. At any point, you can request we change the shipping date on an order; we will accommodate your requests to the best of our abilities.
Additional Communication About Changes to Your Shipping Dates
With our team focusing on your ideal shipping date, we emphasize communicating with you whenever a delay occurs.
At all stages of your order, we assess your requested shipping date. While your order moves through the production line, our team watches for all possible delays.
Whenever possible, our team works to prevent delays or to limit the impact of a delay. If a delay will affect your estimated or requested shipping date, our team will pass that information on to you.
We will notify you of the delay and provide you with a revised shipping date. If the delay that has occurred prevents us from giving you a new shipping date, we will make that clear.
Having this additional communication won’t prevent delays, but it will ensure that you are aware when your order has been delayed. This will give you the ability to change your schedule as needed, instead of planning to receive an order on a specific date and then having to scramble when the order doesn’t show up.
Ability to Prioritize Orders According to Requested Shipping Dates
When you request a specific shipping date, our team can accurately prioritize your order in our production line. Orders are prioritized based on their requested shipping date. Orders that are behind schedule are given a higher priority than orders that are on schedule or ahead of schedule.
If you need a few pieces ASAP to finish up your order, you can request a rush order. Rush orders are given the highest priority in our production line.
Estimated Shipping Dates With Communication Make Your Life Easier
At the start of this article, you were searching for a way to ensure your cabinet doors arrive on time, confident that guaranteed shipping dates could help you meet tight project deadlines. While such dates may seem like the perfect solution, you now understand that working with natural materials and managing human processes introduces unavoidable unpredictability, making guaranteed shipping impractical. This is why we prioritize offering estimated shipping dates instead.
At Cutting Edge Doors & Woodworking, we’re committed to clear communication. If a delay occurs, you’ll know about it as soon as possible, so you can adjust your schedule accordingly. With 92% of our orders shipping on time, our estimated dates provide the reliability you need to keep projects on track.
Ready to experience the difference? Learn how to place your order online and take advantage of our reliable processes.
