A Michigan-based plastics company transitioning to production of Personal Protection Equipment face shields is struggling to meet demand.
Leadership at Kalamazoo-based Total Plastics International reacted like most companies shuttered due to coronavirus.
“From a business perspective we went from Holy Cow, what are we going to do to how can we possibly supply all of this fast enough to meet the demand.”
We’ll let company president Tom Garrett tell the story.
“Our facility in Baltimore was contacted by a nurse from Johns Hopkins who was trying to find a way to make shields, safety shields, not masks but the shields to protect your face. She was looking for materials to be able to literally do it herself and share it with other nurses.”
Total Plastics contacted a sporting goods maker in New York that was closing due to the pandemic. Its team designed the face shields within a couple days.
“We’re producing over 100,000 a day and we can’t keep up…basically to the large hospitals, the large medical groups. We’re getting orders from Minnesota, from Illinois, Florida, Ohio, literally every state that we do business and then some and then some after that. We’ll get orders anywhere from 5,000 to as much as 200,000 and we’re shipping them as fast as we can.”
And even with the quantities Total Plastics can produce from its facilities in 10 states, it’s currently only able to make partial shipments satisfying client demand.
I’m Patrick Center