Our Client’s Challenge
Our client, a manufacturer and engineering systems provider, was impacted greatly by the global pandemic. Part of their business was in China, so in addition to the COVID impact, they also felt the impact of growing global trade tensions. COVID also hurt their domestic business as the recession slowed the need for home building supplies, their primary focus.
Their Chinese counterpart had designed a machine for manufacturing masks. The U.S. team was able to reach an agreement to obtain the drawings and manufacture the masks domestically. The drawings needed to be carefully translated for production in the U.S., a significant amount of complex work when matching tolerances and modifying/recalibrating to ensure the correct fabrication. The new machinery was also much more precise than the machines normally manufactured by our client.
Project Snapshot
Sterling’s Solution
Our Results
The first machine was manufactured, assembled, and put into production within 10 weeks, and extraordinarily fast turnaround. Our client not only started producing masks; they also built and sold 20+ additional machines to boost mask production through other companies. The venture was so successful, they started a new business unit focus on this area.
Our client’s machines are able to produce up to 100 masks per minute and at the highest production rate, they made 70,000 masks in a 24-hour period. In total, they have made over a million masks to date.