The coronavirus is on top of everyone’s minds across the world, but especially in China and the Far East. This issue is certainly one the world is watching and hoping to be resolved soon. From a manufacturing perspective, the timing is also extremely challenging. Chinese New Year (CNY) is one of the most traveled time periods for the very large population of China. However, with quarantines and travel bans/restrictions/recommendations, this impact has caused an extension to the holiday. For workers in contract manufacturing factories, this means they may not be returning to work until potentially February 10th or later.
With these ongoing restrictions in place, this situation has created uncertainties in the manufacturing industry, where schedules can run pretty tight. This impact can affect small companies as well as major companies. As a result, it is critical to have a solid manufacturing plan that can account for the variability in the schedule as the situation continues to develop.
It’s tough to say where and when these challenges may occur, with so many unknowns. But due to the complexity of global supply chains, this is definitely something that we and our parent company, Avnet, will be keeping an eye on and hope will be resolved soon.
As much as it is a challenging and tough situation for all involved, especially those directly affected, it’s good to see companies and factories stepping up to support their workers by following health and safety guidelines as well as the technology community providing resources to those affected. Our thoughts are with everyone as the increase in cases and fatalities occur. We’re in constant communication with our team in the Far East to make sure they are safe and are following guidelines as well. Having direct communication helps us understand what’s going on so we can provide direct resources for our customers and the manufacturing community at large.
Stay up to date on travel information here: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/china-travel-advisory.html
If you have any other direct questions related to the topic feel free to reach out: [email protected]
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