Securing continued production and global supply throughout the Shanghai lockdown was a significant challenge for manufacturers. Visitech’s factory team heroically solved it by volunteering for ten weeks of living in their offices without seeing their families and with limited supplies. The team’s volunteer effort evaded a potential crisis in the delivery of products to customers.
The team members are no strangers to long office hours – but staying at work for more than two consecutive months without family contact is not for the weak-hearted. The work effort marathon eventually reached its finish line on June 17th, as the Shanghai team was re-introduced to normality. They had every reason to celebrate.
True heroes
“They are true heroes in dedication and commitment to overcome all the challenges during this 10-week lockdown. It hit manufacturing facilities the hardest,” said Gary Gao, managing director of Visitech Shanghai. The closed-loop solution allowed workers to continue manufacturing operations at the factory. Still, restrictions required them not to leave the factory site for the length of the lockdown period – which meant working and living on-site for the team, 24/7. Having moved to new and upgraded facilities in January, the brand-new factory, fortunately, provided proper, modern kitchen facilities and comfortable rooms for everyone to sleep in, separately.
Consistent deliveries maintained
While completing all customer orders successfully, the procurement team secured food and raw materials from a limited supply to the group, ensuring energy levels were kept pristine – in true Visitech fashion.
Logistics challenges
The logistics team struggled with every kind of transport challenge during the lockdown, as the Covid measures affected the capacity of the world’s busiest port – Shanghai – by diminishing capacity, as well as trickle-down effects from lack of truckers and reduced supplier capacity. The Visitech team, however, explored all possible measures, re-routing, and diversions to get finished products successfully delivered to customers internationally.
All orders delivered – on time
“Thanks to their effort and sacrifice, we could deliver all orders to our customers on time. They did extraordinary work for our business and customers,” said Gao. As management saw the Covid-19 outbreak in early March, analyzing trends and discussing strategies topped the meeting agendas. According to Gao, no one expected Shanghai to be locked down at city level. “We agreed that some orders would be delayed if some engineers were locked at home for a few days. Then our production team volunteered to reside in the office to ensure production – and our procurement team started preparing all the necessities for that immediately. We started closed-loop production a week before lockdown!”
– Humbled and grateful
Words were insufficient when the board of directors expressed gratitude for the heroic efforts that led the global company and its customers harm-free through a potentially devastating crisis. A bespoke “Visitech Hero” award accompanied a personal thank-you letter from Chairman Øyvind Tafjord for each Shanghai team member during their well-deserved celebration. “Their extra effort will be remembered for the future,” said Tafjord.
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