Phew - Covid19 again..!!...

Worry

It was peak of the pandemic second wave we were ranging 450K new cases every day. And I was on call with nth Customer, and it was same set of questions, with same high level of anxiety, care, and concern and underling query on how is there supply chain going to be impacted with the . What is happening in India? How are you coping in this environment? and how is the supply chain doing and so on.

Why was the second wave in India, Volumes have been written about no need to explain here….but most definitely it had impact on the mind of people in the US, Europe and most of Asia Pac. The images splashed on the front pages of National and International newspaper gave lot of negative impact and all the customers became hugely concerned.

Back to basic.

Let me admit, Yes, the 2nd wave caught my entire team and me off guard. We woke up as late as early April it was 1st April, when the cases were around 80K new cases / per day, and people were still acting as if the things were normal.

We had to galvanize our supply chain and operation team. Like many companies, we did quick scenario planning, what happens if there are local lockdown/ State lockdown/ National lockdown. Learnings of the past were being applied.

·       Get the Raw Material sufficient for a month in the plant.

·       Assure and assuage the concern of labor force in the event of upcoming lockdown.

·       Do more visual, Covid19 deep sanitization in the plant and arrange the talk.

·       Activate POD System, in case of covid effecting the unit.

It was not easy, we were in inflationary economy and the prices were going up every week, and there was already run on the raw material be it be Steel/PET/PP/Film/Fabric. To get the Raw material in preparation for the event of lockdown was herculean task. A simple thing like non availability of size of thread could stop the full container shipment to US customer in our Plants

 The Inevitable

In next 15 days it was emerged that how underprepared we were, and that more important than production, we needed to save lives. Safety First continued. The local Plant Managers rose to the occasion, having weathered first wave, they were confident to overcome the second one too. The importance of local leadership showing the way from the forefront were demonstrated. Not even once I had to request/direct or suggest that we should keep the production running.

While in first wave due to chaos in first national lockdown we had to keep plant closed for 7-10 days before they were categorized as essentials category. And by the time they were opened most of the labor force permanent/ contract had gone back to their native place.

During the second wave each plant manager knew the drill and they continued to instill confident. We had daily/weekly and 121 cadences not even one plant manager was perturbed, even when lots of people got affected with Covid19. And these plant managers were ably aided by our local HR in the plant and the corporate HR.

And when the daily caseload started hitting in excess of 420K, there were plethora of calls from the my customers which would start in the afternoon and go till late night. And with obvious questions on the health of people and then their Supply Chain, are they going to be affected. 

Even on personal WhatsApp groups were stage wise request for help in sequence

1. Seeking Help to get hospital bed.

2. Help for Oxygen

3. Followed by Help for Plasma

4. Help for Remdesivir.

Most distressingly, I was hearing every day, my acquaintances/ relatives/classmates/colleagues succumbing to this deadly delta variant of Covid19 virus 1.617.1.

The concern from the customers were obvious, so we did set up regular calls 121 and group calls to address specific issues relating to supply of their material. Notably, US with high level of vaccination opening and the demand of our product was surging, Europe was moving forward too. It was only India that was moving in different direction than European and US thus the Supply Chain of my esteemed customers were in peril

These endless calls of the customers had to be very structured and very calibrated address the sensitivity of the country and the people were going through and maintain the optimism that we would overcome the deadly wave. So, the status and the communication to the customers revolved around.

-What National/State/Local Government are doing to mitigate the situations of Shortages of O2/ ICU Beds/ Medicine

- Level of vaccination in the Country.

- Status of the plant where they were being served, this was an easy part as we never stopped any operation.

- And that we will ensure that supply chain is not affected as the things stood on that day.

 Next Step.

Solution to this is only Vaccination/ Social distancing/Vaccine and Sanitized had. We started building up case for vaccination of 100% of the workmen.

Again, with huge amount of pride in my heart, with very little nudge all my Plant Managers and Plant hr, worked took the lead for arranging the vaccination for the people in the plant. As we stand today, we have high 90’s of all our people in the plants are vaccinated with at least first doze.

 Future.

Covid19 second wave did shake country and us up from complacency, and now the talk is already on for combating the third wave, if it happens. The way to go about is vaccinating the large chunk of the population. While India has vaccinated around 180 Million people with first dose, the complete vaccination, people with both the dozes administered, still stands lowly figure of 4%. So third wave will be a reality how we combat and lower the impact is up to each one of us. If we continue to be vigilant and follow the guidelines, then the 3 wave would be lower than the 1st wave and we will not be impacted.

And being eternally optimist, I say, by end of this year we should be have at least 5 out of 103 advance stages of clinical trial approved by WHO and by 2022 around this time there would be glut of Vaccine for Covid19. I am sure, human being would continue to battle the Virus around and am sure there would be glut of vaccination and people will have choices, which one to take and the prices would drop.

10th June 2021