PBN Manufacturing Awards 2021
Manufacturing Champion: Karl Wadensten, CEO and president, VIBCO Inc.
VIBCO Inc. CEO and President Karl Wadensten is a well-known name throughout the manufacturing industry in Rhode Island, and beyond.
He was nominated by the Rhode Island Manufacturers Association Advisory Council and the RIMA board of directors for the PBN manufacturing champion award after they received numerous letters, calls and emails of support from companies in all kinds of industries for his efforts.
“Karl is the poster child for what the manufacturing sector stands for,” said David M. Chenevert, RIMA executive director. “He was just outstanding through the pandemic; he embraced taking care of his employees with the COVID-19 programs he implemented.”
The manufacturers association credits Wadensten with keeping more than 1,600 manufacturers in the state open during the pandemic by using the guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the state, providing the template for the Manufacturing Pledge.
Wadensten was also one of the first to create the blueprints for how to safely operate a manufacturing facility during COVID-19 and conduct employee and visitor screening. He also sourced personal protective equipment for every industry, including hospitals.
“He’s a real strong, vocal individual,” Chenevert said. “He’s not afraid of speaking out and exhibiting that support for our industry.”
Wadensten said he knew he had to do whatever he could to keep his employees safe and getting a paycheck during the crisis last spring.
“To be a true servant leader – our company, myself, our people – you are here to serve customers outside and people inside,” Wadensten said. “Whatever we can do, teach, share, learn, give and see people excel at and do better with that knowledge and information makes me feel full. We help inform them and give them a piece of our DNA.”
Part of Wadensten’s magnetism is that he is excited to share what he’s learned with anyone who wants to know about it. During the pandemic, hundreds of companies reached out to Richmond-based VIBCO to ask about its processes and how it was staying open.
“We stop what we are doing and help them,” Wadensten said. “The highest currency of letting us know we are doing a good job is a ‘thank you’ and watching them implement something we’ve taught them.”
Wadensten also stopped what he was doing and delivered food to people who needed it during the pandemic, as well as drove supplies where they needed to be. Chenevert said he wasn’t at all surprised to find Wadensten helping others.
“He led the charge in helping out smaller companies,” Chenevert said. “He reached out and gave direct assistance. That’s the kind of guy he is. He goes above and beyond what others are doing.”
Wadensten is a prolific supporter of lean manufacturing, a methodology to reduce waste in a manufacturing system while bolstering productivity. He uses lean concepts to motivate and manage his team.
“We are trying to make things operationally better and that permeates through the whole organization,” Wadensten said. “When you walk through the door, your job is to improve. If I don’t ooze that out of my body, then it’s just baloney. You want to follow someone like that. I learn from people all the time. We feed off of each other, so we get better every day.”
Wadensten also credits lean processes to keeping his business successful.
“We’d be so out of business if we weren’t [lean],” he said. “There are so many pressures to make things at higher quality and faster, and we wouldn’t be able to do that without understanding the process. We have happy customers because we don’t have long wait times. If we weren’t efficient, we’d need double the people. We’ve been able to hold our prices for our customers for the past two or three years, and through the pandemic, because we cut out the waste of things and reinvest in equipment and people.”
