Manufacturers in Northern Michigan are changing development to be able to produce new products much faster than they did in the past. In Charlevoix and Emmet Counties, factories are ramping up production for certain products to meet demands due to COVID-19.
Harbor Retail in Grand Haven is now producing plastic shields, as it sees a market for this product during the coronavirus pandemic. These shields are used at the point-of-sale to protect customers as well as workers. Although Harbor Retails normally makes fixtures for retail stores, the management saw an opportunity to change direction. About half of its production is now being used to adapt to changing consumer needs.
The production rate is much faster, with processes that normally take weeks being done in a couple of hours, such as prototyping. The company is innovating products, such as mobile pop-up rooms that they anticipate health care workers being able to use to treat patients.
Joseph Schultz is the vice president of sales at Harbor Retail. “This is something that we dove into as we saw the situation in the world, and especially in the United States, start to change rapidly,” said Schultz, according to Petoskey News-Review.
Automotive companies are also producing shields. "We had prototypes designed in a day and were in production within a week,” said Charlie Siska, LexaMar plant manager. LexaMar is a global automotive supplier in Boyne City, which has started serving the health care sector with face shields.
A group of five employees are making the face shields. In total, the company expects to sell 20,000 shields, Siska told Petoskey News-Review.
Some companies, such as Petoskey Plastics, are seeing these changes as long-term opportunities.
Another market that is changing its production is alcohol distillers. Companies such as Mammoth Distilling in Central Lake, Beards Brewery in Petoskey and High Five Spirits in Petoskey are switching gears to produce and sell hand sanitizer, which has been in high demand the last few months.
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