Ontario Construction News staff writer
To meet the surging demand for essential medical equipment, a Barrie-based medical supply company made the decision to increase their production at short notice. In order to accomplish this, they needed a qualified workforce.
“We wanted to help however our facilities are not setup for the product required for medical equipment so we quickly found how we can help by partnering with a local medical equipment producer,” said Stephen Schroeter, co-CEO for fireplace maker Napoleon. “We have trained and re-focused Napoleon manufacturing workers to really help medical equipment colleagues deliver on surging demand at a critical time. We are so proud of our team for their willingness to volunteer to help where help is needed and put themselves on the frontline of this crisis.”
The company says in a statement that 50 Napoleon associates are covering four shifts each day including midnights. The team is providing much needed support in the areas of material handling, machine operations, assembly, engineering, quality control as well as team leadership and supervisory support.
“I couldn’t be prouder to be a Napoleon team member during this worldwide pandemic.” said one Napoleon associate. “I normally work on building fireplaces and have been employed for 19 years. I have volunteered to work with the medical equipment company and am so grateful for the opportunity to help.”
The Napoleon team is primarily focused on assembling and packaging face shields which provide a wide range of protective coverage for healthcare workers including splash protection which significantly reduces the risk of contamination and protects them against high level diseases, such as COVID-19.
In addition, Napoleon is leveraging its global supply chain partners to expedite the delivery of urgent and essential medical equipment for local hospitals and working attentively to support government agencies to assist further.