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Bearing isolator inpro distributor12/2/2023 Some companies might need rigid production directives to do that, but Inpro/Seal found another way. For parts that are routinely measured in tolerances of thousandths of an inch, it’s critical that everyone involved be on the same page. The way team members deliver on the company’s 24-hour- turnaround promise is really the “art” that Hoehle talks about. Now we’ve gotten pretty good at it,” he says, “but it’s really more of an art than a science.” One advantage, he adds, is that because Inpro/Seal only makes bearing isolators and a small selection of related products, “we can focus all of our resources on that.” It takes continuous cooperation and communication through distribution channels, regional managers, inside customer support, engineering, manufacturing and the manufacturing engineers. “It wasn’t like we sat down and wrote a plan and there was a magic bullet. “This is something we’ve worked at for years,” says Hoehle. Practically everything else in the process takes longer, including waiting for Fed-Ex pick-up.īut quick does not mean easy. Significantly, when new parts are needed, the manufacturing process that once took an average of two hours per unit now takes about 15 minutes. Some are delivered from stock the company builds and holds for contract customers the rest are newly made when the order arrives. Today, Inpro/Seal can turn orders around in 24 hours or less for 80% of its annual output. They are then translated into either a new CNC program or a blueprint given to a machinist who will make the part manually. For never-before-made parts, accurate on-site measurements are required, usually taken by the customer, which are transmitted to the Rock Island facility. While an Inpro/Seal bearing isolator is not overly complex, it nonetheless requires machining, mostly in bronze, on one of the company’s 27 CNC machines (25 lathes, two mills) or 10 manual lathes, followed by final assembly, inspection and shipping. When companies need us the most,” he says, “we try to be there.” This modestly stated mission translates to not only the same-day-shipment promise for many of its products, but on-site installation assistance for big jobs or companies in dire straits, whether in Illinois, Houston or the Pacific Rim. “That was a great opportunity for us to allow the engineer-to-order function and quick response to come together. “Quite often, we were dealing with companies that had equipment down for repair or emergencies and needed very quick turnaround,” says Hoehle of the company’s formative years. As it turns out, all three are essentially true, with particular emphasis on service. Numbers like these suggest a few things: that Inpro/Seal charges a premium for its products that its products are of the highest quality and third, that the customer service Hoehle referenced is untouchable. Even today, most of the company’s 75,000 skus (some 50,000) are made only in quantities of one or two, about 30% of which are not stock items. He notes that while much has changed in bearing isolators in this time- the product’s recognition, along with its uses and designs-the lack of standardization remains. Hoehle (pronounced “Hailey”) started with Inpro/Seal 28 years ago. Seeing that this valuable service can be offered successfully- and repeatedly-has been an ongoing mission for Inpro/Seal and its employees. “We look at applications to see what the best possible solution is for that application, and provide it to the customer in the same time frame or less that he could order something out of a parts catalog from somebody else.” This literally means, for example, that an order received by noon or even later on any day can often be in the customer’s hands the following morning. “We are very much an engineer-to-order and customer-service-based company,” says Neil Hoehle, director of sales and engineering.
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