"The Oxair India team contacted DNOW for an urgent requirement of valves. They requested the valves within 15 days, but with the standard Kimray lead time, it was impossible to deliver these valves in 2 weeks. Our regional Total Valve Solutions Director set up a conference call involving DNOW Australia (Oxair is an Australia-based company), India and the Kimray team to discuss this on a regional level and find the solution. I was given the task to find out where these valves were going to be used. It was difficult to get in touch with the Oxair operations team, as they were busy and working overtime."
"One evening I got ahold of a senior engineer, and he told me that this is going to be used on oxygen compressor units in various COVID hospitals and centers across India. We had a conference call with the Kimray team and updated them about the application. The entire world was aware of the COVID situation in India. India was looking to the world for help, as COVID cases were peaking and the graph was going upwards to around 300,000+ cases every day and thousands of deaths. India was facing an oxygen crisis, as medical oxygen consumption in India shot up more than eight-fold from usual."
"Kimray was well aware of the situation and during the call, they promised to help us. Immediately after the call, the Kimray leadership team was briefed on the situation, and by morning we received a message that Kimray was ready to support and supply the valves within 2 weeks. We briefed the DNOW area team about this development, and immediately set up a joint conference call between DNOW, Kimray and Oxair to resolve all the technical issues. During the call Kimray promised Oxair that they will deliver 50 valves in less than 2 weeks. Immediately Oxair placed the order, and Kimray acted fast and delivered these valves in record time to support India."
"This was a humongous task as a distributor to coordinate between an OEM and the client to make sure we deliver the material on time. Oxair was very happy with the role DistributionNOW played in coordinating and guiding the quick air shipment of these valves to India. Being part of a life-saving cause is a proud moment for DNOW. An additional 50 valves are currently in the pipeline to be delivered soon for the same application."