What s your approach for handling project delays caused by external vendors

Question

Dealing with project delays from external vendors can be frustrating and disrupt timelines. How do you manage these situations while keeping the project on track?

Answer 1

Dealing with delays from external vendors is quite challenging, but one has to stay proactive. 

• In a past project, when a vendor delayed their delivery, I immediately communicated with them, understood the cause, and then worked on setting a revised timeline. 
• Meanwhile, I adjusted internal tasks to avoid idle time and kept the team productive. 
• I kept the stakeholders abreast, managing expectations and restating how flexible things would need to be at times. 
• Being prepared for any delays through contingency plans and constant communication with the vendor minimized the additional time it would take to rectify things, thus putting the project back on course.