UST’s Daniel Izhaky on How Technology Can Increase Productivity, Efficiency, and Quality

"We're competing against regions that have extremely low cost of labor, cost of utilities … extremely low-priced product that we would never be able to compete with if we weren't using all of this technology," says Daniel Izhaky, CEO at United Safety Technology (UST). What is UST competing on? Producing high-quality PPE masks and gloves for frontline healthcare workers.

When the PPE shortage began to impact healthcare workers during the pandemic, Daniel and UST took action to fill the manufacturing void. Facing supply chain issues and challenges sourcing from overseas, they decided to ramp up production domestically to produce N95 masks and nitrile exam gloves. A federal government contract helped boost manufacturing, and today, they run lines that produce between 45,000 to 48,000 units per hour, surpassing the industry standard of 30,000.

But maintaining that manufacturing efficiency and ensuring quality requires technological innovation, something that UST has thoroughly embraced. On a recent podcast episode, Daniel details the ways in which they're using end-to-end automation, AI, visualization, smart sensors, data, and more to ensure that healthcare workers are getting the equipment that they need to keep themselves and their patients safe.

 

In This Episode

How can manufacturing companies take a cue from United Safety Technology and adopt technological innovations into their operations to increase productivity, efficiency, and quality? Listen to our conversation with Daniel Izhaky to learn more about how to meet customer needs while staying competitive on a global scale.

 

Topics

• How United Safety Technology set about solving the PPE shortage during the pandemic, and how they've ramped up production on N95 masks and nitrile exam gloves here in the US.
• Their three focus areas of productivity, energy reduction, and quality, and how they're using technology to impact those areas.
• How they're using end-to-end automation, robotics, and AI to increase their productivity and improve the quality of their products.
• The challenges to manufacturing today, including meeting requirements, competing on costs and labor, and how to manage smart technology data.
• How they train their new employees, and why they're dedicated to having 30% of their workforce be people with disabilities.
• How innovation, automation, and sustainability will shape the future of the manufacturing industry, and how it's allowing United Safety Technology to stay competitive globally.
• Advice for other manufacturing leaders who want to be more successful, including why having a great team is key and how they can leverage local resources.