At 9:30 am on June 22, 2016, Ideal Surplus received a call from a leading tire manufacturer located in Ardmore, OK, about 100 miles north of Dallas, TX. With a machine down, the tire company turned to Surplus as they possessed the circuit board needed to get the machine up and running again. Their equipment had been down since 7 pm the previous day and they desperately needed to resolve the issue. This particular machine produced parts that fed not only their plant, but several other plants as well. Soon they would be out of parts, threatening production at multiple facilities.
The customer already ordered the circuit board from another supplier, but it would not arrive until 6:30 pm. They hoped to acquire one sooner, so the Surplus team went to work to see if they could expedite the process. Ardmore is roughly 1,100 miles from Detroit, MI. Not exactly close! Gary Brothers from Ideal Surplus told us: “It seemed impossible that the part would get to them before 6:30 pm on the same day, but we put our creative thinking caps on and found a solution that just might work. Our customer said, “If you can do it, make it happen.”
Ideal Surplus chartered a Learjet 35 to fly directly to the airport closest to the facility. The closest airport was approximately 30 minutes away from the tire manufacturer, too small for a commercial airline to land. Four hours from the initial call, the customer had the part in hand by 1:30 pm. The same day! By 1:30 pm! 1,100 miles away!
The part worked perfectly, resulting in a very happy customer! They had the machine running again by 7 pm, avoiding any plant shut downs.
On an added note, remember the other part they ordered? Well, that part arrived at 6:30 pm as promised, but it was incomplete and wouldn’t have changed their situation. It’s a good thing they found Ideal Surplus!