Bi-fold door lead times: What to expect and how it works
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The lead time on bi-fold doors is the time it takes between placing an order for bi-fold doors for your customers and having those doors delivered.
Traditionally, the lead times on bi-fold doors have been extremely long (between 6-8 weeks). As bi-fold doors and windows are typically measured and ordered in the latter stages of a building project, lengthy lead times can therefore cause lost time as installers are waiting for the doors to arrive, and potential delays to the project if there’s an error with them and have to be re-ordered. However, at Origin, we have significantly invested in stock and manufacturing capacity to be able to offer the best lead times in the industry to help you meet your project deadlines and your business run smoothly.
So, how are we able to meet such short lead times and how does this compare to other companies? Read our guide to find out more.
Click on the quick links below to jump to the relevant section:
Learn more about why bi-fold doors can take so long to manufacture and typical lead times.
Find out more about the lead times for Origin Bi-fold Doors.
Learn more about supplying Origin Bi-fold Doors.
Why are bi-fold doors often subject to such long lead times?
Lead times can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and can be affected by a number of factors including:
- How long your chosen manufacturer takes to make the doors – manufacturers can vary in the time it takes to manufacture doors and depends on their facilities, machinery and if they keep doors or profile stock.
- The material of the doors – depending on supplier, aluminium bi-fold doors can take longer to process than other materials such as uPVC bi-fold doors.
- The colour chosen by your customers – there are many popular colours that manufacturers may keep in stock, so the lead times on these doors will be lower than for other colour options.
- Configuration – if your customers choose a larger or more complicated configuration, manufacture could take longer.
When determining lead times and project deadlines, it’s also important to factor in the how long it will take for you to source the double glazing or triple glazing and when that will arrive, as it will allow you to schedule your install more effectively.
What are typical bi-fold door lead times?
Over the last few years, aluminium bi-fold doors have become a popular option for homeowners and specifiers for their many benefits. However, many manufacturers are still delivering slow lead times and it is common to have to wait between 6 to 8 weeks (even up to 12) for the delivery of bi-fold doors.
When trying to plan project deadlines and timings, having to wait so long for the delivery of bi-fold doors can make it difficult to complete jobs and late delivery may result in knock on delays in future projects which can affect customer satisfaction.
Origin Bi-fold Door lead times
At Origin, we have a zero lead time on some of our colours. On the bi-folding door range, you specify when you want your doors delivered – even if that’s for the next day. With you controlling our manufacturing schedule, it means that you don’t need to store goods before they’re due to be installed and can improve your cash flow as you’re not spent waiting for the goods to arrive from the time of outlaying the money.
Many bi-fold door companies struggle to deliver on the lead times they offer, leaving their customers waiting months for delivery. This causes an inconvenience to both your customers and you, as the supplier.
We are renowned for offering the quickest lead times on bi-fold doors. We believe that long lead times are outdated and completely unnecessary.
| Bi-fold doors | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product | Popular colours | Lead Time Popular Colours | Lead Time Non-Popular Colours |
OB-49 Bi-folding Doors (Aluminium) – including Bi-folding, French and Single Doors |
| Your Lead Time, Not Ours (available in as little as 24 hours) | 3 weeks |
OB-72 Bi-folding Doors (Aluminium) – including Bi-folding, Corner Bi-fold, French and Single Doors |
| Your Lead Time, Not Ours (available in as little as 24 hours) | 3 weeks |
Times may change without prior notice. Please see OSS for details.
Why choose Origin Bi-fold Doors?
With Origin’s lead time guarantee, you are able to specify exactly when you need you bi-fold doors so that you can schedule your jobs with confidence.
Whether you need bi-fold doors quickly, or in a few weeks’ time, you can dictate our manufacturing schedule to ensure that you receive everything you need in time for install.
For you, this means you won’t need to hold storage space for long periods of time and allows you to deliver the best level of service to your customers.
As a business, we want you to know that you can rely on Origin to deliver your bi-fold doors to you on time and in full. We work hard to ensure that you can schedule jobs with certainty, meet customer’s needs, improve cashflow and increase project turnover, so you’ll never miss an install day.
Always have stock
We invest heavily in our stock so that we can be a reliable supplier and get your orders made, ready to go and delivered when you need them.
Full control
Each and every one of our bi-fold doors is designed, developed and manufactured in our state-of-the-art factory, which gives us more control over the supply chain than many of our competitors.
We pride ourselves on the quality of our products and offer a guarantee of up to 20-years for our aluminium bi-fold doors (covering all door elements, not just powder coating).
Delivery
The safe and secure delivery of our bi-fold door is one of our highest priorities, so delivery service by our own fleet is designed to ensure your order is received in perfect condition, exactly as it was when it left our warehouse, not left to 3rd party couriers.
To ensure that your customer’s bi-fold doors arrive to you properly, our delivery driver will:
- Unload the doors from the delivery vehicle, using a hydraulic lift if required and take extra care not to cause damage
- Carry the doors into a home or business premises
- Unwrap the doors from their packaging (if this has been requested)
To keep doors fully protected in transit, we:
- Package door panels individually
- Keep everything secured in the vehicle so nothing moves around whilst in transit
If you’d like to find out more about Origin bi-fold door lead times, please contact our team today.