Company Profile
Central Falls, is the smallest and most densely populated city in the state of Rhode Island, with an area of only 1.29 square miles.
However, this small city boasts one of the finest webbing manufacturers in the world – Leedon Webbing Company.
Founded in 1973, Leedon manufactures webbing using a variety of different fibers including cotton, polyester and nylon, among other high-tech man-made materials. Leedon Webbing produces narrow fabric webbings on which customers across a range of industries rely.
Situation
Clients come from several highly-regulated industries including military, automotive and medical. Leedon’s products might be found in seat trim, pull straps, or in tactical gear. Changing safety standards and a greater emphasis on quality led to pressure from one of Leedon’s distributors in 2019: the textiles manufacturer needed to become certified to ISO 9001:2015.
Leedon needed help implementing a Quality Management System (QMS) that would suit the company’s needs and satisfy an ISO registrar’s audit. They turned to Polaris MEP, RI’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership Center.
IMPACTS
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12 skilled worker jobs retained; 1 new position created | |
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Retained sales of $1,000,000; new sales of $100,000 | |
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Investments of $58,000 in plant improvements and equipment |
Thanks to Polaris MEP’s services and expertise, we have been able to attain and maintain our ISO certification. We have changed the way we have done things within our plant. We have better paperwork to track what we do. I can’t put a dollar figure on those things, but I can say it has made us a better company.
John Mulready
Plant Manager, Leedon Webbing Company
Solution
Polaris MEP’s quality experts had worked with Leedon previously, so there was no need to build a QMS from scratch. The effort to prepare for certification would therefore include a quality manual, a more formalized documentation system, an internal audit, and increased quality checks.
This approach placed an emphasis on quality and consistency while incorporating continual improvement activities throughout the facility.
Project Manager Chris Cinieri joined Polaris MEP in December of 2019, just as the project kicked off. He says that Leedon Webbing employees were receptive and enthusiastic as training started. But then the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“It can be hard to maintain momentum with a Quality Management System implementation under normal circumstances,” says Cinieri, “and these were definitely not normal circumstances.”
The Leedon Webbing team not only needed to go through the QMS training and internal audit preparations remotely, the company began producing elastics for personal protective equipment (PPE) such as facemasks and shields — items critical to slow the transmission of COVID-19.
“We are running around like nuts gearing up for running the elastic for face shields,” wrote Plant Manager John Mulready at the time. “Never seen anything like this before.”
Mulready already ran a lean organization and that helped them rise to the challenge. “The commitment and dedication of the Leedon Webbing team was impressive. They always made the time to work on the QMS,” says Cinieri.
Results
Despite everything 2020 threw the team’s way, Leedon Webbing secured their ISO 9001:2015 certification on the first try.
Leedon Webbing has continued to partner with Polaris MEP to retain their ISO certification and continuously improve. Projects have included annual internal preparation, participation in registrar audits, quality coaching, auditing suppliers, and identifying areas for improvement.
“Thanks to Polaris MEP’s services and expertise,” says Mulready, “we have been able to attain and maintain our ISO certification. We have changed the way we have done things within our plant. We have better paperwork to track what we do. I can’t put a dollar figure on those things, but I can say it has made us a better company.
“The fact we contract with Polaris MEP every year to help us maintain and improve our company should provide you with the evidence of the value we feel Polaris MEP provides.”