Growing aluminum railing demand combined with purchase drivers identified by rail installers point to a market ripe with need for dealers who can produce made-to-fit aluminum railing panels. LBM dealers can leverage the UltraLox Interlocking™ Machine to fill this need and, as a result, gain increased market Share.
Dealers surveyed by Principia identified four key benefits of the UltraLox Interlocking Machine:
• Ability to assemble and sell panels
• Ability to make custom panels with minimal waste
• The reduction in time and cost drives increased profit
• The low number of SKUs required to store material.
Simple In-House Assembly
In-house aluminum rail assembly is not a complex process. For an LBM dealer who already conducts light manufacturing or assembly, the model is simple. For these dealers, today’s advances in rail-assembly equipment make it easy to assemble railing panels to size and on demand with existing manpower and infrastructure.
For example, the UltraLox Interlocking Machine is a newer innovation that is used to assemble UltraLox’s Harmony aluminum, powder-coated railing into panels quickly and easily at the dealer’s facility. The UltraLox Interlocking Machine requires minimal training to operate. One person can produce 240 six-foot Harmony railing panels in less than eight hours. Harmony Railings can be assembled in standard or custom sizes, eliminating the material waste that occurs when having to cut rails to fit at a project site.
In a space of less than 300 square feet, three stocked colors can be converted to over 10,000 lineal feet of railings, spanning over two miles.
Additionally, storage of the aluminum extrusions, which are needed to assemble the finished Harmony Railing product, requires minimal space. In fact, an eight-foot pallet rack of product will convert to more than 3,500 lineal feet of finished assembled railing panels. Three stocked colors can be converted to more than 10,000 lineal feet of railings, spanning over two miles. With this process, a Harmony Railing customer can obtain finished aluminum railing product within 24 to 48 hours of placing an order, rather than waiting on the four- to eight-week lead time with custom welded products. When an issue arises on the jobsite that requires the customer to order replacement or additional railing, the LBM dealer can respond to the customer’s needs within hours versus weeks. What a Game Changer!
The Harmony pre-assembled aluminum railing panels can save installers a great deal of time on their railing installations. Consequently, an LBM dealer that offers this time- and money-saving rail system is well-positioned to gain increased market share by establishing itself as a preferred aluminum railing supplier. In fact, according to Principia, a leading research and consulting firm in the building materials and construction industry, dealers who own UltraLox machines stand to gain a substantial profit margin increase.
To learn more about how you can assemble railings in-house with UltraLox, download this free white paper.
