For Alina Ravelo, plant manager for the Asheville facility, the work is personal.

“When I came from Cuba, somebody gave me the opportunity to have a job being legally blind, and I want to give that opportunity to other people as well,” Ravelo said. “Blind people have a lot of capabilities.”

Ravelo immigrated from Cuba in 2013 and began working in the industry shortly afterward as an industrial engineer for Georgia Industries for the Blind. After five years there, she joined IFB Solutions in Winston-Salem as a supervisor before eventually relocating to Asheville. She was named plant manager in 2024, making her the first legally blind person to serve in that role for IFB Solutions.

Today, the Asheville plant employs around 90 people and produces a wide range of products and services. The facility manufactures military jackets and poncho liners, cuts textile components for other IFB operations, and operates a military market packaging department that repackages bulk consumer products for commissaries on military bases. Almost everyone who works in the packaging department is blind or visually impaired.

“We have 240 items in that department,” Ravelo said. “So it’s a lot of different products moving every day.”

The Asheville plant is also preparing to take on an additional production line from Winston-Salem later this year that will focus on military packaging and fulfillment operations.

Ravelo’s industrial engineering background heavily shapes how she approaches plant management and workflow design.

“When I started here, I wanted to understand every process with each of my lines and make the flow better,” Ravelo said. “We were wasting time and movement of people. So I changed the entire layout.”

She said her engineering training allows her to evaluate production flow, warehouse logistics, and layout design internally without relying on outside engineering support.

“Being able to have those tools and that kind of experience really helps me with managing the plant,” Ravelo said.

A significant portion of the workforce at the Asheville facility is blind or visually impaired, with accommodations and adaptive systems integrated directly into the production floor. Raised guide rails help employees navigate independently with canes, while textured markers identify individual workstations. Specialized machine guides and automated sewing systems also allow workers to perform detailed textile work.

Training timelines vary widely depending on the complexity of the task and the experience of the employee.

Ravelo said one of the biggest misconceptions about the organization is that its manufacturing operations are somehow less rigorous or less productive because they employ blind workers.

“Our blind employees, they are very, very efficient, and they really know what to do,” Ravelo said. “We hold them accountable, and we work side by side with sighted people.”

She emphasized that the Asheville facility operates as a competitive manufacturing business despite the fact that IFB Solutions is a nonprofit.

“We have to be competitive and we have to make money,” Ravelo said. “We have to make sure we make our budget and we have money at the end of the year. So that means our blind people are doing a good job.”

Profits generated through manufacturing operations are reinvested into training programs, support services, and additional employment opportunities for blind and visually impaired workers.

The organization also prioritizes upward mobility within its workforce.

“There is a guy here that works in the low vision center that started packaging products, and now he is the director of low vision for the plant,” Ravelo said. 

Ravelo herself is another example of that growth path, having advanced from supervisor to plant manager. Across the broader organization, blind employees serve in leadership positions at multiple levels, including executive leadership roles.

Like many manufacturers in Western North Carolina, IFB Solutions faces ongoing challenges tied to supply chain instability and workforce recruitment.

“Since COVID, there is always something going on with the vendors that we cannot get stuff on time,” Ravelo said. “Then when Helene happened, it was a period of time that we had a lot of problems trying to get trucks to come here.”

Recruitment remains another major hurdle, particularly in Asheville’s high-cost housing market.

“It’s hard to find people that want to move to the area because of the cost of living,” Ravelo said. “And it’s hard to find people that want to work in manufacturing in general.”

To remain competitive, the organization has adopted four-day workweeks and places strong emphasis on workplace culture and employee relationships.

“The people that are with us, when they start with us, they normally stay for a long time,” Ravelo said. “We have people here that have been here for 30 years, 20 years, 15. They really like it because they feel like a family.”

Looking ahead, Ravelo hopes to continue expanding both the workforce and the facility itself. The organization is already renting additional warehouse space and hopes future grant funding could support a larger expansion project.

Learn more at IFBSolutions.com.