Company Supply Chain, Production and Policy COVID-19 Updates
March 20, 2020
Below Electrical Industry News Week has collected the latest updates from companies in the industry. The majority are not experiencing major impacts with respect to supply chain and production, but are implementing changes to adhere to the recommendations of the World Health Organization, Health Canada and Center for Disease Control.
This list will continue to be updated as companies update their current situation.
Go HERE to view available resources from Health Canada.
As of March 24: “Proax is considered an essential service, and we are doing everything we can to supply to other essential services, such as: major pharmaceutical, food services, hospitals etc. While we will keep operating with extreme caution, we are committed to supporting the needs of our customers.
As a company, we are taking the below precautions and also continuing to follow the guidance of local health authorities:
- All non-essential staff have moved to an “home office” situation
- Essential staff are practicing social distancing in the workplace
- Sanitization of our offices and high touch areas
- No visitors allowed into our offices
- All meetings & events are being held by conference call
- Continually monitoring the health of our employees
Flos reopened its Long Island warehouse and will be shipping and recieving in a limited capacity. Their New York showroom in SoHo will remain closed.
Fluke
As of March 23, Fluke “remains operational.”
They have implemented the following policies:
• The majority of their team is working remotely;
• Those that are still in their offices have been strictly following guidelines to ensure they stay safe;
• They’ve limited people entering our facilities; As such, they ask that all customers contact them before coming to their offices for pick-ups or drop-offs and visits.
• They’ve increased our sanitation protocols at all of our branches.
Or contact them via: info@Fluke-Direct.ca – 1.800.561.8187 – Live Chat
EarthTronics is monitoring the evolving information with respect to COVID-19, although are currently operating at a normal level. Statement as of March 24:
“We are fully operational and poised to serve the needs of our customers. The EarthTronics team is capable of working remotely or within the office to provide you with the high level of service you have been accustomed to. EarthTronics is following all government guidelines pertaining to our operations. Our team is fully accessible during our normal business hours, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. EST.”
SICK
You can contact SICK through your local representative, by email or phone: 1-800-325-7425.
“All our teams are working for you as usual, partly in the office, partly from home. We will be happy to assist you virtually, by phone or by e-mail at the standard times with the known connection data.
We will continue to do everything we can to meet the agreed service appointments at your location, insofar as travel is generally possible. In addition, we have the option of performing many service and sales functions virtually.”
Fullham
Contrary to previous communications, Fulham has confirmed their ability to ship products from their California headquarters. Although, they will be limiting their shipments, operating with smaller staff groups working in shifts. Their release as of March 23:
Emerson is only expecting minimal disruption to its production and delivery. “We will continue to track any impact, adjust accordingly, and communicate with you to minimize any potential disruption to your business.”
They have implemented procedures for health and safety in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Center for Disease Control (CDC, from frequent temperature monitoring to the provision of hygienic resources and limits on non-essential travel.
Primax are not experiencing any interruption in their stock levels or supply chain, as of March 17 across .
“To date, we have not seen any issues in maintaining proper levels of stock in the 4 warehouses that we have throughout North America. Our plants are in full operation and there has been no interruption in our supply chain. We are however in a dynamic situation and we are working on contingencies should there be a change in world events,” said President and CEO, Bib Smart.
Changes also include:
- Ceasing personal meetings with customers and suppliers in favor of teleconferencing
- Minimizing the number of office staff through implementing a “work at home” regimen
- Cancelling all business travel
- Increased sanitizing of all surfaces
Will be:
- Restricting the public from all Nova Scotia Power sites starting Tuesday, March 17, 2020.
- Limiting our employees’ in-person contact with customers. We are temporarily suspending non-essential in-home and in-business services. Outdoor meter-reading, service connects and disconnects would continue, for example
- Facilitating work-from-home scenarios for our employees who are not required to report to a worksite.
- For employees who must continue to report to our worksites:
- Requesting all employees with flu-like symptoms to remain at home and monitoring those employees through our health and wellness team.
- Increasing our cleaning and disinfecting regimens throughout our facilities, and
- Implementing social distancing practices throughout the business.
- Requiring all employees to cease non-essential business travel and monitoring any personal travel plans, imposing a 14-day self isolation following travel outside of Canada.
EiKO expects there to be some supply chain interuptions. They do have a robust inventory. They will also enhance their website and web portal to make ordering and tracking products online easier.
The Customer Service department is operating as normal with some employees working from home. Orders are processed and shipped as normal.
All their Service Centres remain open, repairs and calibrations can be booked-in as normal.
The majority of Technical Support is working from home and phone lines have been redirected. In the coming weeks they will hold webinars and online technical demonstrations are available.
