Protecting lives and livelihoods

by Gabriele Kosmehl

John Galt, President and CEO, Husky, on his strategy for leading the company during the Covid-19 pandemic

John Galt has 35 years of experience – 15 as CEO – at Husky Injection Molding Systems, a leading global supplier of a comprehensive range of injection moulding equipment, including machines, moulds, hot runners, auxiliaries and integrated systems. Leading the company through an unprecedented time, he and Husky have been able to draw on the experience the company gained during the global recession in 2008. Flexible and fast reactions to changes are part of coping with challenge.

PETplanet: First, in this age of remote interviews, can we ask: Where are you right now? Are you in your office or are you working from home?

John Galt:  I am currently in our offices located at Husky global headquarters in Bolton, Ontario, Canada. I’ve been working from the office throughout the pandemic.

PETplanet: Husky is a global company with operations in China, among other countries. How did your Chinese colleagues experience the outbreak of coronavirus at the beginning of the year, and what information was coming through to your headquarters from them?

John Galt:  As we learned of the outbreak in China, we immediately sprang into action to implement the necessary procedures to ensure the safety and protection of both our customers and employees. The efforts paid off. We experienced very few Covid-19 cases, everyone has recovered and, through global capacity sharing, the impact to production was minimal.

PETplanet: What did these safety protocols look like? What employee protection measures have you implemented in your workplaces and what investments were required?

John Galt:  We have been actively following the guidance of the WHO, CDC and other local government authorities. Our global campus management teams assembled a task force to oversee the implementation of various safety measures to protect our team members. We moved immediately to a partial ‘work from home’ (WFH) structure. We have installed new hand sanitising stations, floor decals, additional signage reminding team members of safety protocols, installed plexiglass dividers where applicable, and provided all team members with two cloth face coverings. While these costs were not anticipated, the investment is important to ensure the ongoing safety and protection of our team members.

PETplanet: Did the measures also have an impact on production output and efficiency, either positive or negative?

John Galt:  It took a short period of time to adjust and adapt to working remotely for some of our office team members. We also experienced some short term shut downs, but through leveraging our global footprint customer commitments remained largely unaffected. For our manufacturing team members, the additional health and safety measures were welcomed and seen as a positive step to managing through a challenging time.

PETplanet: John, you have now been with Husky for 35 years. Have you ever experienced a situation similar challenging to this pandemic?

John Galt:  The situation we are now experiencing is rather unique, in the fact that we have a responsibility to protect both the lives and livelihoods of all stakeholders. There are, however, lessons we could borrow on from our management of the global recession we experienced in 2008. The global economic crisis from the pandemic and impact on our lives will be felt for many months and perhaps years to come. One theme that’s common to both of these events is the priority the company has to place on being agile. We’ve been working non-stop to enhance remote service capabilities, increased capacity in key tooling manufacturing streams to meet the demand for Covid-related containers, dispensing systems, test kits and other critical medical components.

PETplanet: Has the pandemic led to working time restrictions or even redundancies in your company?

John Galt:  As an essential service to the medical, beverage and food packaging industries, we play a key role in providing solutions to our customers at a time when they needed us most. As the pandemic has spread globally we continue to actively manage our workforce. And, I’m pleased to say, our overall staffing and working hours remain relatively unchanged. By adopting the required protocols from the WHO, CDC and local government authorities, we continue to ensure the safety and protection of our team members and customers, while still supplying the essential services our customers need.

PETplanet: In many countries, people are hoarding water in PET bottles and production in spring was running at levels similar to the summer season. Has this had a positive effect on your moulds business?

John Galt:  We have certainly seen a shift in our business as our customers’ needs have changed as a result of the pandemic. We had to selectively add capacity, shorten lead times and shift production to serve the shifting demands of the PET and medical industries. Overall, it’s been a very dynamic environment and we are happy with the results.

PETplanet: Were all of your suppliers able to keep production going?

