Do It Right or Suffer the Consequences

Pendant shipped two large control panels yesterday, heading for Las Vegas. The project team worked diligently to create the design and produce CAD drawings, order the correct parts, start the programming process, schedule the startup, commissioning, and Go Live resources, crate the field devices, and assemble the panels, all under tight deadlines. Right in the middle of the overall project comes control panel shipping to the client site. As you’ll see in the link in the next paragraph, this step can quickly undo a lot of great work.

The Pendant team still has flashbacks from a control panel shipping disaster a few years ago, which you can read about here. Pendant made things right for that client, and in the process learned some very important lessons about shipping.

Control Panel Shipping the Right Way

Loading the panels on the truck can feel a little like handing your baby off to a new babysitter. Just as you would with your child, Pendant takes important measures to ensure the safety of the shipment. Here are just some of the things we do to make sure the panels arrive on time and in the same condition as when they leave our shop.

Waiting for indicator

• Packaging – the panels are placed carefully on pallets, where they are carefully wrapped with heavy cardboard and plastic film and strapped and secured to the pallet.
• Monitoring for damage – we fit the packaged panel with ShockWatch impact indicators that detect but more importantly deter mishandling during shipment (see the photo of a ShockWatch label prior to the final application of the indicator).
• Choosing the right shipper – Pendant prefers to use a small number of shipping companies with whom we have a history.
• Loading – Pendant team members, not the driver, load the panels on the truck and anchor the panels in place. We don’t expect the drivers to be experts in the proper handling of control panels. We do expect that of our team members.
• Dedicated shipping – we choose dedicated service for our panels to their final location. There are no intermediate stops at shipping terminals, and no additional items will be added to the load.
• Pay attention to deadlines – where necessary to meet tight deadlines, Pendant hires tandem teams to minimize transit time.
• Crated field components – Pendant builds its own crates for shipping field components that are part of the control system.

These are just some of the steps we take. Pendant sweats the details so there are no unpleasant surprises related to moving the product to its final location.

We can sweat the details for you, too.

Please sweat my details