Konica Minolta has closed manufacturing facilities in Malaysia and France because of the coronavirus but the company’s Wuxi and Dongguan factories in China are back in operation and ready to complement production.
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In a statement titled Response to Novel Coronavirus in Konica Minolta Group, the print technology manufacturer outlined its global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which includes extended travel bans, off-peak commuting and remote working.
Tokyo (March 19, 2020) – Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) and its Group companies have been responding to development of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as follows:
Group Employees
The Konica Minolta Group works on maintaining the health and safety of the people working for the Group and their families as top priority, making efforts to prevent the infection from spreading and carrying on with provision of products and services for the customers and society at large, in accordance with governmental guidance, instructions and regulations each country where the Group operates.
In-depth notice about response to infectious diseases has been given to the Group employees. Mitigating risks for infection, the company has been implementing daily commute during off-peak hours and working remotely. These actions are adopted in accordance with business environment of each country, company and business units. In countries and regions where restrictions on transportation are imposed by the federal or local government, the employees work remotely as a rule.
Travels into China has been banned, while travels to other countries have been restrained as much as possible by utilizing alternative tools such as video conference. Since Japan and many countries’ government imposed move restrictions on incoming and returning travellers after their entry, overseas travels are practically being halted. Travels into Japan has also been banned.
Overseas Factories
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| Konica Minolta in Wuxi, China |
For the company’s primary sector, Business Technologies businesses, their production facilities (Wuxi and Dongguan) in China resumed their manufacturing and shipping operations from February 10. The recovery has been swift. The factories have been working closely with each supplier for procurement of parts necessary for production. In China, factories for other Business Units (Dalian, Shanghai’s Songjiang District and Xiamen) have also been operating well.
Under the governmental restrictions until March 31, the Business Technologies’ Malaysian factory (Malacca) has halted operation since March 18. As in the above, the recovering factories in China are going to play a role in complementing Malaysian production.
In France, under the governmental restrictions until March 31, the Business Technologies’ factory in Lorraine has halted operation since March 18. The French factory primarily operates to fill toner cartridges as consumables. Responding to these changes, the Group has been closely working, on global basis, to minimize the supply risks.
Events Hosted by Konica Minolta Group
Maintaining safety of the customers, employees and related parties and preventing infection expansion, events to be hosted by the Konica Minolta Group has been under restraint, with cancellation and postponement.
When the infection started spreading in China in January 2020, Konica Minolta launched Business Continuity Plan (BCP) with China and Japan in the centre. Since then, the world has seen rapid changes and larger effects, including governmental restrictions, in response to the fast spread of the infection in many countries. From this month, the Konica Minolta Group has shifted into a new stage to make and execute the BCP in each country across the world.
Group companies drive agile initiatives in response to their local situation, while headquarters builds up support systems including information sharing. On a close global collaboration, the Group will further focus on minimizing effects to the customers, suppliers and business partners.
Konica Minolta keeps a close eye on the infection development and work on necessary actions swiftly.
