CONTROLLER COMPARISON CHARTS
Left: Planning ahead helps irrigation contractors ensure they have the parts they need during a supply shortage. Photo: Michael Derewenko
Top: Install controllers with upgrade options to allow for future expansion. Photo: The Toro Company
Secure your supply
Plan ahead and involve clients early to work through a smart irrigation controller supply shortage.
By McKenna Corson T
he supply chain around the world has felt the pinch of the microchip shortage since 2020. It’s limited the pro-
duction of electronics like cars, computers and gaming con- soles. But for the progressively modernizing irrigation in- dustry, it’s also limiting the production of smart controllers. “It’s happening everywhere,” says Matt Love, the vice
president of technology at Smart Rain, Centerville, Utah. “People are having to take drastic steps to make it work for their businesses.” While the microchip shortage itself is painful, it goes
deeper for irrigation controller manufacturers and distrib- utors, Love says. “It’s the whole thing from start to finish, whether it’s
boxes, shipping processes, wires or a flow sensor from a third party,” Love says. Couple the lack of microchips and other electronic
parts with pandemic shipping route disruptions, business reforecasts, labor shortages and the sunset of 3G this year, the availability of irrigation controllers hit yet another roadblock. “Te sunset of 3G made the situation worse and many
of the cellular providers made no concessions,” says Rich- ard Restuccia, the vice president of water management solutions at Jain Irrigation Inc., Fresno, California. “Tis created a bad situation for the landscape industry as well as many other industries.”
38 Irrigation & Lighting Summer 2022 What has sprouted from this supply chain shortage is
a slowdown in the manufacturing process of products like smart controllers. David Peters, the business development manager in
North America for Mottech Water Management, Aubrey, Texas, explains that items that would have a 15-30 day lead time in the past can now have a six month or longer lead- time, “presenting new challenges for product managers attempting to have a finished product ready for sale to a contractor.” Another issue from the shortage: Sky-high prices that
will only increase. “Prices of materials have and continue to rise, placing
additional pressure on manufacturers to cover increased material costs, which in turn increases the cost of the final product the contractor purchases,” Peters says.
When to plan projects
Just because this international supply chain shortage is oc- curring doesn’t mean business halts for the irrigation in- dustry.
Te best way Mike Merlesena, the commercial national sales manager for Dig Corporation, Vista, California, ad- vises contractors to avoid feeling the heat is by planning ahead.
irrigationandlighting.org
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