Fastenal helps customers get up and running after hurricanes

Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 5/4/2006

With fewer than 30 days until the start of this year's hurricane season, industrial distributors such as the Fastenal Co. are stocking shelves of their stores along the Atlantic coast and making other preparations in anticipation of customers' needs should a devastating storm hit.

Winona, Minn.-based Fastenal's preparations are built upon past success and lessons learned after hurricanes Ivan and Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast last summer.

Before Katrina struck, Fastenal store employees in Mobile, Ala., rented a U-Haul and drove to other stores in the area to gather generators, batteries and other supplies to distribute to customers if necessary after the storm. The next day, after ensuring that all employees were accounted for, they opened the Mobile store, which operated on generators because of power loss.

Fastenal store manager Mike Sledge says serving customers in the days following Katrina meant more than just supplying materials. He recalls one customer asking for help with housing for a client that was in the area working to restore communication along the storm-battered coast. "We rounded up drivers and found recreational vehicles to lease to the customer," he says. "We had to pull some RVs from as far away as Alaska."

The role of Fastenal district managers such as Jeff Gage was to ensure that store managers had all the supplies they needed to serve customers as best as they could. He credits the distributor's strong relationships with its manufacturer suppliers for much of the efforts. Three stores in Gage's district were heavily damaged by the storm.

At the plant of another customer that was directly in the path of hurricane Katrina, Fastenal not only provided supplies the company needed, but personnel also helped with clean up by replacing parts that were corroded due to water damage caused by the storm.

A third customer, James Elmore of the City of Satsuma Public Works Dept. in Alabama, says that Fastenal also aided the community. "Before both hurricanes Ivan and Katrina, we were short of supplies," he says. "Once we contacted them, we had everything we needed."

After the storms, the distributor helped deliver water and other supplies, recalls Elmore. The distributor, in fact, coordinated and delivered two donated pallets of food and other items to people impacted in Satsuma. "Fastenal is the first supplier I saw to take a personal interest," he says. "And the supplies we purchased were not overpriced. Pricing was still reasonable."

Before the hurricanes hit, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) teams at Fastenal created probable store site impact maps based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) storm track forecasts. Later, the teams used NOAA data to identify storm-damaged stores, estimate affected market areas and compile historical track maps for comparative study of SKU (stock keeping units) demand in rebuilding periods following similar storms.

The company's information systems (IS) operation worked to ensure that distribution and computer systems remained operational. "They monitored weather reports and matched store locations with potential areas of concern," says Dave Donahue, vice president of national accounts. "They made backups of store databases in case of loss or damage to equipment, and asked personnel to take computer servers with them during evacuation if possible."

IS contacted district managers and store personnel to learn details of storm damage. They shipped new computers where needed, and helped stores take computers to zones where phone lines were active to synchronize information. They provided a cellular-Internet connected laptop to run a store for FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) support. In some cases, the company switched phone companies to get stores online more quickly.

FEMA's needs changed by the hour and the stores reacted to accommodate requirements and leadtimes, says Donahue. One regional sales specialist, Joe Catalano, managed a "blue tarp project" to source meals ready-to-eat and tarps from California, refrigerant gel packs, sand bags and specialty plastic sheeting as well as 500-gal aviation fuel tanks to refuel helicopters at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

Fastenal also provided support to the 82nd Airborne division in New Orleans. The distributor erected a jobsite trailer to support the building of a tent city on Naval Air Station Belle Chasse Louisiana.