Two Vermont Manufacturers, one of wood-based products (JKAdams) and one of fabric-based products (Gordons Window Décor) heard the call for help by Vermont for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) face protection gear.
Sean Osborne of JK Adams will present how they pivoted their production to provide a design they developed, in partnership with the University of Vermont (UVM) School of Medicine, taking advantage of existing production capability and workforce skill sets.
Brian Werneke of Gordon’s Window Décor will present on their iterative approach to a design taking advantage of a honeycomb fabric and setting up virtual production through kitting of 200-set containers that employees picked up and assembled at home.
Both companies were supported by the Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center (VMEC) and received orders from the State of Vermont’s need to search for products that were in great shortage at that time.
**Their presentations will be followed by an open Q&A session on the challenges, breakthroughs, insights, and future perspective of the products they produced for COVID-19 emergency use, including FDA approval for JK Adams.
About the Presenters:
Sean Osborne is the Creative Director at JK Adams. Sean comes to JK Adams from a career predominantly centered in the arts. With a B.A. in Communications, and an M.A. in Art History from Purchase College, SUNY, Sean brought the sum of his experience in the digital communications and art research fields together—working in a variety of capacities, from a retail product and digital manager for a startup homewares design and manufacturing company, to a strategy manager at a startup digital content agency in New York City—catering solely to art and design clients. Sean is excited to be a member of the team at a storied manufacturing company in beautiful Vermont—bringing fresh product conceptualization, styling, and branding, to the collaborative and innovative creative team at JK Adams.
Brian Werneke is the VP of Operations and Continuous Improvement for Gordon's Window Decor. He joined Gordon's in 2015 as part of the leadership team built by the second-generation owner of the business. Prior to joining Gordon's, he spent 7 years as a Professional Manufacturing Advisor with the Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center - helping companies with their continuous improvement and growth plans. He has an MBA from Clemson University, and a BS in Mathematics from UVM - and over 25 years of combined experience in quality, manufacturing, process improvement, client relationship management, project management, and technical sales. In his free time, he enjoys being outdoors with his family, and spending time working in the family orchard.
