1995 FIN – Six Bolts Delivered in 16 Hours for $25,000
8/17/2009
FASTENER HISTORY
1995 FIN – Six Bolts Delivered in 16 Hours for $25,000
December 13, 1995 FIN – Editor’s Note: Tim Malone of Walker Bolt Mfg. Co., Houston, Texas received an inquiry from a distributor for a petrochemical company in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for six radiant coil support casting bolts. Despite having to bring in raw material from California, the bolts were manufactured and delivered in 16 hours and five minutes from the time of the initial call. The following is the chronology compiled by Walker president Calvin R. Remmert:
10:15 a.m. Quality Bolt, a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, distributor phoned Walker Bolt saying they were faxing an inquiry for six bolts.
10:28 a.m. Fax with drawings sought quote on six 1 3/8″ (8-2A) x 31 1/2″ T-310 high temperature stainless steel round cylindrical head bolts. Sales and purchasing personnel began sourcing material while manufacturing staff began planning Friday completion. Ten steel suppliers were contacted and two had the raw material available.
12:15 p.m. Walker quoted a price for Friday completion based on air freighting the material from Los Angeles.
1 p.m. Customer asked for price on a charter jet to fly material to Houston.
2:45 p.m. Walker informed customer of cost to charter a Lear jet to bring raw material from Los Angeles to Houston. Customer gave go-ahead and asked for quote to hold plane in Houston to fly the finished bolts on to Baton Rouge.
5 p.m. Material pulled and sawn to required lengths by supplier and placed on plane in California for flight to Houston.
8:30 p.m. Five machinists and one quality control inspector returned to Walker to set up machines and await material.
9 p.m. Material delivered. Delivery truck remained available to transport finished bolts to airport.
10:30 p.m. Threading foreman arrived at Walker.
12:15 a.m. Friday. Customer informed that machining, stamping, threading, inspecting and packing into boxes built earlier in the afternoon was complete and truck was headed to the airport.
2:20 a.m. Bolts delivered to chemical plant in Baton Rouge.
The tab? $16,000 for airfreight and $9,000 for the bolts. A bargain when the end user was losing more money per hour in downtime until the bolts were installed. ©1995/2009 Fastener Industry News.
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