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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 15 M A R C H 8 , 2 0 2 1 F O C U S M A N U FA C T U R I N G Peter Navarro, director of trade and manufacturing policy, in his role as National Defense Production Act policy coordinator. "e U.S. Air Force, which coordinated contracts under the Defense Production Act, determined Bath Iron Works was uniquely capable to build the necessary machines within the required time frame," BIW says. Puritan took one of its wrapping machines, as well as design plans, to BIW so the shipbuilder could work directly from the machine and decon- struct it in order to build 30 more. "It was the first time in our career to have our proprietary machines built by anyone but ourselves," Templet says. One of Puritan's engineers would go to BIW every week to coordinate on the project, Templet says. A wrapping machine typically takes about one year to manufacture. BIW made 30 in two months. "is was a unique project for a once-in-a-lifetime health crisis that demanded our specific expertise in sourcing materials and components and crafting preci- sion equipment," said BIW spokesman David Hench. "We focus all our energy on serving our Navy customer and this unique circumstance was due to the unprec- edented challenges of the pandemic." BIW had more than 300 employees working on the Puritan projects. e shipbuilder says it also turned to more than 10 other Maine businesses to provide mate- rials or make specialized parts for the machines. Factory construction For the Pittsfield plants, Puritan worked with Cianbro, which operated two crews working 12-hour shifts to keep construction going around the clock to get the first facility up in running in eight weeks. Internally, Puritan put manufacturing engineer Derek Mckenney in charge of the first Pittsfield plant. "I would have never thought he had all that in him," Templet says. "He's a bright young man, 20-something. He built a building within a building and got it done." At the first location, 129 N. Main St. in Pittsfield, Cianbro had a design, engineering and construction crew of 740 people devoted to the building. Of that crew, 170 were Cianbro employees and the rest were subcontractors. "It was amazing that on both projects people understood how important the swab facilities were to the nation and to Maine. It's amazing to see how the collaboration came together," says Richard Brescia, Ciabro's senior vice president. Cianbro says it first got a call from Puritan in late April and the construction firm had three hours to submit its bid for a factory that needed to be pro- ducing swabs by July 1. "e word 'can't' is not in our vocabulary. We just don't breathe that word," Brescia says. "e state of Maine and the community pulled together. It showed what we can do here." e project consisted of a 100,000-square-foot, abandoned smoke detector plant in Pittsfield. Lead paint and asbestos forced the firms to reduce the building to its steel skeleton and start from scratch. Normally the overhaul and rebuild of the factory would have taken more than 18 months, the company says. Puritan and Cianbro did it in eight weeks. While the Puritan project was unique in some ways for Cianbro, especially the pace and high-profile nature of the cause, the company was able to build on its years of experience to get it done. "e key is making sure the communication — hour by hour — is clear," Brescia says. "e hardest part was that the schedule was very challenging. And every single day things might change: the condition of the building, the machine layout. We had to have a solution for all of that. We very quickly came up with a solution and moved on and forward," Brescia says. "e uniqueness of the project itself was hard. Old buildings being turned into state-of-the-art, medical grade production rooms," Brescia says. e second facility in Pittsfield, at 206 SAS Drive, was a former 79,000-square-foot San Antonio Shoemakers building. at project needed a new roof and exterior walls, but was on a less frantic schedule than the first factory that had to be up and running immediately, Cianbro says. Templet says Puritan has received a request from the government for a fourth plant, in addition to Guilford and the two in Pittsfield. Details are still being worked out. BIW and Cianbro declined to com- ment on whether they would be involved in making machinery or working on the fourth building. With the new factories, Puritan can make more than 140 million COVID swabs a month, a 30-fold increase in a year. Getting the raw materials to make the swabs was not difficult, Templet says. "e whole world was in peril. People reached out to us from all over the country," Templet says. "at was a shining light in the pandemic." Building a workforce Hiring enough people to keep the plants running, however, was a challenge, Templet says. Puritan worked with KMA Consulting, a human resources firm, to vet candidates and help Puritan do final interviews. "It's been a challenge. You never know — you think you have a good candidate and then they don't come back," Templet says. "We're always looking for more workers. You always are going to have to hire more than you need so you can keep the machine running." "e most visible thing was the dedication of our workers. e can-do attitude. I'm very proud of them. We had school teachers and professions offering to come here to work extra shifts because they wanted to be part of something bigger. In today's world, that's hard to find sometimes. at warm and fuzzy feeling. But during this we had the sense that we are Americans and we'll pull together and make it right," Templet says. Puritan now employs 1,300 people, up from about 500 before the pandemic. e company still has a few headaches to sort out. Puritan's rival, Copan Diagnostics of Italy, previ- ously sued Puritan alleging patent infringement over five flocked swabs. e companies have temporarily sidelined the legal issues due to the pandemic. Eventually the pandemic will end, but Puritan still expects to remain very busy. "e rest of 2021 will be very busy; 2022 will be very busy, as well," Templet says. "is is the new world for us. Testing for viruses and bacteria will not go away." Templet also sees an upswing in demand for self- collection kits and self-screening tests. "e United States embraces with open arms self-collection. Other countries don't embrace it, but in the U.S., the self-collection model is here to stay," Templet says. J e s s i c a H a l l , a w r i t e r b a s e d i n N o b l e b o r o , c a n b e r e a c h e d a t e d i t o r i a l @ m a i n e b i z . b i z F I L E P H O T O / F R E D F I E L D Timothy Templet, EVP and co- owner of Puritan Medical Products, and his daughter Virginia Templet, who is marketing manager. They're pictured here in pre-pandemic times. In a pandemic, the hour of the day does not matter. We were working 24 hours a day, basically. Time didn't mean anything to us. — Timothy Templet Puritan Medical Products Co.

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