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Tips for Factories During the COVID-19 Emergency

By Endeavor Greece Mar 15, 2020

by Raffaele Mauro, Managing Director of Endeavor Italy

Here is a compilation of tips that might be useful for factories / physical production companies that cannot completely rely on remote working. It is a combination of anecdotical tips from entrepreneurs and some government recommendation.

 Access to factories
  • Must be scattered in more than one slot to allow controls, avoid queues and avoid contacts in the common areas as much as possible (entrances, changing rooms, canteen)

  • Mandatory temperature controls (if allowed by privacy compliance in your country)

  • If temperature > 37,5 Celsius it is mandatory to stay at home

Disinfection
  • Mandatory cleaning hands at arrival and for every change of working station, ideally detergents near doors

  • Disinfect working stations at least once per day and individual responsibility to do this at the end of the shift

  • Disinfect again for every seat change

  • Increase in routing cleaning (more times per week)

  • Daily sanitation of the changing rooms and ensuring periodic sanitization and daily cleaning, with special detergents, of the canteen rooms and the keyboards of the vending machines for drinks and snacks.

Protection
  • Social distancing, at least 1 meter

  • If not possible because of the nature of the work: use protective tools such as gloves, glasses, gowns, masks;

Common areas
  • Access to common areas, including company canteens, smoking areas and changing rooms is contingent (with more shifts and separation between units), with the provision of continuous ventilation of the rooms, a reduced allowed time and with the maintenance of the safety distance of 1 meter between people

  • Principle of separation of shifts between units or departments: Access to the common rooms unit by unit, because if someone is infected only the unit will be isolated without shutting down the whole company

  • Eating: More slots for eating in the canteen to avoid gatherings

  • Disinfect the place where you ate

  • Changing rooms: to be used only if absolutely needed / to leave the jacket / keys.

Shifts
  • Rearrange shifts in order to minimize human contacts and create autonomous, distinct and recognizable groups in order to easily isolate potential cases of infection.

Logistics / procurement
  • Transporters need to stay on or near their vehicle

  • The warehouse worker must use gloves and a mask.

Management of a coronavirus case
  • In the event that a person present in the plant develops fever and symptoms of respiratory infection such as cough, he/she must immediately declare it to the personnel office and will have to proceed with his/her isolation and that of the others present in immediate vicinity. The company immediately notifies the competent health authorities and the emergency numbers for Covid-19 and collaborates in defining any “close contacts”.

What to buy
  • Alcohol & disinfectants

  • Marks and protective gloves

  • Infrared thermometers to check for employees’ temperature at entrance (if allowed by the Government; if not make sure to take proper measures for privacy compliance).

Welfare and holidays
  • Use government welfare (if available) as a priority. Otherwise, periods of vacation arrears not yet used.

Travel
  • All national and international business trips and business trips, as well as internal and training events, to be suspended and canceled. Face-to-face meetings are not allowed.

Special Committee
  • A committee for the application and verification of the rules of the regulatory protocol to be set up in the company with the participation of the union representatives and the internal security managers.