If you have to buy PPE, why not buy local?

12 Jun

If you have to buy PPE, why not buy local?

Liz Mcllvaine, president and CEO of Total Concept Enterprises, led a transition to building plastic space dividers. Photo by Frank Lopez

published on June 12, 2020 - 12:44 PM
Written by Frank Lopez

While no country has eradicated the threat of the coronavirus, there is hope for a return to some sort of normalcy with more businesses being allowed to open their doors to an eager public.

With some industries and businesses deemed “essential,” and others having to shut down, a lot of business owners had to close their doors, either temporarily or permanently.

Because of the important facet that it plays in the U.S. and world economies, the manufacturing industry was allowed to keep operating, even if it wasn’t always at full speed.

The Central Valley is home to all sorts of manufacturers — from farm equipment manufacturers to box makers and almost everything in between. Local manufacturing companies are trying to balance the safety and health of their employees and customers, as well as remaining a profitable and viable force for the local economy.

To assist in efforts of combating the spread of Covid-19, some local manufactures have accommodated their operations to produce Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) including, facemasks, face shields, hand sanitizer and plastic shield dividers.

Craig Scharton, a client advisor for the California Manufacturing Technology Consulting (CMTC), which aids California manufacturing, is encouraging local governments, community-based organizations and businesses to purchase PPE from local manufacturers.

Scharton is constantly on the lookout for local businesses and manufacturers that are producing PPE to add them to the database to make those companies easier to find.

“If they [local purchasing agents and policy makers] focus their PPE purchase — their inventory — from local suppliers we will keep a lot of our manufacturers doors open and a lot of our neighbors employed.”

Scharton stresses that with more local purchasing of PPE, there will be more local tax dollars that could go back into the community.

Currently, there are 16 local companies on the CMTC’s PPE Resources list.

One of the companies listed is Total Concept Enterprises in Fresno, which started out as a fastener distributor that later expanded to metal fabrication and services such as tube bending, computer numerical control (CNC) milling and CNC lathe services.

Liz Mcllvaine, president and CEO of Total Concept Enterprises, said that this year had actually been the best year in the company’s history, but in March, she began to worry whether employees would want to come back to work or not because of fears of the virus.

Beginning in May, with a halted economy, Mcllvaine began to consider how the company could keep up operations to not lose any profits.

Total Concept began to manufacture plastic space dividers for businesses and offices that are customizable for client needs.

The largest shield divider, which measures six feet by four feet, costs $200.

“We had a few ideas. We talked about some products that we had been thinking about developing ourselves and thought it was the time to do it. So we did,” Mcllvaine said.

Mcllvaine had some ideas floating around before their final product came out, but she wanted to be sensitive to pricing.

There was also a process in learning how to cut acrylic for the plastic shields, as the company had never cut acrylic prior, but Mcllvaine said “it’s been a fun process.”

The company is getting lots of calls from salons, yoga and exercise studios and local essential businesses.

“This is the result of me thinking ‘how am I going to continue to keep everyone employed.’ This is a time where we cannot stand still, as a business owner,” Mcllvaine said.

In Clovis, Snowflake Designs, a gymnastic leotard designer and manufacturer, has started to produce facemasks to stretch out operations.

Snowflake Designs started producing facemasks in late March, and to date, has made more than 30,000 masks. About 1,000 masks could be manufactured per day.

They’ve sent masks to people across the country, CalFire, and even to customers in New Zealand.

The company is producing both leotards and masks at the same time.

We’ve lost our whole customer base. By doing the masks it has helped save our company,” said LaDonna Snow, president at Snowflake Designs. “You’ve got to pivot and you’ve got to pivot fast.”

At the beginning of the shutdown, all employees were temporarily laid off, but all 30 have been hired back.

Another company that has switched over its operations to manufacturing PPE is Woodlake-based Country Plastics, which specializes in custom plastic injection molding.

President of Country Plastics Jay Ayres is getting ready to sell and distribute ear savers. The product hasn’t been marketed yet, but they are being made and getting prepared to be shipped out.

Ear savers are to be used with cloth and medical facemasks to save ears from the discomfort of elastic straps after being worn for long periods of time.

Producing the ear savers did not require a big jumble of the company’s operations, with Country Plastics using a prototype mold that he designed in about a week after seeing a need for it.

So far the company has manufactured about 1,000 ear savers.

There is an Instagram account made by Ayres’ son to help get the word out, but Ayres said he just needs to get his pricing in line and they are ready to go.

“Being a custom molder, our biggest asset is being able to change,” Ayres said. “We change all the time. If certain markets are having a down year, we focus on the markets that are good. When things are quiet, we just shift gears and follow who is making products.”

A list of local PPE manufacturers

Country Plastics
Ear Savers
jay.ayres@countryplastics.net

Blue Dolphin/Pi Shop
Face Shields
Markj@bddeinc.com

Snowflake Designs
Masks
https://www.snowflakedesigns.com/face-mask.html

CTEC High School
Face Shields
jdelano@fcoe.org

Precision Plastics
Face Shields
1-800-955-8910

Dumont Printing
Face Shields/Floor Safety Decals/Safety Posters/Sneeze Guards & Counter Shields
1-800-248-6311

First Fold Tie Dye
Clothe Masks
firstfoldtiedye@gmail.com

Uppitees Fashions and Designs
Clothe Masks
uppiteesfashions@gmail.com

KLSD
Clothe Masks
https://www.klsd.shop/collections/love-your-community-campaign

Whole Earth Laboratories
Commercial Strength Cleaning Solutions
https://www.welaboratories.com/

Total Concept Enterprises
Clear Plastic Space Dividers
sales@totalconceptent.com