Feature Article
“This is with reference to the current pandemic situation due viral spread of COVID-19 and its impact on the overall market and supply chain. The government has taken steps and lock downs the various districts and state places as the necessary measures. In Gujarat also, Cities like Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodra and Surat are asked to completely lock down by Government. Our company will also be closed from 24.03.2020 to 29.03.2020 in view of this and based on the situation on 30.03.2020 further decision would be taken.”
Investment & Precision Castings LTD
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“Avalon has been very fortunate, we are running all (4) facilities under the Ohio & Wisconsin exemptions based on the CISA categories and letters from our customers, both civilian and government. Our supply chain has only seen (4) suppliers with slight disruptions, but we have alternate sources, so we are good for now. We have all salaried office personnel, other than myself, Kevin Glazier and Olga Piekut working from home in CLE, and we have the other plants revolving critical roles in and out to avoid crowding in the office. We have not seen many orders soften or halted. In fact, we have seen some increase as customers want to assure product is ready when we return to the new normal. Risks that we must mitigate: • Employee health and safety – to date, no one on our team has been quarantined or tested positive
• Building and carrying too much inventory if this goes longer than anticipated We are forecasting approximately a 20% reduction to our forecast due to delays, but we are looking at ways to overcome the setback and anticipate that we can make some of that lost revenue up if we continue to operate. Future disruptions to the supply
chain could prove challenging, but we will only be stocking raw materials at our normal rate so as not to impact the
20 ❘ April 2020 ®
industry. Things that we are grateful for: • Our employees’ and their families’ on-going good health
• The industries support: ICI, suppliers, competitors – all are offering to step up to help out and we are doing the same… We entered this catastrophe in a strong position, and so far our A/R has been uninterrupted. We are anticipating some slowdown and delays in payments, so we are watching our cash closely, but we are grateful for the support of our parent company (Sigma Electric), who has assured us that they would step in if need be.”
David Palivec,
Avalon Precision Metalsmiths –––––––––––––––
“As Geo40 is in our launch timing our biggest threat is loss of momentum as things slow down. We were attending the course at Kansas State and regret it was canceled. We are optimistic about the ICI meeting and our booth to connect with attendees in Anaheim in October. In New Zealand, the country is on complete shutdown for 30 days. Production is closed and the newest plant under construction is now delayed. Otherwise our customers and prospects are having time to do more testing which is good for our goals.“
Ken White, Geo40
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“Our team wants you to know that we are open for business. As we write this, we are busy serving customers, as we have for over seven decades. We are not experiencing any delays or interruptions in our supply chain. Our hours will remain the same (8AM-5PM EDT) and we will continue to ship most orders same day.
Stoner is closely monitoring the impact of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). We hope for the safety, good health and well-being of all of our partners and their families.”
Stoner Incorporated
“In spite of the fact that we are considered an essential business by the nature of our product focus we found it necessary to shut down the manufacturing side for the most part. We realized that the many
employees were truly afraid to keep working within a controlled space and even though were are under mandates from key customers to keep going we made the decision to close for a period and follow the State of Michigan guidelines. This puts us at re-opening full production on 4/13. Personally I will tell you that my
Facebook page is all lit up with messages of praise while at the same time I am taking heat from some of the customers bordering on open threats. This is truly one of those moments in life where there is no single right answer on what to do. I looked at the situation and came to the conclusion that the salaried staff has the most flexibility to be able to job-shift and stagger hours. These are also the folks with the most overall experience so we have offered the most vocal customers a plan where we will still process their products as long as they can identify the most critical parts along with the quantities that are truly needed. So in essence we are still open and products are moving through. It’s not full production but it is business continuance and even though some customers don’t like it they can’t claim that we are stopped.
force people to work against their will. You also can’t
I look at this simply: you can’t risk
their health
and potentially their lives. Doing so is wrong and I believe that the potential liability is far too great. Imagine what would happen if someone gets sick and becomes seriously ill and it’s because some large corporation sent out a letter demanding we maintain full staffing. Who would be liable? I would be and I can’t/won’t do that. Additionally we have to look at the
resource that we are jeopardizing here. We all want to say that our employees are the most valued resource, they have been with us for years and the talent of the group is second to none. How can
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