This Issue 

Shipping at Smart Products

Featured O-ring Material: Aflas 

CEO Mark Jernigan Restores Pinball Machines 

Act Today to Receive Your Order by the End of 2011!

plus an overview of Shipping at Smart Products

To receive your valve or pump order by the end of 2011, all orders must be received by 5:00 pm Pacific U.S. time on Wednesday, December 14, which is today. These orders will be shipped based on our standard 2 week lead time.    

Shipping at Smart Products
 
As you may already know, we offer Fedex, UPS, USPS, and DHL shipping options.  But, how do we keep every order organized and precisely sent out to customers located worldwide?  Similar to our overview on kitting, assembly, and injection molding this issue of SmartTalk delves into how shipping works at Smart Products.
 

To ensure you get your parts fast, we have a precise procedure for every stage of a valve’s journey from ordering to shipping.  For shipping, we are capable of meeting a customer’s requested needs, which may include anything from applying specialty labeling to including a Certificate of Compliance (COC).  All shipping requirements should be requested at time of order.  After we compile a work order, an order acknowledgement is sent back to customers to verify when their parts will be shipped.  We are proud to say that we have a 100% on time shipping rate, which means that parts leave our Morgan Hill, CA facility on the exact ship date that is listed on order acknowledgments.  For the very rare occasion that they could be delayed, we notify customers immediately.  Delivery speed always depends on a customer’s selection of overnight, express, or ground shipping.  

After the final QA inspection in the assembly stage, the order is logged into our ERP manufacturing software system where it will show up to be packed and shipped.  A daily shipping schedule is printed based on the work order’s specified ship date to ensure everything is in order and ready to exit our facility.  We ship an average of 100-150 orders per work week.  All orders are organized into their own separate containers prior to being packaged, and the order information is attached to each bag of parts.  The work order is compared again with the bag’s contents, as well as with the packing slip to ensure everything matches.  Then, the shipping destination is scheduled for pick up based on the original acknowledgment date.   
 
For customers with special packaging instructions, such as double-bagging or specific label requirements, this information is noted on the original work order and carried out during the shipping stage.  If requested, we can also provide a COC in each shipment.  We can also use your company’s shipping account number, if preferred.  Tracking numbers are provided if a customer opts for this feature – all we need is a specified email address attached to the work order.  For companies with multiple locations, we can ship the same order to each place, but require a separate work order.  Just in Time (JIT) is another option we make available to established customers and with an agreement in place. 
 
To establish the best shipping solutions for your order, call us at (800) 338-0404.  
 

Featured O-ring Material 

Aflas®

Only available in a durometer (hardness of the o-ring) size of 80, Aflas® is one strong o-ring.  Ideal for tougher environments, particularly in the automotive industry, this o-ring is used in a lot of engine applications due to its high temperature resistance and excellent resistance against motor oils and coolants.
 

 

  Aflas® is available in all of our Series 300 Modular Check Valves (pictured above), as well as some Series 100 Standard and Series 100 Specialty Valves.  It is important to note that we are not able to offer Alfas® with a spring lower than 0.5 PSI. 
 

Alfas® works especially well with:
 

• Steam
• Amines
• Petroleum Fluids
• Brake Fluids
• Phosphate Esters

This o-ring material has a wide temperature range from -20°F to +400°F.  Other noteworthy features include its ability to work really well with a variety of media, similar to EPDM and Viton® o-rings.  For additional questions about using Aflas® o-rings in your application, call a Product and Application Specialist at (800) 338-0404.  

Beyond the Business of Valves & Pumps

CEO Mark Jernigan Restores Pinball Machines

In the June SmartTalk, we reported how Smart Products CEO Mark Jernigan enjoys motorcycle restoration, which is actually just one of many activities he has.  Another hobby he enjoys is fixing pinball machines.  For the past year, he has restored 9 machines including:

• Gorgar by Williams
• Genie by Gottileib
• High Speed by Williams
• Contact by Williams
• Flash by Williams
• Rocky and Bullwinkle by Data East
• Phantom of the Opera by Data East
• Funhouse by Williams
• Elvira and the Party Monsters by Bally 

“I have actually been interested in pinball machines since I was a teenager.  They have a tactile feedback that make you feel like part of the game, and I don’t get that from video games.  I also love the themes and art work,” says Jernigan.
 
As a self proclaimed “Jack of all Trades,” Jernigan went from enjoying pinball machines as a teen to restoring them years later as an adult by researching on the internet.   

Jernigan adds, “pinball machines are based around older technology, like the kind of stuff I studied in school - I studied electrical design and computer programming.  Unlike modern technology, all the schematics looked very familiar to me.”
 


Once familiarity was established, the next most challenging thing about pinball restoration for Jernigan was finding affordable machines in good cosmetic shape, as well as the parts to work on them.   Nine successful restorations later, he has sold one machine, Genie, and plans to sell a few more in the future.
 
When asked what he enjoyed most about pinball restoration, Jernigan enthusiastically replied, “bringing a machine back to life that may not have worked in more than a decade so people can enjoy it, and of course playing them with my friends!”