As the state begins slowly reopening the economy, businesses need to follow new safety guidelines and acquire the Personal Protective Equipment necessary to make that happen. With West Michigan companies scrambling for those supplies, a supplier directory has been created.
At some point, most everyone is going to go back to the workplace no matter the environment. When you do, you’ll be required to wear Personal Protective Equipment and operations will require new safety features.
“If you’re a large company, and you have thousands of employees, you probably have a global supply chain that you can lean on for that,” Tim Mroz, the Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for regional economic development organization, The Right Place said.
“But if you’re a company with 100 employees, 200 employees and you need a couple thousand units of something, it’s going to be really hard to find that resource anywhere in the supply chain," Mroz said. "And so, what The Right Place is trying to do is connect local businesses with other local supply chain companies that are producing this PPE equipment and have that available for them to purchase here locally instead of trying to find something out on the open market.”
The directory is a source for face masks and shields, sanitizers, thermometers, gloves, goggles and gowns. As businesses reopen demand for those items will continue increasing.
Mroz says while some West Michigan companies that had retooled producing PPE will transition back. Others will continue expanding building a new business model.
