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Establishing Healthful Best Manufacturing Practices in the Time of COVID-19

social distancing March 17, 2020

COVID-19 is here stateside and it got here quickly. Since the news broke of the illness, MuShield leadership has been keeping an eye on the pandemic. Now that it is here, we are taking the steps necessary to be part of the social distancing solution and not the problem. We’ve been proactive in our measures with hope that we can continue on and serve our customers and employees with the utmost care during this time of relative unease.

Specific changes to MuShield’s company policy:

  • Employees that are showing symptoms of the Coronavirus, any other illness, or that have been in direct contact with someone who is being tested for or has been diagnosed with the Coronavirus, have been told to stay home
  • Practice “social distancing” when feasible at home and at work
    • Employees, if possible, should maintain a minimum distance of 6 feet while interacting
  • Limit the amount of personnel needed for internal meetings
  • All employees that can work remotely are urged to do so
  • Employees with close proximity to each other in their workspace have been spread out on the floor to limit the possibility of close quarters contamination
  • Limiting visitors to those who have pertinent and time sensitive business with MuShield
    • We have a strict “no solicitation” policy in place as of right now
  • Educating our employees on best practices to limit the spread of the Coronavirus (hand washing, coughing into your elbow, limit touching common surfaces, use your own pen etc.)

Our policy is fluid, as the near future is very much an unknown. Will our country be totally shut down like what is being experienced in Italy right now? How long would that potential shut down last?

Only time will tell.

A benefit to being a small company of less than 50 people is that we’re able to quickly react to what the government is mandating, or emulate what has been successful at other companies. We also would not be considered a company that would be “at risk” of exposing more to the disease due to our size. Locally and all around the country, movie theaters are restricting the amount of tickets available, bars and restaurants are only offering a to-go service as it pertains to their menu offerings (or delivery), and social gatherings are limited to 50 people max to try and keep the pandemic contained a reasonable amount.

So what does all this mean for manufacturing?

We are still in the dark like many other “hands on” service companies. Businesses in the banking or finance industry can easily work from home since their operating systems are likely cloud based and digital. Schools around the country are setting up an online curriculum for the next month (plus). Unfortunately, we cannot have our employees take the IPG Laser or Cincinnati Hydroform home with them and set them up in their living room while we ride this pandemic out. We hope we got a chuckle out of you there, but, in all seriousness, this is a serious matter…

We hope the result in all that we’re experiencing here is only a minimal disturbance in our day-to-day operation, but again, we really don’t know. Nor will we until it all unfolds. What we do know is that MuShield will take every step possible in our collective power to limit the spread of this disease and we will continue to support our employees and their families, while keeping our customers abreast of our status.

These truly are unprecedented times, but we know that as a company (and our country as a whole), we will come away from this stronger than ever. We’ll be busy armoring our (and your) assets all the while – from our employees to your orders, and beyond. Stay healthy and remember to practice social distancing!

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