Chennai Inc takes tentative, cautious steps to reopen

The permission to open up in a phased manner has offered them a glimmer of hope, but the industrial units are cautious as they take each day as it comes. 

Saravanan Panneer Selvam, GM, Grundfos India, said “We have started our operation with minimum work force since Monday morning. The employees who are mainly from operation department have been brought in through the approved mode of transportation. The standard operating procedures (SOPs) are followed, with social distancing not only in the work place but also in the dining area.”

S Mahesh Anand, president of the decorative division of Nippon Paint (India) said his unit was managing the regular operations efficiently though there are challenges that come with working under current circumstances. “Despite the resulting slowdown in terms of managing daily processes and people, we are rebooting steadily and are confident that our business operations are aligned to meet the market demands.”

VG Sakthikumar, MD, Schwing Stetter India is another senior executive who is happy to reopen the facility and commence operations. “We are hopeful that the business will now begin to recover gradually.”

Companies like Green Trends see the COVID-19 as an opportunity, banking on quality as the key driver. S Deepak Praveen, CCO, Green Trends, CavinKare, said, “There is a general apprehension among consumers with regards to salon visits, especially due to the recent news on few barber shops being sources for virus spread. We strongly believe post-lockdown consumers would lean towards branded salons due to their worry on hygiene and safety being low at local salons.”

Alserv, a non-real estate based assisted living service provider, has been helping seniors in the pandemic times by door delivery through a technology-powered platform and a call-center help desk. “Recently, we saw a five-fold increase in traffic on our platform,” said a statement from the company.

Manufacturing companies such as India Cements, Daimler Commercial Vehicles and Hyundai have also begun their operations in the industrial corridors of Chennai.

N Srinivasan, MD, India Cements, highlighted the fear factor prevailing in the factory locations that has made the re-starting process difficult. The pandemic has taught many lessons, he said, emphasising on new adaptation methods. As it has brought to fore the need for fewer people, the cement behemoth is forced to re-evaluate the deployment of its people. Srinivasan added that the lack of data made it difficult to assess the demand. With people focusing on necessities now, consumption of cement would have to take a backseat.

Redesigning processes by making assembly lines conform to the physical distancing norms and using apps to take care of this are some of the innovative methods being adopted by the companies.

Satyakam Arya, MD-CEO, Daimler Commercial Vehicles, opined that a hybrid world would emerge till the vaccine was developed. Anticipating some losses in the initial phase of rebooting, he said reallocation of manpower on assembly lines, new layouts and resequencing have become the order of the day. Daimler has created an app that would provide violation alerts when it comes to physical distancing between workers.

Meanwhile, Hyundai has rolled-out 200 cars on first day of production restart at its plant at Sriperumbudur. The Korean major commenced production operations on May 8.