John Galt:  Some suppliers experienced short term production interruptions; however, through our global network we were able to shift demand to maintain commitments.

PETplanet: In your experience, what is the best way to maintain customer contacts in times of social distancing?

John Galt:  Husky is proud to be continuing to work alongside our customers by leveraging virtual technology solutions that enable us to stay connected during this challenging time. Our service technicians, for example, are providing on-site service and support wherever possible, or conducting remote interactive support through our Help Lightning tool. We are enthusiastic about the use of these new virtual meeting tools and are investing to expand our ongoing capacity.

PETplanet: With NGOM, Next Generation Operating Model, Husky has been working on a digitalised manufacturing solution for some time. Has this business model benefited you now?

John Galt: Yes, we continue to believe in the value of being a leading digital industrial pioneer. We are already demonstrating the ability to offer shorter lead times, with better quality through our digital lines. We have, and will continue, to leverage digital capability to shorten lead times, at greater scale, with less risk. This is truly a game changer.

Husky’s pioneering Next Generation Operating Model has streamlined hardware ordering and manufacturing from a practice that historically takes several weeks down to a few hours. For the first time ever, customised components can be configured through a web interface and are then manufactured in a state-of-the-art laboratory through a completely automated process. In addition, because the virtual and physical environments work together within a closed loop, the system is able to continuously improve on the products and services delivered.

PETplanet: How does digitalisation change support and how important is the personal presence on-site?

John Galt:  Husky responds to our customers’ requirements for support in a way that aligns with their needs. We intend to continue to offer both an in-person visit or a remote virtual session to troubleshoot a technical challenge; whatever matches the needs of our customers best. Our new “we call you” predictive capability, the industry’s only true live process optimisation tool, is one of our most exciting developments. It brings us together with our customers in a way we never thought possible and the results have been nothing short of incredible.

PETplanet: Personal presence is also an issue that many trade fairs worldwide are currently struggling with. Some large companies have announced continuous travel stops and cancelled trade fair participation whilst elsewhere the trade fair business is slowly picking up again, such as in China. What is Husky’s policy here?

John Galt:  The safety of our employees and customers remains our highest priority. Like many other companies, our team members are travelling on an essential-only basis. Almost all the trade fairs that we were scheduled to attend this year have been either cancelled, postponed or reformatted into a virtual format. In the absence of trade fairs and face-to-face interactions, we are adapting and leveraging digital capabilities to continue engaging with our customers despite the travel restrictions. When markets reopen, we will continue to participate in the trade fairs that offer an unmatched ability to engage existing and new customers.

PETplanet: As you said, many events are also converting to digital formats. We at PETplanet for example started with the PETcast, a new series of PET-related podcasts as well as special webinars for the PET sector. How important are those digital formats for Husky? Can you imagine taking part in digital trade fairs?

John Galt:  In response to the shift to virtual events and trade fairs, Husky is embracing all virtual formats to ensure we connect with customers in the most effective way possible. We’ve used and will continue to leverage live stream demonstrations of our systems, online webinars that provide educational content on a particular topic and participate in virtual trade fairs that give us the potential to reach our target audience.

PETplanet: Have any positive experiences come out of the pandemic? Are there processes that could be adapted to be a catalyst for the coming years?

John Galt: In every challenge lies an opportunity to learn, adapt and improve. This pandemic has shown us the potential to realise growth in other areas of our business as customer needs shift to respond to changes in consumer preferences. The demands to support certain market segments and provide safe and hygienic solutions, for example: using PET preforms for blood tubes; retooling systems to produce bottles for hand sanitiser; or accelerated production of hot runner systems to support the manufacturing of Covid-19 test kits; has become common place at this time. The resilience and adaptability of our people has truly been remarkable. I am extremely proud to be part of the Husky team and grateful to our team members around the globe for their commitment and dedication to working through this unprecedented time in our history. We will most certainly come out of the current pandemic a stronger and better company.

PETplanet: This is also what we wish for you and all the companies in our industry! Thank you very much John!

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