---
title: How to Shorten Your Supply Chain | Opendock
description: Uponor's Tom Rowbotham on the hidden costs of a supply chain, diversifying suppliers, and when to bring supply in-house.
image: https://blog.opendock.com/hubfs/episode%203.png
---
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# Episode 3 of What's Up Dock? Podcast
by [**jpallmerine**](https://blog.opendock.com/author/jpallmerine) on 24 January, 2023
Key Takeaways
- The true cost of a supply chain includes hidden risks, not just freight.
- Shortening supply chains means weighing inventory cost against risk.
- Diversifying suppliers helped Uponor absorb pandemic and storm shocks.
- Bringing supply in-house only works if it fits the company's vision.
Logistics is like refereeing a sports game: if you're doing your job right, nobody notices your good work. But when things go wrong, everyone does.
The same is true at the warehouse dock, where on-time pickups go unnoticed and a backed-up yard gets everyone's attention, which is why so many shippers rely on [dock scheduling software](https://opendock.com/en/products/dock-scheduling/) to keep freight moving.
Few people understand that dynamic better than [Tom Rowbotham](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomrowbotham/), Vice President of Supply Chain at [Uponor](https://www.uponor.com/en-en/about-us) at the time of recording. Tom sits down with Colissa and Jeff to talk about how to shorten your supply chain, what diversification does for logistics, and why good partnerships are indispensable.
Join us as we discuss:
- Analyzing the cost of your supply chain.
- How to shorten your supply chain.
- Knowing when, and when not, to bring supply in-house.
[](https://lp.opendock.com/dock-scheduling-ebook)
## What Does It Really Cost to Run Your Supply Chain?
The full cost of a supply chain includes far more than freight and inventory: it includes every hidden risk a business absorbs to keep product moving. Uponor, a century-old, billion-dollar company that became part of Swiss industrial group GF in 2023, supplies plumbing essentials like polyethylene pipe to customers ranging from mom-and-pop stores to the largest wholesalers in the country.
That complexity makes logistics crucial. As Tom explains, "We have to have a very wide, flexible fleet to satisfy all those different demands from very large orders of truckloads, and multiple truckloads, down to less-than truckload shipments that are going to a huge number of various destinations inside the US and Canada.
So it becomes very, very important for us to have a strong channel and strong partners to get those deliveries where they need to be."
### The Cost of COVID and Natural Disasters
Logistics is a challenge in the best of times. When the pandemic hit, alongside disasters like the 2021 winter storm in Texas, Tom had to anticipate new kinds of risk:
- Loss of people.
- Loss of supply.
- Ripple effects from suppliers' own supply shortages.
*"We learned very quickly how to go back deeper and deeper in our supply chain and try to **assess risk**. For us, it was about **diversification of our supply base** the best we can." (Tom Rowbotham)*
The pandemic hit other industries in unexpected ways too. In our [episode on the logistics of beer](https://blog.opendock.com/the-logistics-of-beer), the National Beer Wholesalers Association's Lester Jones explains how COVID disrupted beer supply in ways few saw coming.
### The Soft Costs Behind Total Cost of Ownership
Tom calls these hidden expenses soft costs, and they're essential to understanding the total cost of ownership:
- Low-cost countries versus local suppliers.
- The storage cost of keeping inventory.
- The risk of product loss.
- Quality problems.
The same total-cost thinking applies inside the warehouse. Teams weighing a move off phone-and-email dock coordination can put real numbers to labor, detention, and overtime with Opendock's free [dock scheduling ROI calculator](https://opendock.com/en/roi-calculator/).
Ownership means leaving no stone unturned, because every risk, no matter how small, has to be accounted for. Here's how Tom responds when a problem hits his entire supply chain:
"First thing we do is try to assess: Are there other products available that will meet those needs that we can get our hands on, either domestically or internationally from a supplier? And then we start looking at expedited freight. Do we need to air it? Depends on how big it is, and how much it weighs, and a lot of other things that we need to take into consideration."
[](https://loadsmart.navattic.com/904j01ru?g=cmm0qo58p004d04l16aswd4fk&s=1)
## How Do You Shorten a Supply Chain Without Adding New Risk?
Shortening a supply chain means trading one set of risks for another, so Uponor weighs each option carefully before committing. With so many hidden risks, shortening the supply chain is one of the best ways for Tom to limit how many he has to account for. He points to three main levers:
1. Carry your own inventory as a buffer.
2. Have multiple suppliers close by.
3. Choose suppliers that are agile and respond quickly to issues.
Every perceived benefit can introduce new risk, so no decision can be made lightly. Carrying inventory ties up capital. Nearby suppliers may cost more than the risk of sourcing from low-cost countries. Agile suppliers are effective but hard to find. Regularly reassessing whether your current approach still fits is a theme [episode two's Roberta Tamburrino](https://blog.opendock.com/how-technology-accelerates-logistics-solutions) returns to when she talks about outdated supply chain methods.
## When Should You Bring Supply In-House?
Bringing supply in-house only makes sense when you have the talent, skills, and capital to do it well, and when it fits the company's long-term vision. Becoming your own supplier gives you more control over quality and faster delivery, but it's a major commitment.
"If you want to run an injection molding house, you better know how to do that," Tom explains. "It's not something you just walk in and learn. You need to have people who know what they're doing. So yes, you can't have more control over quality than what you have inside your four walls. And the delivery time is obviously very, very quick when you're your own supplier. But what's the business vision? Does it make sense to actually do that? Those are questions that have to be answered more holistically. In the logistics area, we can be part of that solution. But ultimately, the business has to decide whether that's a vertical integration step they want to move towards."
Knowing a process inside and out before taking it on echoes our first guest, Keith Moore, on [tailoring automation to large-scale operations](https://blog.opendock.com/tailoring-automation-to-large-scale-operations-whats-up-dock-podcast-episode-1): if you can't explain how the work should run, no system or supplier will run it well for you.
*Keep connected with us by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. [Find all the episodes here.](https://lp.opendock.com/whats-up-dock-podcast?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=hyperlink&utm_campaign=whats-up-dock-warehouse-opendock-q1-23&utm_content=episode-1-blog)*
Balancing risk will never be perfect, and there will always be a situation nobody anticipated. The best teams accept that, keep learning, and build processes and partnerships that hold up under pressure.
[](https://opendock.com/#request-a-demo)
## Frequently Asked Questions
### Who Is Tom Rowbotham?
Tom Rowbotham was Vice President of Supply Chain at Uponor, a plumbing and heating products manufacturer, when he joined What's Up Dock? He talked through how his team analyzes supply chain cost, shortens supply lines, and decides when to bring production in-house.
### What Does It Mean to Shorten a Supply Chain?
Shortening a supply chain means reducing the steps, distance, or handoffs between a supplier and the final destination. Tom describes it as carrying more of your own inventory, working with suppliers close by, and choosing partners agile enough to respond quickly when something goes wrong.
### Why Is Supplier Diversification Important?
Supplier diversification spreads risk across multiple sources, so a single disruption doesn't stop the whole supply chain. Tom credits diversifying Uponor's supply base with helping the company absorb the shocks of COVID-19 and the Texas winter storm.
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