
Quick Turnaround Panel Building
On Time/On Budget Control Panel Fabrication
Outsourcing your industrial control panel building requires great attention to detail. Who supplies what? You need to consider logistics for getting parts and enclosures where they need to be. A time frame needs to be established and met. You need to communicate with engineers for drawings, schematics, layout, and ECNs. Finally, you need to address special customer protocols for wiring, labels, terminal blocks, and markers.
Throw in a level of urgency brought about by unforeseeable global events, and you have even more potential challenges.
The Challenge
Our OEM customer needed to modify the design and customize the build of their converting machine. This was necessary in order to meet the critical specific requirements for their end-user customer’s product.
A typical time frame for building this type of industrial control panel equipment is 16-18 weeks. A normal time frame for building panels for a project of this magnitude is 6-8 weeks. However, this needed to be done in 3-4 weeks… with a “drop-dead” due date. Meaning we needed to get it into our schedule within 4-5 days!
The PanelTEK Solution
Resourceful Project Management Meets a Seemingly Impossible Project
- An OEM manufacturer needed to modify the design and build of their converting machine in order to provide their customer with multiple machines capable of producing the finished product their customer requires.
- All major components would be supplied by the OEM manufacturer to PanelTEK, but we still needed to order customer-specified smaller components, hardware, labels, markers and terminal blocks. Added to this, the design of the panel was still in process.
- Design review and collaboration between the OEM customer and PanelTEK engineers was critical to assure proper component sizing, selection, and function for the OEM control panel.
- PanelTEK immediately adjusted our production schedule to respectfully accommodate our current work in progress while making room for this fast-turn project.
- Overtime hours would be needed, and PanelTEK assemblers were more than willing to support this effort. To minimize overtime costs to our customer, PanelTEK used staggered shifts. This strategy helped ensure a smooth transition of work throughout the day, leading to greater efficiency and output. Work was accomplished without imposing an excessive overtime burden on our assemblers. Implementing staggered shifts also favorably impacted the quoted pricing to our customer.
- Constant communication flow was required to keep everyone informed without over-burdening.
Result
Even with all the challenges that came from “designing-on-the-fly” engineering changes, supply chain issues, and working with a new customer, the project was delivered on time and on budget. Actually, that’s not quite right. We completed their industrial control panels one whole day early!
Does Your Project Require Quick Turnaround on Control Panels?
PanelTEK starts with quick turnaround on quote submissions and follow-through. Our project management teams take pride in being responsive, flexible and easy to work with. This, along with decades of experience building control panels for a wide range of industries, allows us to achieve high-quality results for the most challenging projects.