The EF-5 tornado that swept through Greensburg, KS, in early May '07 effectively leveled the entire town, leaving thousands of people homeless and the city's infrastructure in distress. Furthermore, efforts to restore fresh water for fire prevention and leak testing in water pipes were stalled because of the destruction of an electric drive that controlled the motion of the water pumps.
Faced with unexpected destruction of the drive, municipal managers turned to Yaskawa to build a drive with a bypass function as quickly as possible. The drives Yaskawa builds, designed with precision and meticulous care, are almost literally conductors of a rhythmic operation in just about any business. In this time-sensitive case in Greensburg, the city and aiding workforce needed the water pumps to stay in constant motion.
Speeding up what is normally a two-week production process, Yaskawa prepared the emergency drive package in a single day without compromising the product's integrity. By placing the order at the top of its priorities, Yaskawa was able to ship out the final product with a "Just-In-Time" delivery method from its New Berlin facility to efficiently help the relief efforts in Greensburg. (Shown above, the P7 drive with bypass installed in the Greensburg pump house, ready for operation.)
Mike Grant, a sales engineer for Yaskawa, was integral to the fluidity of the process. (Pictured, Yaskawa's New Berlin, WI production crew responsible for building the P7 drive with bypass for Greensburg.)
"We didn't want to slow them down," explained Grant. "We knew that there were a lot of people banding together, between FEMA and the city managers of Greensburg, getting things restored down there. We wanted to help in any way we could, and we're no strangers when it comes to rising to the occasion."
The EF-5 tornado, which pounded Greensburg with winds of up to 205 mph, was the first tornado to touch down in the United States with a "5" rating since 1999. In a world of unexpected interruptions, Yaskawa pays off on the promise of being in control with products that make businesses move.