As a major supplier of industrial parts and services in Australia, CBC’s experts often get asked to help clients with inventory management and storage of products such as gaskets and packing products. 

Rod Baker, CBC Business Development Manager for Mining Segment in Queensland, says it’s not uncommon for large industrial plants to store excessive amounts of outdated or redundant products without realising the cost implications.

“Apart from increasing the total cost of ownership, unregulated warehouses often end up spending more on spare part storage, where they could potentially hold smaller number of spares and avoid the risk of the products expiring.”  

CBC’s answer to the problem is conducting thorough warehouse audits to help its clients rationalise the number of products in their inventory. 

In one example, Rod says the CBC team in Queensland worked together with the Seal Innovations (SiL) team and was able to reduce 887 inventory line items and remove 5649 individual items from a major power station’s warehouse simply by conducting a warehouse audit of all gaskets and packing products. 

“It helped them save thousands of dollars through reducing their inventory size and therefore their total cost of ownership,” says Rod.

The reduction in gasket and packings inventory was made possible through CBC’s partnership with SiL, which like CBC, is a part of Industrial Solutions Australia’s group of businesses. 

“Through their gasket manufacturing facilities, Seal Innovations can provide a wide range of made-to-order gaskets for different applications. With the option available for same-day delivery of customised gaskets, our customers then don’t need to keep a large inventory of spare gaskets and packings,” says Rod.

Effective storage practices are also key to extending the operational life of gaskets and packings. Raj Jadow, National Key Account Executive at Seal Innovations says gaskets and packing products must be stored in ideal temperature conditions to extend their shelf life.

“Because packings often have lubricants in them, they tend to dry out and lose their characteristics if stored at high temperatures for extended periods of time. So, it is not advisable to stock packings longer than necessary,” says Raj.

“Also, the best way to store gaskets and packings is to store them horizontally to avoid damages to the face of the gasket. It is also strongly advised that gaskets get stored in their original packaging for a longer service life,” he adds.

Among Seal Innovations’ gasketing solutions, Raj says Kammprofile gaskets and Metal Reinforced Gaskets (MRGs) are two types of gaskets that can be reused by replacing only the gasket’s facing.

“Both Kammprofile gaskets and MRG gaskets are designed such that the gasket cores can be re-used after cleaning, inspection, profile tracing and re-layering with new sealing material. These are therefore of particular interest for plants looking for cost savings in their gasketing work.”

Elaborating further on CBC and Seal Innovations’ inventory management services, Raj says the two companies work closely to assist customers in optimising their gaskets inventory.

“Once the warehouse is fully audited, we work with the customer to set up a system to monitor the inventory levels. By understanding their maintenance schedule, their specific applications and their critical components, we can set up a minimum level so that we are notified when a minimum order level has been reached,” he concludes.

“There are many ways to set this up, which may include putting in place systems to track batch numbers, setting up traceability systems or tagging certain items for re-supply. Whatever the requirement, CBC and Seal Innovations would be happy to assist companies in developing a system to manage their inventory.”   

Ask Miner Maddie:

The best way to store gaskets and packings is to store them horizontally.