CertainTeed
When faced with a broken-down chiller and a major manufacturing facility loosing thousands of dollars in production, a service technician must do whatever it takes to fix the problem. What that ends up being can be remarkable. Brad David, service technician at Kansas Trane in Wichita, KS, was relaxing in a hotel room one Wednesday evening in March, having completed a full-day’s work at a hospital several hours from his home, when he received a call from Sean McKibban, another Kansas Trane service technician. McKibban, who was on call that night, told David that CertainTeed, a major building products manufacturer in McPherson, KS, had a chiller break down. The machine, a 300-ton RTHC, runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week on a production line, cooling the large machines that produce plastic siding.
Since David was familiar with the plant and its equipment he decided to investigate that same night, making the hour-long drive to the job. He discovered a solenoid valve on the back side of the compressor had failed, leaking oil and refrigerant. So David left for Kansas Trane Parts in Wichita – another hour drive - to pick up replacements parts, drove back to the job to drop off the parts, and then returned to his hotel room early Thursday morning.
Back at the job a few hours later, David worked all day Thursday and Friday to get the chiller operating by Friday evening. His work completed on schedule, David went to start the machine. Nothing happened. “After working the past two-and-a-half days almost straight through and then pushing the button, and to find [the machine] would only load and not unload was a big disappointment for me and a great concern for them,” David says. “But at the time of the other repair there
was no way to know this problem was going to occur.” 
David determined the chiller had a bad control module, so he called Mario Navarro, Kansas Trane Parts manager, about getting a replacement. Navarro did not have the module in stock and immediately contacted Trane’s after-hours parts team and other sales offices about its availability. He learned that only two parts centers in the country had the module – New Orleans and Savanna, Ga. “I was relieved that there was at least someone who had the part available, and my next thought was which location would have the easiest access travel-wise,” Navarro says.
David shared the news with CertainTeed, who told him that the chiller needed to be repaired that weekend. The situation, says Austin Butcher, CertainTeed maintenance manager, was critical. “It was very critical, because if the weather would have reached much above 45 degrees, we would not have been able to run our machinery without renting a chiller. And the forecast that weekend was showing highs in the upper 50s.”
Late Friday David booked a round-trip, next-day flight to New Orleans to get the part from Milton West, an inside parts sales representative in the Trane office there. “I was leaving a Mardi Gras parade,” says West, explaining when he received the call from Navarro. “I asked him if he was coming tonight or tomorrow. My thoughts were that this must be pretty important if they were willing to fly someone all the way to New Orleans.”
David arrived Saturday in New Orleans where West met him at the airport with the part, saving David the difficulty of navigating the city’s streets during the busy Mardi Gras season. David’s next concern was getting back through airport security with a module in a box that might appear suspicious to some security officials. “I never thought if they would let me on the plane,” he says, adding he was searched closely before being allowed to pass through security.
Fourteen hours after leaving Wichita David returned, drove to CertainTeed, and replaced the module. Initially confident that he had diagnosed the problem correctly, the all-day travel schedule had given him plenty of time to think it over, which led to second-guessing. “There was a big knot in my stomach, hoping it was the right part and if I go and do all this and it doesn’t work, oh, there’s trouble. You just create more doubt when you do that.”
David’s worries were unwarranted; the chiller started right up. He says he never thought twice about all his extra effort in getting CertainTeed’s process chiller running again. “Let’s keep them happy. Do what you have to do.”
David returned home early Sunday morning for much needed rest. “I was tired, and I can’t sleep on an airplane.”