They are well stocked on the main product lines. Their Supply Chain team continues to monitor the situation and are in constant communication with suppliers.
“We will continue to adapt to these changing, challenging conditions and continue to support you as best we can. As always, thank you for your continued loyalty as we manage through this extremely difficult time together,” said Tim Widdershoven, Marketing Director.
HPS’s current supply chain remains stable. Their facilities remain open, as of March 17th.
Other changes:
- HPS employees are not allowed to travel for business by air for the next 30 days.
- Any non-essential travel by other modes of transportation are not allowed for 15 days.
- Any HPS employees returning from international travel will self-quarantine for 14 days.
- HPS may restrict customer visits within certain jurisdictions in alignment with government and/or health authority policies – we hope to allow most meetings and customer witness tests to proceed using remote meeting tools where acceptable.
- HPS employees are to adhere to the hygiene and social distancing policies intended to limit the spread of COVID-19.
For Convectair orders will be processed as usual. Customer services and after-sales services are operating and working from home.
Other changes:
- Convectair asks to avoid any unnecessary visits to its offices. Please use phone calls and videoconference meetings (Ex: Skype) to reach us.
- Convectair’ s showroom is closed to the public until further notice.
- Convectair representatives are not traveling to meet any distributors or customers however, they remain available to answer phone calls and meetings can easily be carried out over video conference.
If you must go to their offices, they ask you to notify them. Once at our offices, please follow the hygiene measures recommended by public health:
- Refrain from visiting if you have any of these symptoms: fever, cough or flu.
- Wash your hands when you walk into our offices.
- Cover your mouth and nose with the crease in your elbow or with a tissue if you cough or sneeze. Throw away the tissue immediately and wash your hands.
- Avoid direct contact for greetings, such as handshakes and favor the use of alternative practices.
Bender has restricted travel, adopted digital meetings and restricted visits to their locations by external business partners.
They are in constant communication with supply chain partners. “You would be informed at short notice about any changes regarding already promised delivery dates. Your contact persons are still available for you by telephone or e-mail. From today’s perspective, we do not see any bottlenecks on the procurement side and have a good inventory situation for our finished products.”
“Our China plant in Zhuhai is back on 100% capacity and all delayed confirmed open orders are expected to be fulfilled by the end of March. HARTING Zhuhai might be experiencing some delays with external suppliers, which we continue to monitor. To bridge the gap, HARTING continues to manufacture at other HARTING production sites outside China as possible. Other HARTING plants are currently running smoothly, including our USA Elgin plant.”
Lead times and stocking information from distribution partners can be found HERE.
International travel bans have resulted in reduced cargo space, they may experience delays as a result.
Banner is in close contact with supply partners to ensure service is not interrupted.
CSA will continue to operate testing labs and all non-lab staff will be working from home. They have temporarily suspended factory inspections, special inspections, and field evaluations.
“Consistent with many companies around the world, we are not visiting customer sites – nor are we accepting visitors at CSA Group facilities during this period.”
As of March 23: Access is restricted to their counters and offices, you can still place orders via phone, emial, or text. Material can be picked up at the branch door or be shipped via company van/courier. Special arrangements can be made if necessary.
- The Graybar Canada Pandemic Team meets daily to address the questions and concerns of our employees and customers.
- Our sales force is working remotely and is respecting the COVID-19 policies of our suppliers and customers. Customer and supplier communications are now being conducted via phone, email and text.
- To further support Social Distancing we have implemented a temporary Building Access Restrictions policy. This will help to keep both our employees and customers safe.
- We continue to follow the recommended guidelines set out by the Government of Canada to restrict all non-essential international and domestic travel.
- Extra attention is being given to the cleaning of all branch common and office areas.
Contact your local branch for order contact information.
“As a distributor, Sonepar Canada does not manufacture any of the products that we sell and has therefore no immediate control over continuity of products we supply. The full impact of COVID-19 on the supply chain remains unclear at this point. That said, we remain in contact with the vendors and manufacturers from which we supply product from, as they monitor and assess the situation and, when possible, reconfigure their manufacturing and supply chains to minimize potential disruption in the supply of finished goods.”
“We are asking the important questions, including those related to plant capacities, potential risk of longer lead times, logistical/transportation impacts and overall supply chain disruption. We are also increasing and managing stock to better help us face the possible challenges ahead.”
Rockwell Automation
“In addition to prioritizing shipments for our key suppliers with operations in the affected regions, we have secured additional freight capacity, planned for overtime across our manufacturing operations and continue to expedite critical customer orders. Given the fluid nature of this situation, there may be some unanticipated impact.“
“Siemens has a Business Continuity Plan for the Siemens Digital Industries (DI), and Smart Infrastructure (SI) in place which ensures business continuity as much as is reasonably possible under the current circumstances. In this context, specific measures have also been defined to protect key business-critical functions, such as corporate functions, sales and service.
