CASE STUDY:
MSD outsmarted supply chain disruption to solve problem for fast-food chain
Here’s the story of how creative thinking, teamwork and expertise helped us solve a problem during the supply chain disruption of the pandemic. With our sister company, Marking Systems Die Cutting (MSD), we are truly a one-stop shop for our customers. MSD’s expertise was called into play to tackle a serious situation for one of our customers, a well-known fast food chain. It was having trouble with a large piece of industrial kitchen equipment — a chicken breading station that is in each of their restaurants nationwide. Here’s what happened.
Challenge If you’ve ever fried chicken at home, you know the first step is breading it. Imagine a fast food chain known for its fried chicken having trouble with its breading station. It potentially could delay or even stop the whole operation — a potentially catastrophic situation when extrapolated nationwide. It was essential to get this problem solved, and fast. Fortunately, the client already knew a few things going in. They knew they needed a gasket with a water-tight seal. They knew it had to withstand grease as well as harsh industrial cleaners without deteriorating. And they knew the gasket also needed to be extra soft so when compressed, it didn’t cause the stainless steel unit to flex. They just didn’t know which type of gasket would check all of those boxes. So they came to us.
Solution
The client’s engineering team worked with our R&D Manager, Daniel Robinson, to test multiple silicone gasketing materials under all of their conditions. We ultimately determined that the Rogers Bisco BF1000 was the perfect material for the gasket. Bisco BF1000 is an extra soft cellular silicone that is highly flame resistant and ideal for sealing outdoor enclosures and protecting electronics from shock and heat and providing cushioning and vibration isolation. The extra softness in the material allows designers to use less force to seal enclosures while protecting devices from the environment — in this case moisture, grease and harsh cleaners.
Once we selected the gasket, we ran into another challenge. As production kicked off on this product, severe supply chain issues hit the silicone industry. We simply couldn’t get all the gaskets the customer needed. Rogers literally couldn’t get the raw material they needed. So we got creative, and brought our industry expertise into play.
In order to keep our customer’s production line up and running, our R&D Manager, Daniel, worked with Rogers and other industry contacts to locate small amounts of material.
This allowed us to keep supplying our customer with partial orders until we could receive the full raw material stock.
Results
This fast food chain has been able to keep up with the demand from their customers. They were never forced to stop production
because of the silicone gasket problem. Because of MSD’s industry expertise and our relationships with our suppliers, this hard time
with supply chain challenges helped solidify our relationship with our customer as a trusted supplier and business partner.
Solution
The client’s engineering team worked with our R&D Manager, Daniel Robinson, to test multiple silicone gasketing materials under all of their conditions. We ultimately determined that the Rogers Bisco BF1000 was the perfect material for the gasket. Bisco BF1000 is an extra soft cellular silicone that is highly flame resistant and ideal for sealing outdoor enclosures and protecting electronics from shock and heat and providing cushioning and vibration isolation. The extra softness in the material allows designers to use less force to seal enclosures while protecting devices from the environment — in this case moisture, grease and harsh cleaners.
Once we selected the gasket, we ran into another challenge. As production kicked off on this product, severe supply chain issues hit the silicone industry. We simply couldn’t get all the gaskets the customer needed. Rogers literally couldn’t get the raw material they needed. So we got creative, and brought our industry expertise into play.
In order to keep our customer’s production line up and running, our R&D Manager, Daniel, worked with Rogers and other industry contacts to locate small amounts of material.
This allowed us to keep supplying our customer with partial orders until we could receive the full raw material stock.
Results
This fast food chain has been able to keep up with the demand from their customers. They were never forced to stop production
because of the silicone gasket problem. Because of MSD’s industry expertise and our relationships with our suppliers, this hard time
with supply chain challenges helped solidify our relationship with our customer as a trusted supplier and business partner.
Our MSD outsmarted supply chain disruption to solve problem for fast-food chain at MSI provide a clean, professional look that is made to last.
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