How do you locate, size, and expedite shipment of a sanitary heat exchanger replacement after hours?
A major jet engine manufacturing plant in Georgia experienced a failure late on a Friday afternoon that literally shut down production in the plant. The plant’s Director of Engineering reached out to multiple sources to get an emergency replacement, whatever the cost.
On Friday Afternoon at approximately 4:30 pm, the purchasing department immediately broadcast an urgent e-mail request to several shell & tube heat exchanger distributors across the country. They needed a replacement Heat Exchanger that day if possible. Acuity Process responded almost immediately, later to find out we were the only distributor that responded.
Acuity Process Solutions works hard to align themselves with manufacturers that are committed to both quality and outstanding service to their customers. Acuity Process is proud to represent Enerquip as their premiere manufacturer of sanitary shell & tube heat exchangers and heat transfer equipment. Enerquip’s tag line, “When Schedule Counts” and Acuity’s tag line, “Waiting is not an option” were put to the test.
The majority of Stainless-steel Heat Exchangers are custom built to the application with lead time of 8-12 weeks. Normally, application data must be collected and confirmed in order to properly size the exchanger. Once properly sized, a submittal is sent to the customer for review before generating a purchase order. After receipt of a purchase order the manufacturer will draft and deliver drawings for approval. Once drawings are signed, and approved fabrication begins.
Understanding the high cost of downtime, the Acuity Process team immediately set up a conference call between the jet engine company’s Director of Engineering and Enerquip’s National Sales Manager to understand the application in detail. Shortly after the call Enerquip sized the heat exchanger load and compared that against their In-Stock inventory. Within 30 Minutes Enerquip offered 2 In-Stock heat exchanger sizes along with the calculation data sheets, and drawings for customer review and approval. The customer confirmed the HEX sizing and fit up and agreed to purchase an 8-3/4” x 72” stainless-steel shell & tube exchanger. This complete approval process took approximately 1 hour.
To expedite the PO and Paperwork, Carol Grenon from the Acuity Process Team agreed to return to work (after leaving for the weekend) to place the Purchase Order.
The next challenge was to expedite shipment of the 350 lbs. heat exchanger from Madison Wisconsin to Georgia. Enerquip’s Plant Manager stayed late to arrange his team to come in early am on Saturday morning to crate the exchanger and prepare documentation to meet a 7:00 am courier pick up. The courier drove the exchanger to the airport for overnight delivery.
We are happy to report that the Enerquip Heat exchanger was installed and was fully operational on Sunday. This success story is exemplary of multiple companies doing what it takes to become a valued partner to their customer. More importantly, was the helpful, “can do” attitude of all the people from Acuity Process Solutions and Enerquip to help this customer get up and running.
To learn more about your heat transfer options please visit https://acuityprocess.com/products/heat-transfer/
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