Impending "Worst Case“
Problem
Late Thursday afternoon, we received a call from the production management of a manufacturer in the pharmaceutical industry. The repair of the production plant with a planned plant shutdown until Monday morning had come to a standstill. The specially flown in mechanics were unable to carry out a flawless production process with the seals they had brought with them from their homebase. A very expensive postponement of the production start was imminent.
This is how we proceeded
On the basis of a telephone description of the problem, we assessed many possible causes. From assembly errors to the "wrong choice of seal", everything seemed possible. The special seals named were not in stock at any of the three locations of Westring Dichtungstechnik. After first contacting other partners on Thursday, it was possible to order different types of gaskets on Friday morning. Express delivery was arranged until Saturday morning. In the meantime, we discussed the procedure and the installation on Saturday with the customer.TT
The gaskets were delivered on time on Saturday at 8 a.m. and taken to the production site by us, which was 100 km away. First tests were carried out in collaboration with the production manager and the flown-in mechanics to determine the possible causes of failure. By 12 o'clock the fault was discovered: the wrong choice of material in combination with assembly errors prevented operation. The repair of the plant and trial operation could be successfully continued over the weekend.