Service that Shines in a Shutdown

Service that shines in a shutdown

May 29, 2026
By the Blue Print Editorial Team

Fielding calls at 2 a.m.? Driving across the state to track down a special item?

It's all part of the job when you’re working with a nuclear facility like DC Cook.

The products are specialized and critical. The security and safety requirements are intense. You’re never not on call. And everything goes into 24/7 warp drive during planned outages.

“Working at a nuclear plant is not easy,” said Jenni Hayes, DC Cook’s nuclear materials and document manager. “We are different, and we are different for a reason; and that is because our number one goal is to protect the health and safety of the public.”

Safety can never be compromised. Maintenance cannot be delayed. Missing parts are not an option.

These are ground rules for DC Cook’s materials management department. They’re tasked with purchasing and managing all of the inventory needed for regular maintenance, preventative maintenance, and emergencies – with zero room for error.

They have a procurement engineering team to define requirements for safety-critical equipment, and they operate a 150,000 square-foot warehouse stocked with critical spares. Then there’s the consumables side. They provide cleaning products for facilities staff, metalworking products for welders, some office supplies for all departments, and most important, PPE for everyone in the plant.

DC Cook’s security protocols and 650-acre campus raise the degree of difficulty for all of the above. Transporting supplies to far-flung buildings requires serious windshield time. It’s a legitimate hike to the plant’s entry point (a real treat during Michigan’s icy winters). And with all the security checkpoints, simple deliveries are anything but simple.

Thankfully, they don’t have to do it all alone. They have a committed partner in Fastenal.

A day in the life

Fastenal has invested in a nearby warehouse to support DC Cook’s planned consumable needs. Three dedicated employees spend their days prepping, hauling, and restocking products across the station.

Every morning, they arrive at the material management warehouse and unload the day’s deliveries, which are then x-rayed and transferred to the plant by DC Cook staff. Then, the Fastenal team drives over to the plant, walks about a kilometre to the entry, passes through security, and retrieves the products inside.

Then the real work starts.

The bulk of the day is spent restocking inventory locations throughout the plant. That includes 30-plus specialized vending devices for janitorial, metalworking, and safety items, with a row of smart lockers just for protective scrubs (aka modesty garments). The team also manages a free-issue area stocked with generalpurpose consumables. Then it’s time to hit the road to deliver paper and other office supplies to departments across the campus.

“It takes a couple of hours just to maintain the vending machines and the free-issue aisle – there are thousands of products just in those two areas,” said Twila Sine, DC Cook’s director of materials management. “That frees up our attendants from having to maintain those, so they can concentrate on things like issuing the proper valves and pumps to the station – those core activities that we need.”

Jenni Hayes | DC Cook's Nuclear Materials and Document Manager
"If we didn’t have that level of customer service, our materials management department would not be able to focus on the nuclear safety grade parts that need to be installed in the plant on any given day."

Technology changes the game

In some ways, nuclear plants are frozen in time. The focus is on carefully maintaining legacy equipment rather than incurring the costs and risks of newly-engineered components. But within those confines, DC Cook has pushed to bring new technology into their operation.

A great example: connected devices that automatically track and control high-use consumables.

“We've had the Fastenal vending machines for several years, and we continue to add machines for different needs,” said Sine. “One of the things we eventually added from the original program were the machines to vend the commodities, the scrubs for people, and that has been a game-changer for us.”

What makes their vending solution such a good fit? Sine and Hayes point to two key capabilities. One is 24/7 self-serve access. Employees can swipe their ID badges to get what they need anytime, whether it’s 7 p.m. or 3 a.m., without having to go into the storeroom. The other is data capture. Each product is tied to a person as well as a location and time.

"The vending machine program is extremely helpful in tracking and trending usage,” said Hayes. “Fastenal supplies us with a detailed transaction report, and we can filter down to determine which departments need more supplies in the machine in any given period of time, including what we need to overstock for an outage.”

Stepping up in an outage

Many nuclear plants, including DC Cook, have two units on a single site. Among other benefits, it allows for scheduled outages – one unit can keep running while the other is shut down for refueling and maintenance.

At DC Cook, these planned outages happen every 18 months. For four to eight weeks, all departments run 24/7. To support round-the-clock maintenance and installation, they pull up to 2,000 additional workers and $10 million worth of inventory into the plant.

Thankfully, there’s a system in place to help meet the challenge. As Jenni Hayes pointed out, the historical vending usage data sheds light on the proper stocking levels for different products and locations. And self-serve access means storeroom attendants can focus on critical parts rather than handing out commodities. One less distraction in a high-pressure environment.

For Mark Stein, Fastenal’s district manager overseeing the DC Cook program, an outage is when his team steps up their game. It starts with weeks of preparation and upstocking, then shifts into overdrive during the outage itself.

“We are on call and bringing products to the plant around the clock,” explained Stein. “We could get a call at midnight, or it might even be 2 a.m., where they’re out of something and they need that immediate service. So, it's not an easy job – it takes a very dedicated person to do this kind of work. And it really frees up the time of the people in the plant to do their job because of what our people are doing to provide that service.”

Twila Sine and Jenni Hayes are quick to agree.

“The Fastenal relationship makes my job easier because I can concentrate on the things that support the plant,” said Sine. “By that, I mean things that support plant reliability, parts reliability, equipment reliability. So we can do what DC Cook is intended to do, which is produce electricity safely and efficiently.”

“I can text any of our Fastenal partners at 10 o'clock at night, at midnight during an outage, and they are immediately there to support us,” added Hayes. “We do not have very many vendors who are that responsive; and in the nuclear industry, we rely on extremely responsive vendors.”

She cites a recent project with their maintenance mechanical team. They needed a special solvent to clean some Quality Level 1 safety parts. Fastenal’s response? “They drove hours away, retrieved that product, and had it in my hands the same day.”

For Twila Sine, that kind of service is what makes the partnership special.

“In addition to all the things that Fastenal provides the station within the normal contract, the biggest value is the customer service they provide us. We can call them at the drop of a hat to support us, and they're there for us. So, the customer service is really what seals the deal for Fastenal."