Is your organization facing supply chain issues? As the world continues to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, material and labor shortages continue to plague virtually every industry. While some companies have largely accepted the new reality and have passed ever increasing lead times on to their customers, Kalsi Engineering has instead invested heavily into the qualification of alternate materials to maintain and even reduce our traditionally short lead times.
Forty-two weeks! We were informed that the lead time for one of the materials used in our Plastic Lined Kalsi SealTM product line would be forty-two weeks. Instead of accepting this lead time, our Engineering and Production Teams immediately began reviewing existing literature and material specifications to identify not just potential alternate materials but potential alternate materials that were also readily available. After identifying candidate replacement materials, our Production Team worked closely with our vendors to procure the candidate materials and to manufacture seals on an expedited basis for in-house rotary testing. Testing takes time. To prevent long delays due to serialization, we produced a significant number of parts with the candidate materials as potential inventory parts in advance of completing qualification testing. We felt this significant financial risk was required to maintain availability and reasonable lead times for our customers.
One of the items that differentiates Kalsi Engineering from other seal manufacturers is our extensive in-house rotary seal testing capabilities. While the test seals were being manufactured, our Engineering and Testing Teams planned detailed qualification tests for the candidate rotary seal materials and procured the required test hardware. Rather than replace field proven materials with materials that look good on paper, we utilized our testing capabilities to prove out the candidate materials. We then presented our customers with actual rotary seal test results before changing the materials we provide them. While this testing was costly, it was necessary to ensure that Kalsi Seals continue to provide the unparalleled performance and life that our customers and their end users have come to expect.
We did not stop there. While the new materials may be readily available now, they could experience supply chain disruptions in the future. To address this possibility, Kalsi Engineering purchased significant amounts of these materials to meet the estimated demand for the next two years. We will periodically review inventory levels of these raw materials, determine if there are any existing or foreseeable supply chain issues associated with them, and purchase additional material as needed.
Exceeding your rotary sealing needs and providing world class quality through our registered ISO 9001:2015 program is at the heart of everything we do. If you have questions about the Kalsi Seal or availability of the same, please feel free to contact us via email or by phone at 281-240-6500.
