When OEM Lead Times Become a Production Problem

A containment shell fails on a critical magnetic drive pump handling hydrochloric acid. The production loop goes offline. The maintenance team submits an urgent spare parts request.

The response from the established supply chain: standard pricing, delivery in 14-16 weeks. Expediting might be possible—at premium cost—but even then, the timeline measures in months, not weeks.

For plants running continuous processes, this arithmetic doesn't work. Extended downtime costs compound daily. Emergency workarounds introduce risk. And the realization sets in: the spare parts strategy that seemed adequate during normal operations becomes a liability when critical components fail.

An Alternative Approach

GFT9 exists precisely for these situations. We manufacture PFA-lined components through reverse engineering—analyzing your existing parts and producing compatible replacements from our German facility.

Typical scenario:

A plant sends us a failed containment shell with the pump model and operating parameters. Within 48 hours, we confirm whether we've manufactured this configuration before (shorter lead time) or need to create new tooling (standard lead time). We provide a formal quotation with pricing typically 30-50% below OEM and delivery in 4-6 weeks for standard orders, faster for repeat configurations.

The part arrives, installs correctly, and returns the pump to service. We retain the tooling and customer specifications for future orders, reducing subsequent lead times to 3-4 weeks.

Building Long-Term Resilience

Many plants that initially contact us during emergencies eventually standardize their spare parts procurement. The economics are straightforward: shorter lead times reduce the inventory required to maintain adequate safety stock, while lower unit costs improve maintenance budgets.

Beyond cost savings, there's operational value in working directly with the manufacturer. When questions arise about material selection, dimensional tolerances, or operating condition optimization, our engineering team engages directly—no distributor intermediaries, no generic technical support queues.

The relationship evolves from emergency supplier to engineering partner.