From Leftover Fleece to Lasting Impact: A Zero-Waste Manufacturing Partnership That Makes a Difference
Turning leftover fleece into lasting comfort
There’s something about fleece.
It’s warm. It’s soft. And it’s soothing in a way that words can’t quite capture.
For a child in a hospital room — surrounded by machines, harsh lights, and the constant rhythm of uncertainty — a fleece blanket becomes more than fabric. It’s color in a sterile world. It’s warmth in a cold moment. And it’s a reminder that love exists beyond the hospital walls — that the world outside is holding them close, too.
That’s the mission of Fleece & Thank You: to deliver connection, comfort, and hope to children facing illness and to the families who stand beside them.
Building on that mission, earlier this year, we shared the beginning of our partnership in Manufacturing Comfort — how Kinetyc’s team helped scale Fleece & Thank You’s blanket-making kits through precision cutting at our Wixom facility. Since then, the collaboration has continued to evolve.
As a result, that collaboration led to something unexpected: a way to give even the leftover pieces of fleece new purpose — extending comfort, creativity, and hope even further, creating a zero-waste manufacturing partnership.
Finding purpose in what’s left behind
It started with a question from Cindy Surmann, Supply Chain Specialist at Kinetyc:
“What happens to the fleece that’s left over after each blanket is made?”
Those remnants represented opportunity — the chance to extend comfort even further.
Together with Lisa Rosinski, Program Manager, Cindy began imagining how those scraps could keep serving the same mission.
What they discovered was beautiful: even the smallest pieces of fleece could still carry warmth, meaning, and love.
A design full of heart
Fleece & Thank You had always dreamed of creating stuffed animals but hadn’t yet found a way to make it work.
Lisa took that dream to heart.
She designed a single, adaptable pattern that could become a teddy bear, a bunny, or a puppy simply by changing the shape of the ears.
One design. Three forms. Countless smiles.
The idea was simple and brilliant — a way to bring playfulness, color, and comfort into hospital rooms where joy can sometimes feel far away.
From material to meaning
Under the leadership of Engineering Manager Jin Tam, and with support from Electro-Mechanical Technicians Cynthia Coleman and Josh Thornton, Kinetyc’s technical team turned Lisa’s design into a living process–turning a successful manufacturing operation into a zero-waste manufacturing partnership.
With precision laser cutting, they created a flow that ensures every inch of fleece continues the mission:
- Each blanket cut produces a pair of gloves and a scarf.
- Larger remnants become hats and stuffed animals.
- Smaller pieces are reused as stuffing, completing a true zero-waste cycle.
What once sat unused now multiplies impact — in other words, it transforms byproducts into blessings.
And while the final destinations for these hats, gloves, and scarves are still being determined, the intent remains the same: to make comfort go further.
Even the conversation around the stuffed animals — whether they’ll be donated, gifted, or sold to fund more blankets — reflects the same truth: the story of the blankets continues, now in new forms of tangible hope.
A living lesson in adaptive manufacturing
The Fleece & Thank You cell at Kinetyc has become more than a production line. It’s a classroom — a place where new team members learn adaptive manufacturing hands-on.
They practice precision, quality, and flow while contributing to something deeply human.
And see how creativity and compassion can exist in the same process.
They experience what it means to make something that matters.
The heart of innovation
“This project is a perfect example of how innovation and compassion can work together,” said Scott Cieslak, President of Kinetyc. “Cindy’s idea shows how one creative spark can make a real impact — and now, everyone at Kinetyc can be part of that story. It also highlights how our partnership with Fleece & Thank You helps us explore adaptive manufacturing in real time — creating training environments where people can learn, grow, and contribute to something bigger than themselves.”
At Kinetyc, innovation isn’t just about efficiency. It’s about empathy — the kind that starts with noticing what’s overlooked and choosing to do something beautiful with it.
Love, made visible
There’s a rhythm to manufacturing — the hum of machines, the pace of process, the pattern of progress.
But at Kinetyc, there’s another rhythm that moves beneath it: the rhythm of people. Of imagination, compassion, and care.
Every blanket. Every stuffed animal. And every stitch.
Each one carries something unseen — the quiet proof that innovation and love share the same source.
Ultimately, when we learn to see possibility in what’s left behind, we also learn to see possibility in one another.
And in that moment, the work becomes more than manufacturing.
It becomes love, made visible.
