Baker-Polito
Administration Visits Lawrence to Tour New Balance’s PPE Production Line
LAWRENCE — Today, Governor Charlie Baker and Lt. Governor Karyn
Polito joined New Balance chairman Jim Davis for a tour of New Balance’s
Lawrence factory, a facility that has helped the company produce more than 1
million masks in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The tour
highlighted the company’s face mask models, including a new version being
rolled out to consumers in the coming weeks, and a new surgical mask model for
frontline health care workers.
Nearly 100 New Balance employees are
manufacturing products at the factory and a nearby distribution center in
Lawrence, an effort which began in late March with the production of general-use face
masks. The company has been supported by the Massachusetts
Manufacturing Emergency Team (M-ERT), which provided support
around regulations and labeling for medical equipment, as well as feedback on
the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), which has risen greatly
since the M-ERT’s establishment in early March. The M-ERT is a coordinated
effort comprised of members from academia, industry and government to address
the urgent need for PPE to support health care workers on the front lines of
Massachusetts’ COVID-19 response.
“As the Commonwealth continues its
fight against coronavirus, face coverings will remain critical to supporting
public health,” said Governor Baker. “Our Administration
remains committed to partnering with local companies such as New Balance to
ensure there is a reliable supply of PPE to protect frontline workers and the
general public.”
“With
millions of pieces of PPE already produced by participating companies, M-ERT
has played a key role in the gradual reopening of Massachusetts,” said
Lt. Governor Polito. “We are thankful to New Balance and the other
M-ERT companies that have leveraged this program to shift to the production of
life-saving gear and supplies.”
New Balance was directly assisted by
experts from the M-ERT team, including Ben Linville-Engler from MIT’s System
Design & Management Group and Haden Quinlan from
MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE),
who hosted bi-weekly meetings with the company to confer over the regulatory
environment for medical products, connect the company to testing resources, and
deliver information regarding the demand and need for certain types of PPE.
Another M-ERT expert, Dr. Michael Rein, the Senior Product Engineer at Advanced
Functional Fabrics of America, provided critical guidance around
product testing.
Starting today, New Balance will
make available a new general-use face mask for the public, called the ‘NB Face
Mask V3,’ a three-layer, lightweight and breathable, non-sterile physical
barrier face mask with a moldable nose piece. In addition to the masks produced
directly by New Balance, the company has also repaired straps on 50,000 N95
respirator masks for Brigham & Women’s Hospital, enabling them to be used
by their medical staff.
Today’s tour featured several
prototypes the company is looking to produce, including a disposable,
3D-printed stethoscope. In addition to founder Jim Davis, the Governor and Lt.
Governor were joined by several New Balance leaders who highlighted the
production teams making the masks, including: Joe Preston, President & CEO of
New Balance; Dave Wheeler, Chief Operating Officer; and Kevin McCoy, Vice
President of Made Product Development & Manufacturing.
“The incredible passion, industrial
R&D ability and innovative thinking of our associates combined with our New
England manufacturing resources enabled us to pivot quickly to produce PPE for
frontline workers and health care facilities facing the COVID-19 health
crisis,” said Joe Preston, President & CEO of New Balance. “We
applaud the Baker-Polito Administration for establishing a strong and
highly-engaged Manufacturing Emergency Response Team that has provided us with
meaningful and expert guidance throughout our journey.”
“We are incredibly proud and humbled to do our part to help
so many in our health care community by producing more than one million masks
in the past two months,” said Dave Wheeler, Chief Operating Officer of
New Balance. “We are thankful that the innovative thinking of our
associates, our long history of domestic manufacturing and the work of our
highly skilled teams in our factories have allowed us to quickly adapt to help
meet the immense mask needs of the health care community, and now the general
public.”
New Balance is one of the
Massachusetts manufacturers featured on a new website launched
by the MassTech Collaborative that profiles nearly 20 Massachusetts
manufacturers that have shifted operations to produce critical PPE and other
materials. The M-ERT effort is being managed by MassTech, the quasi-public economic development
agency that oversees advanced manufacturing programs for the Commonwealth, and
was devised as an emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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