The Coronavirus Crisis: What Manufacturers are Saying – and Doing

For as much as the coronavirus has dominated the headlines and infiltrated the lives and actions of, well, nearly everybody around the globe, the pandemic’s origins are relatively recent. The first hints of what was to come emerged in late 2019 and, indeed, the disease caused by the virus didn’t even have a name until mid-February when the World Health Organization officially dubbed it COVID-19.

The newness of the disease is important to any conversation. Because the world is still learning about its effects, researching possible cures and simply getting a grasp on the enormity of the coronavirus’s reach, everything is fluid. Facts change daily. How best to mitigate its spread is up for constant modification. “Should we or shouldn’t we?” is the topic of the day.

These questions and concerns are widespread – including among U.S. manufacturing. IndustryWeek has been robustly reporting on the impacts of the coronavirus on our manufacturing audience, as well as how this community has responded to the challenges issued by the disease. We’ve written scores of stories and no doubt will greatly add to those numbers before things return to “normal.”

Recently we asked our audience to tell us even more about how they are being impacted by and addressing the coronavirus. We sent out a survey to our IndustryWeek audience as well as to the manufacturing readership at sister media properties EHS Today, New Equipment Digest and Material Handling & Logistics. Our idea was to collect specific tactics and practices manufacturing leadership is using to maintain safety and productivity, to share ideas that perhaps your facility had not considered, and to remind everyone that we are all learning as we go.

We conducted the survey from April 13-20, via email and social media requests. After light cleaning of the data, we counted approximately 465 completed surveys. Here is what we learned.

Continue reading….