how i did it
Serving Others in a Pandemic
The world followed the lead of a small Mukilteo
furniture maker when it pivoted to making masks.
Brian Mittge
One of the first American manufacturers to switch fully to designing and mass-producing PPE
was Kaas Tailored. President Jeff Kaas built on longstanding relationships and an enterprising
spirit to work with his local hospital. Within days, his team was churning out masks and
their design, which he shared online for free, was being used around the globe.
How WE Did It
As part of this story, Jeff Kaas emphasized
that the series title “How I Did It”
doesn’t really apply in his case, where
relationships, partnership and teamwork
were key from the beginning.
“I’m not comfortable ever with ‘how I did
anything,’” he said. “The keyword being ‘I.’”
His company’s success over the decades
came after others shared their Kaizen
process improvement tips. And his
company’s pivot to making PPE was
only possible through multiple levels of
collaboration, both within his
company and across the globe.
For this story, he said, the heading
should be “How We Did It.”
Jeff Kaas with two key members of his team’s mask collaboration with Providence Health &
Services: Jenn Bayersdorfer and Sue Gibboney.
Kaas Tailored
www.kaastailored.com
Truth Bit Pull Consulting
www.truthbitpull.com
Jeff Kaas begins every year with a forecast. It’s an attempt to predict the future for his
own manufacturing company and clients of his process-improvement consulting firm.
For years he has predicted a coming pandemic of some sort.
And so by February, maybe even in January, he was concerned about what was
happening in China. By mid-March, he was looking for ways his furniture and
aerospace component company could help as the novel coronavirus hit America. On
March 17, when he saw a message from Providence St. Joseph Health asking the public
to help with a “100 million mask challenge,” Kaas texted an acquaintance at his local
Providence hospital down the road in Everett.
“I have a factory,” he told them. “I’m going to be helping as many health care systems
with my factory as I can. We’re all in. If it isn’t you guys, you better tell me soon
because I will find somebody else.” Fortunately, they took him seriously. Providence
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