Category: Team Members

When the team at Pneumatic Scale Angelus in Akron, OH (USA) could not locate masks to purchase for team members in the facility, Cindy, Director Quality/Supply Chain, put her sewing skills to work. “It was a fun way to go through my fabric stash,” said Cindy. “The middle layer of the three-layer mask is fleece left over from a baby quilt that I made for one of our team members, so there is a “PSA family” connection to them. I sanitized and steam dried them prior to handing them out to our assembly floor.” Said Carol O’Neill, BW Packaging Platform President, to Cindy: “Individual initiative like yours to help our team members protect each other is what makes this such a special place – THANKS!!”

Patrick Gijsel, Sales Executive at BW Flexible Systems/Symach in Terneuzen, Netherlands has been an invaluable help to the Terneuzen team. Although he’s not in an IT role, he’s very knowledgeable about computers and put that knowledge to work to ensure their team members had the ability to work from home. Patrick even spent a Saturday in the office setting up separate workstations for their warehouse team members, thus reducing the potential spread of COVID-19 virus when equipment is shared.

Ludovic Fieuw, who lives in Utah (USA), has been working tirelessly to keep business-critical installs moving forward for customers Schreiber and Danone, both located in Utah. Schreiber’s plant manager said: “Ludovic has been…extremely responsive and we have been very impressed with his ability to help us troubleshoot problems either over the phone, with Skype, or Facetime when needed. Despite everything going on in world, we are still getting punch list items closed and the performance of the machine is constantly improving as we approach FA [factory acceptance].”

The friction feeder recently sent to Frank Hogan for use on sales calls came in handy with a customer needing a faster packaging solution for medical face shields they were producing for doctors and nurses on the front lines. Frank asked for the customer’s product and then sent a video demo of the machine showing the product running on it. Almost immediately, the customer called, extremely impressed by the machine’s capabilities since they had been hand packing the face shields.

Frank ultimately secured the order and offered to do whatever was necessary to help the customer speed up delivery of product to the front lines. At one point, Frank even offered to drive his RV to the customer’s site to speed up set up and training. Said Wayne Robens, BWIS-Minneapolis Value Stream Leader, “I am proud to be part of Frank’s team. He made a difference during the COVID-19 pandemic and inspired the rest of the feeder team. His national pride and customer focus are benchmarks for all of us.”

Have an inspirational quote to share? Submit it to From the desk of Bob Chapman and we may post it!

According to Stanford professor, Dr. James Doty, the timing for being kind to others couldn’t be greater – because it happens to have a profoundly positive impact on our own well-being. His research proves that “being kind positively impacts our own physical and mental health. Showing others compassion or acting kind can actually change our physiology by taking our brain that’s been overtaken by a ‘threat mode’ and returning it to its natural, calm and effective state.” Ironically, through our own kindness, we take ourselves out of our own fears which helps us process information more clearly and make better leadership choices.

Accraply’s long-standing relationships with some key producers of hand-sanitizers globally has placed them in the midst of the dramatic push to increase production. “The opportunity…to step up and deliver our unique labeling solutions is providing our team members with a very real example of how we can ‘measure success by the way we touch people’s lives.’” said Seamus Lafferty, Accraply President. “I am proud of our team. As an ‘essential business’ we have a responsibility to deliver for our customers, and for society at large…”

“People are concerned about the situation and the future, they are happy to receive a call from us and that we are thinking of them, of their health and their business. We are focusing now to give them the message that we have been here, we are still, we will be. At the end of the conversation they thank me for calling and the feeling is that we belong to the same situation and to the same country so it is strange to tell but very emotional I must say.”

“…for this extrovert working from home, not being able to do video calls very well or work on extended screens while on video calls made me feel isolated, frustrated, and doubting I’d be able to be productive. The patience and care you put into typing this somewhat lengthy description equipped me to be able to do my job, and will help me feel more connected to my team. Working from home is not my first choice, but your care made it better.”

“The first day of Baltimore Accounting team working from home went fantastic. Steve McClain deserves a medal. He personally visited everyone throughout the process Thursday as they all packed their equipment to be taken home. He kept an absolutely great attitude, personally visited the person who needed help, then would not only follow-up with that person later but would also stick his head in my door to give me updates.

The Baltimore Accounting team is my second family and I am very protective of them so this meant a lot to me.”

Dereck Ayres, a Pneumatic Scale Angelus field service specialist based in Akron, OH, stepped up to service a piece of equipment for Smuckers in Ontario, Canada recently (right before travel restrictions were imposed between US and Canadian border). Ayres fixed their PSA filler/seamer, getting it back to production. The filler/seamer was handling canned condensed milk, the demand for which has been four times higher than usual, thanks to increased grocery purchasing by consumers.