Axxis Cuts 16 Week Project to 7 Weeks for Oil & Gas Customer

Axxis serves various industries; however, a good portion of our business still resides in the Oil & Gas Industry, which is the first market that Axxis served.

Challenge

As you may know, the demand for exotic steel has gone up drastically, causing the material’s price to nearly double. As a result, our customer, a leading provider of energy solutions, needed a precision machining facility to help complete an urgent project. 

The company, a longtime customer of Axxis’, ran into a problem when another supplier turned down their project request. The supplier sat on the request for quite some time before officially turning it down as they decided they didn’t have the capital to invest in the material due to the elevated prices. Unfortunately, this set our customer back and chewed up eight full weeks of a 16-week lead time. 

Solution

The customer reached out to Axxis, as we had completed urgent expedited projects together in the past. They asked Axxis if we had the capital to invest in the amount of material they would need and explained that although the material was expensive, they were willing to make up the cost on the part price. Axxis agreed to take on the project, promising the customer what many precision machine shops would deem impossible.

The lead time on the parts the customer needed was only 16 weeks, and because their old supplier sat on the PO for eight of those weeks, they required Axxis to complete it in the balance of the time remaining. Axxis said “no problem” and promised the customer finished parts in just eight weeks.

The parts required three outside processes (OSP’s), including an electron-beam welding, a post weld heat treat operation, and a final mag inspection. Unfortunately, because the deadline was quickly approaching, one of Axxis’ usual suppliers for OSP could not weld the parts in time. Of course, we could’ve stopped there and called off the project, but that would go against everything we believe in at Axxis. So, instead, we went the extra mile and didn’t quit on the first letdown. We got busy making calls across the entire United States and eventually found an electron-beam welding company on the East Coast willing to take on the challenge with us.

Results

Although Axxis knew it would be a significant challenge to get the project done in the timeline the customer needed, we also knew that if anyone could do it, it was us. We got the materials shipped and expedited to us within four days, and once they arrived at our facility, they were immediately put on our machines. From there, we flew them freight air to the East Coast and paid the expedite fee to have the electron-beam company turn the parts around in five days. 

The parts were then flown back to our facility the following day, where they underwent the rest of their processes. All said and done, Axxis had the parts to the customer within seven weeks from the initial time they placed the order. According to Brian Grigson, General Manager at Axxis Corporation, the customer was thrilled. They were incredibly impressed with the number of hoops we jumped through for them. 

“At Axxis, we are all about conflict resolution. If we hit a wall, we ask ourselves how we can go under, over, or around that wall,” Brian said. “I’m impressed with our teamwork and our ability not just to stop when a problem arises.” So, if you too are experiencing price increases, please get in touch with us as Axxis is constantly looking for ways to go further for our customers and accomplish even their most challenging projects.

About Axxis

Established in 1959, Axxis Corp. is in the business of producing high-quality machined parts and components for use in many specialized industries, including aerospace, power generation, fluid and gas measurement, medical device, automotive aftermarket, and military.

Our 40,000 sq. ft. facility is a full CNC machine shop that uses cutting-edge equipment and software for quickly manufacturing quality components. We offer a wide range of services from simple and advanced machining to finished products.