Page 38 Continued from previous page
Most of the company’s customers have been completely understanding
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of these impacts, especially consider- ing New Jersey is one of the harder- hit areas of the U.S. However, some
customers do not seem to understand that business has virtually come to a standstill in the state. “Between wanting to keep my
own employees safe out on the produc- tion floor, the increasing pressure from clients to make their Q2 numbers and my own need to keep production up, I am constantly readjusting our COVID-19 strategy,” she says. Working from home is not a vi-
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able option for those in manufactur- ing. Production requires bodies at a physical location. Intertek Laborato- ries is considered an essential busi- ness, in part due to the firm being a member of the Defense Industrial Base. “As such, not only are we al- lowed to operate, but we need to,” says La Bella. “This has been in- creasingly difficult to accomplish, but we have not stopped deliveries and we do not plan to, albeit at a reduced rate.”
The safety of the company’s em-
ployees has become paramount. In- tertek follows CDC guidelines and practices safe distancing at the facil- ity, even putting together a schedule for staggered break and lunch times. In order to comply, the company
has had to reduce the workforce that is present on a day-to-day basis. “De- spite this reduced capacity — all my employees — are being paid their 40 hours a week with full medical and dental benefits,” says La Bella. Some of the company’s products
are very specific and require fine skills for hand assembly. Because of this, only a portion of the employees have the training to perform specific work processes within the production flow.
Intertek also had to accommo-
date employees who could not come to work because they did not have childcare available. La Bella men- tioned that running multiple shifts is not feasible for her small business. Another impact is the availabil-
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ity of raw materials from suppliers. Some are not considered essential business and others had not been classified as such until recently. One
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of the company’s suppliers was de- layed and even offered to cancel an order. However generous and under- standing the gesture, the materials
June, 2020
are integral to Intertek’s business and the order could not be cancelled. La Bella says, “We have begun
to tell suppliers that partial deliver- ies are acceptable and are encour- aged to meet the full order. It is actu- ally encouraging that other suppliers have not told Intertek that they will need to move out our deliveries.” This situation is fluid and ever
changing. La Bella says that in her 20 years in business she has not ex- perienced anything like it. There have been times Intertek has dealt with component shortages and allo- cation, discrepant parts, and rising fuel costs, to name a few. “Here, the issue isn’t the mate-
rials, here it is the people,” says La Bella. “Keeping my employees safe, while still being able to produce my goods, that is a harder challenge than any shortage I have encoun- tered in the past.” Each week is the same round of
questions with different answers. Which employees will come to work? Who has been exposed to the virus? Does anyone have symptoms, and is anyone asymptomatic? “It goes without saying, but the
health and safety of all my employ- ees and myself are a top priority,” says La Bella. Intertek now operates on a four-day work week, so everyone gets a mental health day, due to the stress of this altered way of life. La Bella concludes, “My focus each day is on what we can deliver, when we can deliver and how we can deliver efficiently and safely.”
Muhammad Irfan, President, Whizz Systems
“At Whizz Systems, our first and
foremost focus has been the safety of our employees, their families and the safety of our community,” says Muhammad Irfan, president, Whizz Systems. “We have been strictly ad- hering to the shelter-in-place guide- lines. Our engineers have been work- ing from home, but running manufac- turing has been a challenge.” Whizz Systems has seen supply
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chain disruption nearly across the board. Many facilities remain closed in most manufacturing hubs, while some partially run to support essen- tial businesses. When the factories do start to fully operate, there will still be workflow challenges to main- tain social distancing. Irfan states that the pandemic
will increase the cost of operation. First, he says, take into the account the reduced number of people in the manufacturing area to minimize den- sity and maintain social distance. Continued on page 40
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