In our last blog we talked about some of the challenges AMS faced when it became clear that we needed to acquire and use personal protective equipment (PPE). At that time it also became clear that we needed to get our employees stationed at least six feet apart.
Work Station Distancing and Sheilds
In early March AMS put in place work station distancing, restructuring assembly lines to accommodate the 6’ rule. We also enforced the distancing rule during breaks and lunches.
Marco Pelaez, Vice President of Operations, talked about the process:
“We assembled two 20 footer electric conveyors together to apply the 6’ distance requirement, using only 12 people. We also advised our clients that we no longer were able to run two lines at the same time as we needed to keep the social distance and to keep our employees safe. We also asked our clients to get a longer lead time to complete all assembly jobs.”
When asked about work station barriers, Marco said: “One of our vendors sent us the link for the barriers and we purchased them right away.” Regarding any loss of efficiency, Marco said, “We did not lose any efficiency as our clients agreed to have a longer shipping window so it was no efficiency loss. Even though there had to be longer turn around times our clients sincerely appreciated the fact that we continued shipping and getting packages out despite the challenges we were facing.”
Marco concluded, “Safety is our number one priority. While quality and productivity are our goals, they will never take precedence over the safety of our employees. Our commitment extends from our executive management team to the entire AMS family. Every day we review the effectiveness of our efforts, and if needed we increase the safety measures and tools that keep our employees protected at work.”
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, AMS had a great safety record of only one lost time injury in two and a half years, and thankfully our safety record during the pandemic has been excellent. With 400+ employees in the organization, we have had very few individual cases, and we are confident that they did not arise from within the workplace.
In our next blog we will talk about installing sanitizing stations and providing additional bathroom facilities.
Click here to access the LA County recommendations for business
