ISO Certified

We just had our annual ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 and we passed again with flying colors. 

For those of you who do not know ISO stands for International Standards Organization and Circuit Breaker Sales is the only "equipment dealer" in the USA with this level of certification. 

ISO basically means that our Quality Management System and Team are adequate to do the job we say we do.  We "walk the walk" not just "talk the talk".  When dealing with equipment dealers ask them for a copy of their Quality Management System.

Follow up to Mission Impossible..

As followers of the blog remember, a few weeks ago we were given a project to duplicate some switchgear that had been involved in a fire. Power Plant:  The accident occurred at the DeCordova Power Plant in Granbury, Texas.  The plant operates four natural gas-fired combustion turbines that generate 260 MW total.  The Accident:  It is believed that operators or electricians energized the 4160-volt switchgear while a ground was still installed following a maintenance activity.   While initially it had to look like there was not much chance of a "quick solution" or perhaps any solution (they had to think they needed magicians not scientists), fortunately the power plant called on the right service group who knew how to solve the problem.

By combining resources, our two companies were able to respond to this project in the time frame required by the customer.  There are way too many folks to thank here on this blog entry but about everyone on staff was involved in some little way either in working on the project direct or covering another job while we allocated that person to the project.  Pretty easy for the author to say it was fun, but I heard at least one tech say "let's not do that again for a couple weeks".  Scientists not magicians, this time we were magicians.  This switchgear went from the left to the right in about 3 weeks.




That's what we call CBS Emergency Response. Check out the wire, tape, termination care package we also sent along.  We even think of the little things.  Hopefully you will not need us, but if you do, you will be glad we are there.

UPDATE 3/11/12 - Check out this video (posted in 3D if you can handle it! I think you have to download the "wmv" file and then watch it with NVidia on a 3D enabled monitor). But we are the first to have some 3D Video.

From They want this back next week...

Mission Possible!

Last week our best local customer, who is also a large NETA service company brought us the following pieces of switchgear for "repair or reconditioning" (or whatever that magic that we do is called).

Their customer, a local utility has a very important customer who is serviced by this distribution gear.  It was/is imperative this customer be back on line fully functional ASAP.  And when I say "imperative/ASAP" I mean we were deputized to "do whatever it takes" and "duplicate this gear" (you cannot really fix some of that, we are scientists not magicians).  And so off we went.

I am not sure there are many companies that could accomplish this mission. And assuming the Texas Rangers games do not go into too many extra innings this weekend we should ship several sections like the following to replace this destroyed gear.  Fortunately we had about all of the components for this piece in stock and we sourced the rest.  The challenge was the customer insisted that this be an "exact replacement".  Kudos to Justin Brewer for overseeing the job and to all the crew working two shifts to make it happen.

More close up photos soon.

Links to more photos..

What a difference a week makes!

Another fast paced week.

In addition to the truckloads of  New Inventory Items (click here), we also shipped truckloads of equipment to customers in need.  Here is what shipped to a "refinery" that was in a jam.  Total time from Purchase Order to outbound truck = 42 hours.  This one was managed by Justin Brewer, nice job.

And not to be outdone by the switchgear department, here are a couple dozen vacuum breakers we also shipped this week.  This production project was managed by our sister company Innovative Electrical Equipment (iE2) which is run by Paul Grein. 

iE2 builds and engineers solutions for all sorts of "electrical product obsolescence". iE2 also consults and designs "unique projects" which require "Outside the Switchgear ®" thinking.   But there will more on them later.  Go Texas Rangers!

CBS Economics 101 - More Breakers = More Opportunities

CLICK PHOTO TO SEE
MORE WAREHOUSING

More breakers & equipment for us means better breaker deals for you.  Simple American economics.   (Although one of our warehouse guys has another theory, we cannot share that here on a family blog).

In this "down" economy, we continue to maximize and compliment our vast inventories as plants and facilities across the United States are either closed, off shored or consolidated.   We have the best most complete inventory we have ever had and that is no easy statement for anyone who has visited. 

Our warehouse staff are also employing the latest technologies to better catalog inbound equipment and our existing inventories (bar coding, & QR codes to name a few).  With these easy to access "digital details" (ie., photos, part numbers, voltages, ratings etc) CBS can respond quicker to help our customers.  And our customers can also take advantage of these resources and our thirty years  of experience by sharing in our online resources like our GCBS OnLine Inventory System

And Bill keeps saying that we could "run out of something" so please try to help him out and call or email so the warehouse guys will get off his back .. admittedly 64 Westinghouse DK-25's was more than enough but that was a long time ago.  History does not always repeat itself :)

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE NEW ARRIVALS GALLERY