by Ken Snyder

O.C. Tanner is the global leader in employee recognition. The organization received a Shingo Prize in the late 1990s and has continued improving since then. O.C. Tanner is one of the organizations we study to better teach how to improve the process of improvement.

It is not surprising that O.C. Tanner was one of the first companies to convert manufacturing to help meet the demands of COVID-19. O.C. Tanner quickly recognized the need to mitigate the hazards faced by frontline healthcare professionals during this pandemic. To that end, they worked in partnership with hospitals and other experts to develop ventilator parts and adaptors for powered air purifying respirators (PAPR). The first order of PAPR adapters was donated to the medical consortium on March 30, providing medical professionals with needed protective gear.

Then O.C. Tanner opened two production lines to produce face shields. The organization has been shipping face shields since last week to local healthcare facilities and to healthcare customers, and is donating these face shields free of charge. The production lines are already producing 1,000 each day, with the hope of doubling that daily output through improvements.

“This is a humbling project to be part of,” says Josh McEwan, O.C. Tanner’s director of product development. “The hospital staff are amazing people who are currently facing uniquely hazardous conditions while they serve our communities. This is a difficult time for everyone across the world, but it’s also a unique opportunity for us to help people thrive in a different way, and to be part of something so vitally important to saving lives.”

To learn more about O.C. Tanner’s effort to help supply needed medical products, visit:

https://www.octanner.com/company/press/o-c–tanner-converts-portion-of-manufacturing-space-to-develop-m.html