Big manufacturers tighten safety measures

The alarming surge in coronavirus infections, especially in states like Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka, has prompted top manufacturing companies to tighten their safety measures and reestablish stringent protocols on factory premises and shop floors. ET spoke to more than a dozen leading manufacturers including Mahindra & Mahindra, Vedanta, Tata Steel, Ceat, Dalmia Cement, Tata Power, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Lumax, Endurance Technologies and Shriram Piston who are beefing up Covid protocols amid the second wave of infections.

From creating their own biobubble for workers within factory premises, moving factory support staff to work from home, changing shift patterns, conducting rapid antigen and RT-PCR tests for workers, and not allowing any outsider on campus without a Covid-negative report to more frequents sanitisation, passing vehicles through disinfectant spray tunnels and tying up with local private hospitals to organise vaccination camps/booths in their factory premises, manufacturing companies are leaving no stone unturned to ensure safety of workers and smooth running of production.


“The second wave has cautioned us to ensure we step up the number of controls to keep our workers safe, including reducing footfall at sites, holding meetings and other group activities outside where ventilation is good, changing shift patterns and modifying activities to adhere to social distancing, conducting health screening at site entry, sanitisation facilities on our sites and in the communities, and identifying at-risk people (with co-morbidities) and keeping them safe,” said Sunil Duggal, chief safety officer and group chief executive at Vedanta.

Companies with plants in Maharashtra, which has the highest number of Covid infections, are taking extra precautions to ensure that the situation does not spiral out of control and cause production losses. Ceat Tyres, a part of RPG Enterprises which has factories in Nashik, Bhandup, Nagpur and Ambernath, among other places in Maharashtra, is following strict safety and hygiene measures at all its factories and shop floors.

“We are moving most of our support employees in the factories such as HR, finance, supply chain, etc., to work from home again. We do not allow entry to any outsider on the factory premises without a negative RT-PCR test report, all our meetings inside factory are held in open lobby and we are providing company transport to the workers who live in the adjoining areas,” said Milind Apte, senior vice president, HR at Ceat Tyres.