Photo By Dena Selkow | The bandage-making machine’s cotton header rolls are part of Elwyn Industries’ new...... read more read more
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PHILADELPHIA - Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support Medical funded new machinery for the company that makes camouflage bandages for warfighters to help prevent stoppages and double production.
Elwyn Industries is the only provider of the critically needed bandages, and the new equipment more than doubles the number of bandages an individual machine can manufacture in an hour, said Nicole Welsh of the DLA Troop Support Medical dressing tools and instruments integrated supply team. Elwyn’s previous equipment could produce about 3,000 bandages per hour. The new machine manufactures 6,900 in the same amount of time.
The new machines were funded through DLA’s Warstopper Program, a line of accounting approved by Congress in 1992 to fund critical industrial capabilities impacted by high wartime, said Theresa Rucci, a DLA Troop Support Medical integrated supply team supervisor.
“Elwyn is a very reliable and important factor in contingency operations and the quality product supplied provides support to the warfighter while maximizing employment opportunities for people with disabilities,” she said. “Supporting the warfighter with quality products from Elwyn gives me an extreme sense of pride.”
Rucci said the faster production time is important because in the past there have been shortages due to equipment malfunctions that stopped production.
“Elwyn desperately needed this new equipment to avoid work stoppages in the production of the bandages,” she said. “The equipment upgrade was necessary in order to keep our warfighters supplied with this mission-essential and critical item.”
With Elwyn’s decreased production times will also reduce backorders for military-unique bandages that occur during peak demand, especially during times of surge and sustainment, said Mike Medora, chief of DLA Troop Support Medical’s contingency contracting integrated support team.
The new machines, purchased by the Defense Contract Administration Office, are driven by state-of-the-art motors that allow the machines to be synchronized, Medora said. That feature saves change-over time by relieving operators of adjusting a multitude of gears and switches.
Elwyn manufactures 13 military-unique, warfighter mission-essential bandages in three categories: muslin, camouflage compress and general bandage, Welsh said. The vendor currently holds two five-year long-term bandage contracts with a potential value of $46.6 million if surge and sustainment is invoked for both.
Welsh said 58 Department of Defense mission-essential medical kits contain Elwyn bandages and the top 22-selling kits accounted for more than $19 million in sales in 2010 and 2011.
“Knowing that the new equipment will assist in keeping our warfighter safe makes me extremely proud,” she said. “Supporting the warfighter is our number one mission at DLA Troop Support. When this can be done more efficiently, I feel a great sense of accomplishment.”
| Date Taken: | 08.10.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 09.05.2012 15:32 |
| Story ID: | 94251 |
| Location: | PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 134 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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