Lead time on glass

Definition

The weeks between an order and delivery, set by the fabricator and not the installer.

Why It Matters

Insulated and laminated units are made to order, and the queue at the fabricator decides when a job can be installed whatever the schedule says. That turns lead time into the scheduling constraint for the whole company: a missed measurement or a broken lite is not a day's delay, it is another trip through the queue, and on a job with liquidated damages that is the contractor's money. Ask what the current lead times are, which fabricators the company is on account with, and how often it has paid for expedited units, because that last number is a measure of how well the shop measures.