People Behind the Product Series: Jai Harden
Jai Harden, a veteran and former chemical specialist, has been with ISAIC since the beginning. After having to leave her job, she was looking for new opportunities. Candidly Jai explains, “I saw Jen on television handing out masks during the pandemic.” Not long after, a qualified staffing company called her about a quality control position.
She applied, interviewed, and was offered the role. During this hiring process, Jai faced challenges with the legal system and received support from Jennifer Guarino, the CEO and her husband- Larry. This left a significant impact on Jai, because they served as a support system for her in a time she needed it most. Soon after that, George Floyd was killed and ISAIC banded together to support each other. Jai reflects, “we are family like cousins and aunts.”
Beyond the familial connection and support system Jai found through ISAIC, she has grown increasingly in her ability to work with digital tools and technologies. Before working at ISAIC, Jai explains, “I really didn’t like computers, but they got me to try things. I never used excel before... but Jen saw something in me. She always called on me and trusted me to do the job and gave me the opportunity to learn.” Within two years, Jai has been promoted five times.
In the beginning, Jai created processes in excel for classifying and standardizing defects for the medical gowns ISAIC produced. Her next role as a circular knitting machinist built on her previous knowledge working to maintain and fix equipment in the army where she “learned computers and machines to ensure equipment functioned properly.” She is one of three people at ISAIC who can fix the circular knit machine.
Jai progressed to lead the charge to train our Detect It machine, an artificial intelligence tool used to eliminate end of line inspection through quality control, how to identify defects on the Carhartt beanie. She says, “I had to teach them (the Detect-It team) about the customers' expectations as well as ISAIC’s standards to benchmark for recognizing defects. I had to teach them so we could teach the machine the criteria within the features we are accepting, like what measurements and the placement of the logo.”
Over a period of 6-8 months, Jai learned the Detect-It program to feed it examples of defects for it to recognize rejects. The solution is now being used in the Carhartt beanie line. Without Jai’s work, the project would not have been successful. The newest machine she is working on is the Henderson automatic beanie cut and flip machine to ensure it is running properly.
In all of her roles, Jai creates and implements processes for quality assurance, identifying garment errors, and how to properly be aware of errors in the final product. Soon, Jai will be certified in ISO9000, which is an “international certification to prove that we actually have quality system management in our process, so we don’t get audited as much because we can prove that we have the systems to reduce risk.” These systems are developed by Jai and are constantly being iterated for higher quality and efficiency standards.
Jai looks forward to continuing to improve her leadership, communication, and problem-solving abilities as she builds on her past professional experience and communication education from Loyola University.