Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is spreading rapidly and threatening lives all over the globe. Due to the pandemic, economies all over the world are in deep distress due to disruption in work and operations across all sectors. The present case study was performed for a private Indian manufacturing company that has been affected to a great extent due to this pandemic, as India has the second highest number of SARS-CoV-2 cases after the USA. The deeply troubled company’s current predicament is very complex, as various factors are responsible for the crisis. In order to restore the company back to normal functioning, these factors were studied and evaluated. A diagnostic survey was conducted to obtain data about current working conditions of company. Data from the survey were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively to identify and evaluate the disruptive factors. Based on this analysis, problems in operational activities were identified and appropriate improvement actions (best practices) were proposed. Furthermore, the proposed improvement actions were assessed from a sustainability perspective to check their feasibility. The best practices framework was generalized to a three-step continuous improvement framework oriented around preparedness for future pandemic-like disruptions. The proposed framework may constitute an indication and set of best practices for consideration by other manufacturing companies that find themselves in a similar situation to the analyzed case study.
Highlights
COVID-19 is an infectious respiratory system disease first recognized and described in Wuhan in central China in November 2019 [1], and it was characterized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020 [2]
With the second highest reported number of confirmed cases after the USA [5], the pandemic has taken a toll on almost every aspect of the 1.3 billion population in India
Disruption caused by the pandemic had impact on general operations, availability in demand(orders), insufficient production to fulfil demand, increase in machinein raw materials, availability of transportation, availability of workforce, shortage failures, increase in workload, decline in working hours and the restrictions imposed demand(orders), insufficient production to fulfil demand, increase in machine failby local/central authorities hadin anworking impact on operations; ures, increase inlaw workload, decline hours and the restrictions imposed by Remote working some benefits flexible schedule, working from any location, local/central lawhas authorities had anlike impact on operations; no commute, more time spent with family etc.;
Summary
(13:04 CEST, 18 December 2020), there have been 9,979,447 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including. 144,789 deaths, reported by WHO [3] This is significantly underestimated and very uncertain due to reporting and testing procedure shortcomings, e.g., the number of infections in the US is estimated to be 3–20 times higher than confirmed cases [4]. With the second highest reported number of confirmed cases after the USA [5], the pandemic has taken a toll on almost every aspect of the 1.3 billion population in India. Considering the Indian population and Indian testing, reporting, and healthcare system, this has to be considered to be an underestimate [6]. COVID-19 impacted all sustainability aspects all over the world, including economic, environmental, and social issues.
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