With respect to the supply chain management process, we are in regular contact with our suppliers and logistics partners to discuss measures in case we should experience supply chain disruptions that may impact availability of materials, labour and logistics.
Siemens has further implemented the following specific measures:
Internal Suppliers: We have contingency plans in place for the management of the Siemens manufacturing facilities.
External Suppliers: Processes are in place to establish risk rating of suppliers and their criticality, which is managed by our supply chain teams. This is a well-established approach for Siemens due to the geographic”
For further questions and information, please contact your Siemens representative.
Signify
“We have implemented travel restrictions to protect our employees and customers from exposing to risks related to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). This means that we could be hampered in fulfilling our performance obligations under service arrangements if travel to customer locations is disrupted.
The full impact remains unclear with regards to components supply, manufacturing and transportation. In case the delivery of products and/or the fulfilment of services gets impacted, leading to suspension or delay thereof, our Sales team will contact you promptly.”
Southwire
“At this point, we have not seen any major interruptions to our business as a result of COVID-19. We continue to take steps to mitigate any potential impact to Southwire and our customers, including investigating alternative sources of supply and assessing our safety stock of inventory. Currently, we believe that any impact we might experience in the coming weeks due to tightness in our supply chain would be limited to certain isolated product lines.”
Stelpro aren’t currently experiencing major impact to their operations, however recognize that may change as the situation evolves.
“As we are well aware that heating season is still underway, our service and repair department remains open. We’ve also set up special hygiene measures to ensure the safety of our employees and visitors.
Despite the many challenges before us, we are working to maintain our operations and deliver on our customer promise. Many of our employees can work from home, but it’s a far different and bigger challenge to maintain our production level while ensuring the health of our on-site workers. At the moment, we don’t foresee any major impact on our operations. However, this could change as the situation evolves.”
Northern Cables
At this time, Northern Cables’ supply chain of North American sourced raw materials has not been compromised, therefore we will continue manufacturing operations at all three facilities.
Their office also remains open in order to process your inquiries by phone and email. Shipping and receiving departments are also busy receiving new raw materials and fulfilling orders.
“As of [March 18], all of our manufacturing facilities and distribution centers are operational. We have put in place policies to enable as many people as possible to work remotely. We have also established procedures to help protect the employees who work in our production facilities.
We understand you serve customers who operate across many industries all over the world and are working diligently to help you continue to deliver outstanding service to your customers.
We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 developments and will update you if we anticipate future disruptions in production or distribution.
We recommend that all distributors review current inventory levels to be certain they have adequate stock of high running products.”
“Our global supply chain network including our manufacturing sites, while challenged, continue to operate and allow us to fulfill our customer orders. Our customer account and sales teams are continuously reviewing orders to identify impacts on delivery and communicate those quickly to customers.”
Panduit has enacted several preventive and precautionary measures to ensure they sustain trust throughout this global event:
- We are coordinating the management of capacity in all our global facilities to sustain supply levels of impacted products.
- We continue to work with our suppliers to minimize disruptions to raw materials supply.
- We continue to monitor global shipments through customs and ports to expedite product availability and secure container capacity.
- As global conditions change, our manufacturing and warehousing sites are prepared to initiate plans to retain operational resilience and retain trust for our customers and stakeholders.
- We continue to update delivery dates on customers orders in our system and will continue to communicate these updates as new information becomes known.
IPEX
Plants continue to operate as of March 17.
Supply chain on incoming raw materials remains intact, and machines still operating. All distribution centers and rep warehouses are open and continue to operate.
If your company typically picks up from distribution centers and / or rep warehouses, allow more time due to the possibility of reduced staffing levels at the facility.
ABB
Go HERE for ABB’s March 16 press release regarding COVID-19.
Are able to mitigate their supply chain and production disruptions and continue to monitor the situation.
“You can help us best serve you by:
- Placing your orders as early as possible and providing requested ship and delivery dates for your ordered material. Giving us visibility to your orders early can boost the likelihood of product availability and provide us the opportunity to offer you alternative product solutions if required.
- Staying in regular contact with your Acuity Brands sales manager or representative regarding potentially impacted products and upcoming orders of such products. With regular and frequent communication, we feel we can provide you with viable, available solutions to meet your lighting and lighting controls needs.”
Brady
Brady does not anticipate any delays to production or fulfillment related to the impacts of the Coronavirus outbreak. They are monitoring the situation closely.
