Hose Master’s Weekend Warriors Slay Shutdown Time
By: Rich Troyer | On: March 3, 2016
We all jump when the phone rings at midnight. This call was no different.The President of Hose Master grabbed his home phone late one Friday night to hear the bad news from John Wagner, General Manager at Lewis-Goetz Cleveland, OH: A steel mill had suffered a catastrophic failure in an exhaust system on a furnace along the continuous galvanizing line, halting production. As we all know, unplanned shutdowns are very impactful and this customer’s shutdown time was costing the company thousands of dollars in lost production time every hour.
To get back up and running, the plant needed a 34-inch-diameter by 22-inch-long metal expansion joint. With thousands being lost every hour, they needed it fast. That kind of expansion joint isn’t exactly an item kept in stock, so the President made a late-night decision: A crew would be assembled by early morning to develop a solution.
A cross-functional team was assembled. The President brought in an Engineer, Welder, and Bellows Foreman to create a solution. Within a few hours, by 11 a.m., Hose Master had designed, fabricated, tested and packaged a solution that was delivered and installed that afternoon. Limiting their shutdown time presented a tremendous savings to the customer, but Hose Master’s job was not done yet.
At 6 p.m. that evening, the General Manager at Lewis-Goetz called Hose Master’s President again. After the area cooled down and Hose Master’s expansion joint was installed, the customer discovered three more 8-inch expansion joints were damaged and needed immediate replacing. Another crew was needed, so the President arranged to bring them in at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. After a few cups of coffee and a lot of hard work, three expansion joints were fabricated, delivered and installed by that afternoon.
John said “I never thought that anyone would be able to design and fabricate a solution in such a short time frame. It is indicative of the high level of experience, dedication, professionalism and sense of urgency that is part of the Hose Master culture. My involvement was minimal. Hose Master created a workable solution and completed the fabrications in an extremely short time frame. Considering the damage that was done, our customer was able to bring production up very quickly. My field salesman gained a tremendous amount of respect and credibility with our customer and the goodwill that was established at a time when we were trying to become the sole supplier of hose products was immeasurable.”
There are three principles at the core of Hose Master’s business: intelligent, customer-driven design, offering the highest quality manufacturing and providing outstanding customer service. Knowledgeable and responsive customer service is essential to Hose Master’s philosophy. Our highly trained staff and experienced engineers understand their job is to offer flexible metal solutions (hoses and expansion joints) that others cannot. Contact us and find out how we meet and surpass all of our customers’ unique needs.
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