Delivering Under Pressure: Three Projects, Three Wins
This year, the AFS Services team took on three projects that shared a common thread: tight deadlines, complex scopes, and a customer counting on us to get it right. Here's what we delivered.
1. Simplifying Power at Scale
A major industrial automation and material handling manufacturer needed 715 custom power supplies built to exact specifications and needed them fast. The team took on the challenge of consolidating what used to be a sprawling setup of wiring, cabling, and hardware (I/O farms) into streamlined, ready-to-deploy power supply units, dramatically simplifying the customer's operation.
Over roughly two months, the team built and tested hundreds of units, delivered across multiple shipments tied to strict ship dates, and didn't miss a single one. When a logistics chain brought units in from overseas with little notice, and a small number arrived damaged, the team resolved every issue directly with the customer without ever putting the delivery schedule at risk.
To hit the scale and speed this project demanded, the team brought in longtime partner CBM Solutions to help with cable population and wiring, while AFS Field Services technicians stepped in to keep everything moving in-house. The result was a build pipeline that could flex to meet volume without sacrificing quality or timelines.
2. Scaling Up for the Data Center Boom
When a customer needed more than 600 80/20 work carts to support their growing data center footprint, it marked the largest project of its kind the team has completed for them, and it came together fast, without the usual months of planning runway.
Combining design and materials expertise with hands-on build and project management, the AFS team delivered the entire project in about three months, a fast turnaround for the scope involved. To move at that speed, the team coordinated a flexible build effort with CBM Solutions based in St. Louis, giving the project the labor capacity it needed right when it needed it.
The payoff goes beyond this one order: the customer is already in conversation about repeat business as their growth continues.
3. Taking the Wheel on a Complex, Fast-Moving Build
The most complex project of the year came together almost overnight. Unlike typical 80/20 projects, which usually have a long design and approval runway, this one moved straight into execution: roughly 55 work carts, 33 workstations, plus panel installation and wiring.
With a scope like that, and a customer team still finalizing exactly what they wanted, someone needed to own the coordination. A member of the AFS Services team stepped up to run point across four outside contractors, each handling a distinct piece of the build (panels, electronic assembly and field installation, additional local labor, and extra build capacity from CBM).
That hands-on coordination is what kept the project on track despite the compressed timeline and shifting requirements. The customer has been happy enough with the result to ask the team to project-manage an additional, related effort.
The Bottom Line
Three different customers, three different challenges, but the same result: projects delivered on time, at scale, and under pressure. When the scope calls for it, the team knows how to bring in the right outside partners to extend capacity without extending timelines. It's a big part of how AFS Services keeps saying yes to ambitious projects and delivering on them.
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