Like many manufacturers, Total Plastics International was hit hard when demand for its supply of diverse plastics and related products suddenly hit the brakes due to COVID-19.

That all changed when a nurse from Johns Hopkins contacted the company’s Baltimore facility for help in finding a way to make face shields to protect health care workers caring for the afflicted. Total Plastics then called a sporting goods maker in New York for help with the design. In a matter of days, the company’s quick reaction to that initial request now has its production lines humming to meet the high demand for face shields.

“From a business perspective we went from holy cow, what are we going to do, to how can we possibly supply all of this fast enough to meet the demand,” said Tom Garrett, president of Total Plastics. “We’re producing over 100,000 a day, and we can’t keep up—basically to the large hospitals, the large medical groups.

The company confirms it is working as fast as possible to process orders from Minnesota, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, and every other state in which it does business. “We’ll get orders anywhere from 5,000 to as much as 200,000, and we’re shipping them as fast as we can,” continued Garrett.