Updated: October 12, 2020
manufacturing excellence awards
Manufacturing Awards: Web Industries is fulfilling the needs of a nation
Photos | Courtesy of WEB INDUSTRIES
Web Industries adapated its operations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marlborough contract manufacturing organization Web Industries Inc. announced in June it would boost its COVID-19 test production equipment output by hiring 125 skilled equipment operators, engineering personnel, bio scientists, quality assurance, purchasing and inventory specialists at its Holliston facility, while also investing millions in lateral flow immunoassay product development and production equipment.
In practice, the company has hired nearly 300 people over the course of nine weeks while entering commercial production for a leading medical technology company to produce antigen-based rapid tests for COVID-19, said CEO Mark Pihl.
By the end of October, the company plans to produce a million tests a week. That figure will rise to 2.2 million by the end of February.
Although this growth was a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it speaks to a momentum toward onshoring medical devices – a problem highlighted during a national shortage of imported personal protective equipment. While the pandemic will ostensibly end, Web Industries’ expansion is expected to serve domestic medical manufacturers for years to come.
This kind of investment is part and parcel to how Web Industries views its customers – not just as business opportunities, but as chances to build long-term relationships, said Pihl.
Notably, that kind of perspective is inherent in Web Industries business model: The 51-year-old company is employee owned. That structure makes a huge difference, said Pihl.
“This is a well-known fact: There’s over 10,000 employee-owned companies in the United States [and] typically the productivity is on the border of 10 to 15% higher than publicly traded or privately-held companies,” Pihl said.
That kind of employee investment allows Web to pivot at the drop of a hat, like it did with its Holliston facility, while other sectors it works within were suffering. Since the pandemic, for example, Web’s aerospace business decreased by half.
“How do you stand up a business like that in 20 weeks? You draw on the power of ownership, you draw on the power of the relationships that we built, and we say, ‘Look, you can help. It's not over for the company. Let's go to [our medical operations] and apply the knowledge and skills that you have to bring this business to life,’” Pihl said.
That kind of employee investment has produced, said Pihl, a workforce eager and willing to transfer where they are needed, with some traveling to Massachusetts from Atlanta and Texas.
“You see it over and over again, people making huge sacrifices, because they believe in the company and they have a stake in the company,” Pihl said.
WBJ Web Partners
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