Switchgear Lead Times in India: Ex-Stock, Indent and Planning to a Real Date

What a switchgear lead time actually measures

A lead time is only a number once you know where the clock starts and stops. Much of the friction between buyers and sellers comes from the two sides measuring different intervals and calling both of them the lead time.

The intervals inside a switchgear order, and who controls each

When a seller quotes “two weeks”, they usually mean confirmed order to dispatch. When a project manager hears “two weeks”, they usually mean purchase order to material on site — which also includes confirmation, any advance payment and transit. The gap between those two readings is where many delivery disputes start.

We measure lead time from confirmed order to dispatch, because that is the part a seller controls, and in our view every delivery promise should say which interval it means.

Ex-stock, regional stock and indent

Every line on a switchgear order reaches you by one of three routes, and the route sets the lead time far more than the brand does.

The route is not always visible on a quotation. Two sellers can quote the same part number with the same dispatch promise, one from a shelf and one from a factory order they have not yet placed. The only way to know is to ask, and to ask for the answer in writing.

Why category and variant matter more than brand

Buyers often ask which brand delivers fastest. The honest answer is that every major brand is fast on its popular ratings and slow on its variants. Within a single brand, a three-pole MCCB in a common rating can be on every distributor's shelf while the four-pole version of the same frame, or the same breaker with a motor operator, is made to order.

Three factors explain most of the difference between a line that ships this week and one that ships next month:

• Depth of channel stock. Distributors stock what sells. Ratings and configurations that move every week are held deep; variants that move a few times a year are held thin or not at all.
• Configuration at the factory. Air circuit breakers and large MCCBs are often built to a configuration — release, accessories, fixed or drawout — so even a well-stocked brand assembles many of them to order.
• The slowest accessory. A line ships complete only when its last part is available. A breaker on the shelf with its shunt trip on indent is an indent line.

That is why lead times are worth tracking by category and brand together, rather than ranking brands on a single number. Our post on stock-out patterns shows how the same effect plays out in availability.

Switchgear lead times by category: what to expect

The table below describes how each category is usually supplied and what tends to push a line from the shelf onto indent. It is a guide to which questions to ask, not a promise of dates.

How common switchgear categories are usually supplied

Read the right-hand column as a checklist. If a line on your order matches anything in it, ask about stock before you plan, because that is where an “ex-stock” assumption most often turns out to be indent.

Median, average and the 90th percentile

When you measure lead times yourself — and you should, for your regular suppliers — the statistic you choose matters as much as the data. Take ten orders from one supplier, sorted from fastest to slowest, with these illustrative dispatch times in days: 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 14 and 30.

• The median is the middle of the sorted list — here 5 days. Half the orders were faster and half slower. It describes a typical order.
• The average is the total divided by the count — here 8 days. One very slow order pulls it up, so it describes no order in particular.
• The 90th percentile is the time that nine orders in ten met — here 14 days. It describes the slow tail, which is the part that breaks a schedule.

If you have a fixed handover date, plan the critical lines to the 90th percentile and treat the median as the good news. Planning to the median means being late on roughly half your critical lines; planning to the average gives you a number that hides the very orders you need to worry about.

To build these figures for your own suppliers, record two dates for every line — the day the order was confirmed and the day it was dispatched — and sort the intervals by supplier and category. A spreadsheet and a year of orders are enough.

We measure with the median and the 90th percentile and never the average, because the average flatters every supplier, including us.

What makes a switchgear lead time run long

The slow tail has a small number of causes, and most of them are visible before you order.

Common causes of long switchgear lead times

Transit is the last interval and the one most often left out of a plan. Part-load consignments travel with other cargo and can wait at transhipment points, and deliveries to remote sites, hill areas and islands take longer and may need a different transporter. Ask how the goods will travel, not only when they will leave.

Two of these causes sit on the buyer's side of the table. In our view a purchase order sent with a complete specification and a prompt advance removes more delay than any amount of chasing afterwards.

How to plan switchgear procurement around lead times

A project schedule that gives every line the same lead time will be late on the lines that matter. Split the bill of materials by supply route instead:

1. 01Classify every line as ex-stock, regional stock or indent, by asking the seller before you order rather than assuming.
2. 02Order the indent lines first, together with every accessory, variant and spare that belongs to them.
3. 03Plan critical lines to the slow tail, using your own 90th-percentile figure for that supplier and category where you have one.
4. 04Get dispatch dates in writing for each line, and note whether each date is a dispatch date or a delivery date.
5. 05Track promised against actual on every order, so your next plan uses your own data rather than a seller's estimate.
6. 06Hold a small buffer of fast-moving consumables and accessories that would otherwise stop a panel for want of one part.

Our guide to the electrical procurement process shows where these steps fit between RFQ and payment, and our post on reading a switchgear quotation explains how a delivery commitment should appear on the quotation itself. Where list prices are moving during a long lead time, see switchgear price increases.

A buffer you hold costs money. A finished panel waiting for one accessory costs more, and in our experience it is the more common of the two.

Questions to ask before you trust a delivery date

1. 01Is this exact part number, suffix included, in stock today, and where?
2. 02Is the date you have given a dispatch date or a delivery date?
3. 03Are all the accessories on this line in stock as well?
4. 04If this is indent, has the factory order been placed, and on what date?
5. 05Does the date depend on my advance payment, and from which day does it count?
6. 06How will you tell me if the date changes, and how early?

A supplier who answers these in writing is making a commitment you can plan against. If the answers are vague, treat the line as indent and plan accordingly.

What to do when a dispatch date slips

Even well-planned orders slip. What you do in the first day after a missed date decides how much of the delay reaches your site.

1. 01Ask for the reason and a revised date in writing. “Delayed at the factory” and “waiting for one accessory” call for different responses.
2. 02Ask for a part dispatch. If most of the order is ready, ship what is ready so that installation can start while the missing line follows.
3. 03Look for the line elsewhere. Another seller, distributor or regional warehouse may hold the exact part number on the shelf.
4. 04Consider an approved equivalent for lines that sit outside any coordination or approval scheme — after the checks in our guide to switchgear brand cross-referencing.
5. 05Record the slip against the supplier and category, so that your next plan uses it.

In our view a supplier who tells you a date will slip, before it does, has earned more trust than one who hits most dates and goes quiet on the rest.

Our position

A lead time is either a measurement or a sales claim, and most of the numbers quoted in this trade are the second. The interval has to be defined before the figure means anything. We start the clock when the order is confirmed, not when the enquiry lands, and we stop it at dispatch rather than delivery, because the transporter is not ours to answer for.

Median and 90th percentile, never the average. An average flatters everyone by burying the tail, and the tail is the only part that breaks a project schedule. Our own dispatch record does not flatter us either: the categories where our numbers are worst are the ones we sell from indent rather than stock, and the honest reading is that a buyer with a fixed handover date should plan those lines to the 90th percentile, or place them with whoever actually holds the stock.

The mistake buyers make is planning to the median, or worse to a promised date, carrying no buffer, then compressing commissioning to absorb the difference. And a line moves at the speed of its slowest accessory: the breaker is ex-stock, the trip unit is not.

Questions buyers ask