Westport business has its sights set on expansion

Jun. 1—(Note: This story was originally published in our annual Progress edition (print only). This is the first time it has appeared online.)

WESTPORT — Nipro Pharma Packaging, 1108 N. Ind. 3, Westport, has been part of the fabric of Decatur County for nearly 30 years. Owned previously by Wheaton Tubing, Amcor and then Alcan, the New Jersey based manufacturer of glass vials is expanding their operation, adding nearly 70 employees and nearly doubling their footprint in the rural Decatur County countryside.

One of three production sites under the American conglomerate Nipro Pharma Packaging based in Millville, New Jersey, the Westport plant is earmarked for progress, as Plant Manager Shane Miller explained.

Miller has been at the Westport plant for 16 years, having started as a supervisor in a rotating shift environment. He moved up through the ranks and speaks intelligently about his operation at the Westport plant, but one can see his pride and passion in how he talks about his team.

"We are a very small portion of the company, but they're starting to put more money into us," he said. "We make glass vials. A whole lot of them."

Nipro American Glass Corporation operates three U.S. manufacturing sites: Nipro Pharma Packaging Tube Draw in Millville, Nipro Westport , and Niproin Chase City, Virginia.

The company's headquarters are located in Osaka, Japan and has additional locations in France, Germany, Belgium, China and India.

Nipro Millville manufactures glass tubing and frit (a mixture of silica and fluxes which fuse at high temperatures to make glass) for the Westport and Chase City operations, using sometimes upwards of 1,200 degree heat applications to draw the glass tubing into smaller glass vials appropriate for the packaging of pharmaceutical injectables.

Because the vials are used to store and transport medications, there are extremely strict quality requirements for the glass vials — requirements that Nipro staff have taken great pride in meeting or exceeding for more than two decades.

The process appears relatively simple, and it's not a strenuous job for the employees, but the extremely high quality of glass vials created requires exacting specification and packaging in an environmentally "clean" room.

With more than 100 employees working in two shifts, Nipro Westport has the capacity to produce nearly 393 million vials yearly, and in 2011 mother company Nipro in Osaka began looking to the west for considerable growth.

"Right now, Osaka is expanding seven plants, trying to make the glass production a bigger segment of the business," Miller said.

In the expansion slated to begin as soon as this summer, the 100 member workforce will expand to more than 180.

The average age of a Nipro worker currently is around 30. Five years ago, the number was much higher, but with employees retiring, and through the insecurity of the pandemic, "it's brought down the average age, I think," Miller said. "And even though we have great growth planned here, we're still pretty laid-back."

As for the management style there at "the jewel in the Nipro America crown," Miller believes in the human approach to dealing with employees, which he attributes to his own experience and growth within the company.

"I had a distinct opportunity of rising up here," Miller said. "Through working at all the stations here, I know everyone and they all have my cell number in their phones. 99 percent of the time my door is open and they know they can come talk to me."

That approach must be working, because Miller said that most of the salaried staff has also "aged up" through the company.

According to Miller, business is booming.

"Right now, the lead time is 70 plus weeks. We just can't make them fast enough," he said.

Construction related to the planned expansion will be starting soon, but there have been hiccups.

With supply chain issues, steel lead time is approximately seven months out, so construction may not actually begin until summer, and a prevailing glass shortage has been an issue since before the pandemic.

Miller admits that training is essential in reaching the higher paid positions of operator, but that position eventually pays $22 per hour.

A mechanic starts around $27 an hour, and inspector/packer begins with a $19 hourly wage.

That being said, Miller admitted that working with glass is an "entirely new ballgame."

"Experience running a C&C lathe is good, but it doesn't correspond with what we're doing. Glass is almost an art," he said.

Employees are fascinated when they first begin, because, as Miller said, it's unlike what most people have experienced. Working with glass really is a whole new ballgame.

THE PLANT FLOOR

Employees wear hearing protection at all times. When one walks into the primary shaping area, the machines move quickly and with a considerable amount of heat.

Hoppers are filled with glass tubing which is fed automatically into a heat shaping machine that takes each vial around at least twice, the first time for shaping and the second to cut the glass off at the right length for the desired bottle.

The shaping machine can move as slowly as 20 cuts a minute and sometimes up to 90.

When heat is added to glass it become brittle, so next each cut vial must be annealed. Annealing is a heat treatment process that changes the physical properties of the glass to increase ductility and strength, reducing the brittle qualities and making it easier to work with less danger of shattering.

Each vial is brought up to about 1,100 degrees to release the stress in the glass. Before annealing, a dropped vial will break. After annealing, the bottle is much more shatter resistant.

In inspection, each vial is checked for the correct dimensions and the correct "look." If passed, each vial is placed robotically onto a belt into the packaging room.

In the "clean" packaging room, the vials are packed and boxed up for shipping.

One would think that in a place that works glass there would be a good number of cut-related injuries, but a lost time incident in January was the first of its kind in 27 years — and it only required three stitches.

Employment at Nipro comes with a good benefits package including company-paid and optional term life and AD&D insurance; short- and long-term disability coverage is also available and also company paid. Medical , dental and vision plans, a retirement savings and 401k package and wellness programs are all included in the package as well.

For hourly staff there are bonuses based on plant output, and Nipro is a tobacco-free campus as well.