Center of Innovation Team up with PPE Suppliers for Company, State Progress
Throughout the COVID-19 epidemic, a resource provided for Georgia businesses through the Georgia Department of Economic Development, called the Georgia Center of Innovation (COI), has been at work helping Georgia businesses across industry sectors navigate the challenges of COVID-19.
To aid directly in keeping Georgia in business during an uncertain time, there are numerous examples of the ways COI has helped businesses pivot to create personal protective equipment (PPE) and critical health care supplies to help meet the state’s demand for these items.
Today as industry and commerce move forward, COI is helping these companies make PPE production part of their business model.
Just one of the results of these partnerships has been the development of a COVID-19 Suppliers Interactive Map and List of companies in the state who are able to provide PPE to keep our residents and businesses supplied, while also keeping valuable dollars at home.
The approach has proven effective. In December 2020, the state’s unemployment rate fell to 5.6%, and the state added 44,700 new jobs – outpacing U.S. job growth.
These strong results are thanks to the relationship approach Georgia brings to our business community, and the Georgia Center of Innovation is a state asset few can match.
How do they do it?
Through the Georgia Center of Innovation, businesses are supported effectively through the right connections. Whether it’s reaching the right resources at universities, technology development and innovation centers, businesses, or other essential contacts in Georgia, COI can help business achieve the most effective collaborative research and partnership opportunities, while also providing the technical industry expertise businesses need to thrive.
When it came to creating the COVID-19 Interactive Suppliers List and Map and supporting PPE production, it was the Center of Innovation for Manufacturing that took the lead.
N95 certification
Newnan-based ThermoPore received support from the Georgia Center of Innovation for the unique Form-N-Fit N95 masks the company developed in response to the pandemic. ThermoPore’s masks are made from special microporous material that is subsequently thermoformed into five NIOSH based sizes for premium fit. Throughout the development process, COI has worked alongside ThermoPore, providing advice and connecting them to helpful resources from the initial design and testing phase, through receiving their certification from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for masks to be marketed as N95. As ThermoPore ramps up production, the Center of Innovation continue to help connect them to potential customers in the medical industry. Additionally, the company received national attention for their efforts from media ranging from the Wall Street Journal to their local Newnan Times-Herald, as well as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As COI for Manufacturing Director John Morehouse told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “ThermoPore’s solution really adds resiliency to the way that the United States can respond to a critical supply shortage. It is a blueprint to one path forward for the U.S. to respond to emergencies like that.”
The Georgia Foundation for Early Care and Learning has become a customer to Clear Gear – a PPE supplier on the Georgia public PPE Supplier List. Since the start of COVID-19, sanitizing wipes have been in high demand. Clear Gear, traditionally a supplier of disinfectant and deodorizing spray typically used by athletes to clean and keep gear safe, knew they could help to meet this demand if they could combine their spray with a wipe. Clear Gear reached out to COI to assist with several needs, including identifying Georgia businesses who could manufacture disposable cloth wipes, as well as companies that could distribute a sanitizing wipe product.
Through their extensive connections, COI introduced Allyson Delius, CEO of Clear Gear, with Margie Blossom, National Sales Manager at Intex DIY, Inc. in Villa Rica, Georgia, a supplier of wiping cloths and rags, drop cloths, paint sundries, car and boat care products, to provide the wipe. Intex’s local Georgia provider Fulfillment Strategies International (FSI), in Lithia Springs, worked around the clock to store, pick, pack, and ship Clear Gear’s new sanitizing wipe products to customers around the United States.
Now, more Georgia government resources are signing up for Clear Gear’s products. The Georgia Foundation for Early Care and Learning is providing Clear Gear’s kits to facilities across the state to keep Georgia’s youngest learners, and their teachers, caregivers, and administrators safe. In February 2021, Clear Gear began working with the Georgia Department of Corrections to support their operations in infection prevention.
Face shields to innovative workforce solutions?
In Americus, Georgia, TSG Resolute stepped up to the plate, working with the local community and Georgia Southwestern State University, shifting some of their production capabilities into making face shields for healthcare workers to use over their N95 masks. TSG Resolute is best known for making gaskets, thermal insulation, and electrical insulators. Around the same time, COI was working with Georgia Made™ Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia to help them zero-in on face shields as a product that they could quickly pivot to, given their workforce and assembly expertise, to join the fight against COVID-19. Through a connection made by the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership at Georgia Tech, TSG worked with Kia to also help supply them with raw materials as Kia created and donated face shields to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency for COVID response.
After learning of this development at the company, COI connected with TSG to see if additional assistance could be provided for the project or their overall business plan, and the need for temporary employees came to the forefront. Now, COI and TSG Resolute are working together on another innovative workforce solution in partnership with a Georgia startup out of Atlanta. Stay tuned for how two Georgia businesses may help lead the future of temporary staffing in manufacturing.
Additional examples of how COI has helped Georgia companies with PPE development, distribution and more can be found in publications such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Atlanta Business Chronicle, and Macon’s 13WMAZ, among others.
Consistently responsive, Georgia has also implemented additional ways to ensure support for future PPE manufacturing and overall support for Georgia businesses through recent legislation to incentivize manufacturers to create more PPE and to give relief to existing Georgia companies that lost jobs because of pandemic disruptions. Companies that claimed Georgia Job Tax Credits or Quality Jobs Tax Credits last year may now carry over their 2019 job creation numbers to 2020 and 2021.
These types of incredible partnerships – between government, business, our colleges and university system, and our local communities – are examples of exactly what it means to do business in Georgia. It’s never “just business,” it’s personal.
To connect with the Georgia Center of Innovation to identify ways they may help your Georgia business, visit georgia.org/innovation.
– Published March 24, 2021