In 3 days, Bednark pivoted production to face shields for NYC’s frontline workers.

When NYC put out the request for much needed PPE, Bednark responded quickly and thoughtfully. Over a single weekend, we prototyped the product, built a supply chain and hired 150 new employees to handle assembly in a new manufacturing space. Over the next 90 days, we produced 2.7 million face-shields for NYC. We averaged 30,000-35,000 units per day. We did all this by leveraging our people, our equipment and our can-do attitude.

New York Times

A ‘Wartime Factory’ in Brooklyn Is Fighting Coronavirus

The old Navy Yard’s manufacturers, including printers and distillers, have pivoted to making urgently needed face shields and hand sanitizer.

Because of the order for nonessential businesses to close, Mr. Bednark had shut his shop and laid off part of his work force of 120 employees. But with the desperate call for medical equipment, he and other manufacturers huddled with Mr. Ehrenberg.

“I said, ‘We’ve got to figure out something to do. I’m not going to go down with the ship,’” said Mr. Bednark, who pivoted to making shields, a new product for his company.

In a scramble over a couple of days, his prototype was approved by city health officials, who ordered a first batch of 120,000 shields.

“We’re used to making quick products and making them very quickly with what’s available,” said Mr. Bednark, who procured plastic shields from a supplier in Long Island City, Queens, and elastic from a company in Manhattan’s garment district. A steady supplier in nearby Williamsburg came through with 360,000 foam strips with adhesive, as forehead cushions for the shields.

Wall Street Journal

New York Manufacturers Mobilize to Make Face Masks, Medical Gowns

Companies respond to officials’ call for medical supplies; ‘We’re not doing this to make money’

Bednark Studio, which in pre-pandemic times designed, produced and installed store displays for retail experiences, has pulled together a face-shield assembly line in an empty event space at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Chief Executive Michael Bednark is looking to hire back his own laid-off employees as well as jobless restaurant workers to assemble 240,000 face shields for the city by the end of next week.

“It’s crazy because we were laying people off in waves last week,” said Mr. Bednark, who let go 30 of his 120 workers, cut the wages of remaining staff by 15% and reduced senior leadership pay by 40%. “This week we’re scrambling to get people to come back in and work.”

REUTERS

Over hectic weekend, New York factories retool to make coronavirus face shields for nurses

“We’re mobilizing for our country in a time of need,” Bednark said, “just like the Navy Yard mobilized to build ships for World War Two.”

Bednark already had plenty of foam on his shop floor, to soften the shield where it wraps around a nurse’s forehead. His plastic suppliers agreed to open up on Saturday to give him the needed rolls of polyethylene terephthalate, a see-through polymer that should not fog over when nurses wipe it down with disinfectant.

Meanwhile, a Brooklyn Navy Yard security guard drove to the New York City Department of Health’s headquarters in Queens to borrow a face shield and a medical protective gown for Bednark and his fellow designers to copy, according to Navy Yard President David Ehrenberg.

Bednark, who normally makes sleek custom interior design components for restaurants and retailers, and a skeleton staff cut up their materials, ran some test assemblies, and, by about 9 p.m. on Saturday, had finished several prototypes. They emailed pictures over to health department officials.

“They loved it,” Bednark said.

The next day, he took the best prototype to the city’s health department headquarters, to be examined by an assistant health commissioner, who suggested only minor tweaks: Make the elastic headband adjustable, and soften the shield’s pointy corners.