Photo: Courtesy of Web Industries, Inc.
Kevin Young, Web Industries vice president of the company's medical device manufacturing business
July 7, 2020
Q&A: Inside Web Industries' mission to produce 2 million COVID-19 tests a week
Last month, Marlborough-based Web Industries Inc. announced it would hire 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. These investments were meant to boost the company's COVID-19 test production equipment output. Kevin Young, Web Industries vice president of the company's medical device manufacturing business, spoke with WBJ about what it's like to expand during a pandemic and why the company decided to beef up its Holliston operations.
Web Industries recently announced it would significantly expand its Lateral Flow Diagnostics Center of Excellence in Holliston, which includes investing millions in its immunoassay product development and production equipment. Can you explain how this relates to COVID-19 and COVID-19 testing?
Your readers have probably heard the government say that we have sufficient testing for anybody who needs to be tested. That’s really not the case. The [National Institutes of Health] has come out and said that in order to really open up the economy the government needs hundreds of millions of tests per month. Especially now as we see the pandemic climbing in numerous states throughout the nation.
Think of a home pregnancy test kit. That’s what a lot of these COVID-19 tests look like. We were uniquely positioned as a contract manufacturing organization to have the capability to make what’s commonly referred to as an in vitro diagnostic test, i.e. a home pregnancy test kit, or the COVID-19 tests that are needed to determine whether you have the virus or you do not.
And so, when the pandemic hit, a good amount of the capacity for making these tests was in the Far East, it had all been offshore. One of the requirements of the U.S government is that they want these tests fully made in the United States, or at minimum assembled in the United States, and as a U.S.-based contract manufacturing organization, Web was uniquely positioned. I can tell you our phones have been ringing off the hook. So that’s why we made the major investment, too — in order to increase our capacity and to support the work that we’re taking on, we needed to ramp up our operational capacity with the hiring of 125 additional people.
Web was investing in the testing sphere pretty immediately in March, almost before or right as people realized the severity of the pandemic.
We made a strategic decision almost six years ago to invest in lateral flow immunology. Some of our existing medical products were sunsetting and we were looking for what is an opportunity that takes advantage of our core competency, which is formatting of flexible materials, and we identified lateral flow immunology as a key area where Web could add value.
Most processes for making these tests are in a batch mode. Batch mode is slow and it’s not conducive to high volumes of production. What Web did four years ago was develop a process much in the same way we process webs of material, whether it be paper, plastic, film into lateral flow immunoassays so that we could have a continuous process.
We’ll be delivering by the end of August over one million tests per week with plans to scale by Jan. 1, over 2 million tests per week.
What does it look like to hire 125 new employees?
In today’s COVID-19 world, it’s even more complex than you can imagine because of social distancing and the need to do this very quickly. So, we’re engaging tools that are available like Indeed.com. What we’re doing, with their help, is we set up a virtual interview day with eight separate rooms. So, we have eight people who are available in half-hour slots, and people sign up for a particular slot and we can conduct eight interviews at one time, using eight different people.
So, it’s really a unique technology that allows us to scan through a lot of applicants very quickly. And those that do well on that first interview, we schedule almost immediately, in the next day or within two days, for a second follow up, and a job offer is made within a few days. We’re tremendously shortening the time cycle in which it usually takes to get an employee hired. Of course, once we make the offer there’s the normal background checks that still have to happen.
I give credit to our employee owners and leaders that have been taking on this challenge. All of our people take special pride in being able to have an impact not just on themselves and their lives, but by being employee owned they feel really proud that they’re making COVID-19 tests that are helping to save lives and open up our economy.
Do you prioritize certain positions before the others in this process?
Yeah, we do. Two things that come to mind and need to be in place are, one, your capability with respect to quality. So, all of the quality positions are definitely high priority for us. And number two, we’re looking for engineering and technical support for a product that is — I don't want to say it’s like making a rocket, but it’s still not just simple converting when you’re dealing with products that have multiple layers and reagent chemistry that goes into them. So we look at quality and the technical side at first, then along with that is hiring the skilled operators.
Did you receive an influx of applications?
It’s been very good, and there’s a tremendously tight job market within the 495 belt as you can imagine, because of the number of companies that are involved in the medical space, life science, etc. But we have been encouraged by the response. We’re still looking for a lot more employees so if your readers see this, hopefully they’ll check out our website because we still do have to hire a lot of people.
Getting support from our state government’s very important, too, as we scale, knowing the job market. One other thing that’s really beneficial, too, is the federal government provided their Paycheck Protection Program, allowing us to keep people on, but likewise, as good as our medical division is, our aerospace business was hit hard. We’re reflective of what’s going on with Boeing and Airbus, as you can imagine.
We saw a big falloff and that’s where the PPP helped us, at least it’s given us more time to really strategize and plan. So I think we pivoted really quickly from aerospace, which is our largest business segment in excess of 50% of our topline sales, to move quickly to take advantage of our core competencies with in vitro diagnostics so we could make COVID-19 tests.
Is there anything else exciting happening at Web Industries?
Obviously the pandemic resulted in a couple of opportunities for us both in our French-based subsidiary Omega Systems, which we acquired last year. They’re doing a lot of work making PPE, specifically face masks and gowns, to help combat COVID-19. Our Fort Wayne, Ind., plant, which is focused on personal and home care, has really seen an influx of requests for materials that we format that go into face masks and PPE, and some things as simple as drawstrings for trash bags are way up, with everyone living at home and using more packaging coming in. It’s funny how some of these things are just an outcrop of that.
I think the other thing that’s really exciting at Web right now is that on-shoring is creating opportunities for companies like Web and others, as the federal government looks to make sure that if there is a second wave, and is asking: Will we be prepared the next time? One way to make sure the United States is prepared is to on-shore a lot of the key components and medical devices that have been in the past manufactured in the Far East. So bringing that back is creating some really nice opportunities for Web that we’re really excited about and we’re excited to play a part to ensure the continuity of the supply chain in the United States.
This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by WBJ staff writer Monica Busch.
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Anonymous
July 9, 2020
Speed, the ability to strategize and pivot are critical competencies in these challenging times for manufacturers. The focus on quality first shines through the Kevin Young interview. Web is a great role model for how to hire and scale and do it right in our new normal. Hats off to Web.
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