PRODUCTION, PLANNING AND

CONTROL:

IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON OUR SOCIO-ECONOMY

SYSTEMS AND STRATEGIES TO REFORM
 ABSTRACT
The corona virus pandemic has ravaged the world, and its impact has spread
virtually all sectors of society. The next wave of the COVID-19 shock will trigger
another or more recession in many countries, with annual growth projected to fall
below recessionary thresholds. The global production and supply chain system is
mostly disrupted due to widespread of the corona virus pandemic (COVID-19).
Most of the industrial managers and policymakers are searching for adequate
strategies and policies for revamping production patterns and meet consumer
demand. Most of the prominent economies around the world enforced a total
lockdown, and the focus has since shifted to surge in demand for essential
products and services. This has led to a decline in demand for some nonessential
products and services. Some companies have temporarily shuttered their services
in response to government restrictions or falling demand, but others are facing
significant increases in demand for essential supplies. Many multinational
businesses have reduced output of facilities and or suspended operations in
affected regions, as travel restrictions and mandatory social distancing and home-
working have been invoked. The resulting hit to global income as compared with
forecasts for 2020 and 2021 will be enormous. The situation will be more
uncertain for developing countries across different income categories that are
struggling with unsustainable debt burdens. Governments should implement
support programs to avert these difficulties. In addition, better waste
management and commitment to climate change must take center stage to
reduce the environmental impacts of COVID-19 on countries and the world.
Industry that manufactured various types of goods which involves designing,
processing, and preparation of products from commodities and raw materials and
including automobile, chemical, food and beverage, machinery, electronics, etc.
are badly affected. As a result, the government across the countries primarily
focuses on encouraging the manufacturing sector along with the other services
and sectors of economy.
 INTRODUCTION
The corona virus outbreak is, first and foremost, a public health threat, but it is
also, and increasingly, becoming an economic threat. In addition to its significant
social impacts and human dimension, the outbreak is a major economic shock.
The spread of the virus is disrupting global supply chains, causing pronounced
volatility in financial markets, creating consumer-demand shocks, and generating
a wide array of adverse impacts in critical sectors such as transportation and
tourism. The pandemic situation arises the demand for rare production items
such as ventilators, gloves, face shields, masks, and sanitizers at a high rate.
During this pandemic era, some of the manufacturing giants such as General
Motors (GM), Ford Motors, etc turn their production system to support the need
of society in terms of manufacturing ventilators. In India 3 companies namely
Alpha Design Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Bharat Forge Ltd and Medha Servo Drives Pvt.
Ltd. were selected and licensed to manufacture ventilators. Various local heavy
weight manufactures and Medical were also took part in the initiative towards
production of Hospital & Health-Care cleaning equipment including Sanitizer
Machine and Equipments, Automatic Sanitizer Dispenser Sanitizer tunnels etc
These products were installed in Hospitals, offices, Public places like entry-exit
terminal at bus stand, Railway stand, Airports, shopping malls etc. Therefore, a
flexible manufacturing system is required to fulfill the requirement for such
necessary items. National government institutions, manufacturing organizations,
health institutions should be prepared in advance to tackle the pandemic
situation to control the production of essential and nonessential items during a
pandemic. This means that they should have sufficient buffer plans to address the
availability of life saver stocks such as ventilators, vaccines, sanitizers, masks, face
shields etc.
The duration and depth of the crisis will depend on 2 questions:
1) How much further and rapidly will the virus spread?
2) How effective will policy makers be in mitigating the damage to our physical
and economic health and well-being?
The uncertainty surrounding each of these questions is adding to people’s sense
of anxiety. Pandemics are a serious wake-up call for Supply Chain professionals
and companies with global operations to develop several alternate sourcing and
manufacturing strategies in different regions of the world to mitigate the risk
from such adverse conditions.
 OBJECTIVES
To identify the opportunities and challenges of workforce management based on
Production, Planning and control, new digital approaches can accelerate the
capability-building process and allow employees to develop new skills remotely.
The areas of focus that can help navigate the transition from initial crisis response
to the next normal are :

i) Protect the workforce.

ii) Manage risks to ensure business continuity.
iii) Drive productivity at a distance by introducing work from home process where
applicable.
iv) Organize digital literacy campaigns for the workers to enhance productivity.
v) Increasing the productivity of HealthCare related goods like ventilators,
vaccines, sanitizers, masks, face shields, and others households hygiene products
like soap, body-wash etc.
vi) To increase the sanitization works in the work places.
vii) Protect the workers and employees by providing certain Covid-aid, health care
checkup camps.
viii) Working with 25-50% workforce (depending on the situation) at a time.
ix) Provide transportation to factory workers and employees to avoid further
infection.
x) Conducting motivational speech programs to boost employee morale .
 METHODOLOGY
Manufacturing (Production, Planning & Control) is the backbone of all nations. A
concerted effort towards attracting substantial investments for the creation of
large manufacturing facilities, combined with a sharp focus on efficiency and
economies of scale, can help Indian manufacturing become globally competitive.
Production planning and control is a predetermined process that plans, manages
and controls the allocation of human resource, raw material, and machinery to
achieve maximum efficiency.
Business planning during the COVID-19 pandemic should address critical elements
of the business. The objective is to protect the cash flow and employees. But it’s
also an opportunity to identify innovations and new ways of working that may not
have existed before.
This is the time when understanding the depth of the situation and turning it
favorable for the business is all that matters to let the process easier in these
difficult times.

Here are a few methods to stay connected and keep the business running during
the shutdown. These are as follows:-

1. Communicate transparently with your customers

we are all in this together, so the ideal way is to stay transparent with your
consumers about what your business is going through. Communicate with
customers to understand their perception of the product/solution offered by you.
2. Maintaining healthy relationship with contracted parties
It is understandable that it might be difficult to pay out vendors/suppliers during
the lockdown. However, it would be helpful to give your vendors, suppliers,
landlords’ etc. sufficient notice in case there is going to be any delay in payments
so that they can also be prepared and there is no bitterness in this already difficult
time.

3. Managing employees & related optimization

For large companies considering layoffs, the primary option should be to cut the
salaries of the higher paid exec/employees to try to retain the people who can
least afford to lose their jobs employed. However, when the time comes to make
the tough call, we should do it with compassion look out for government
directives, and offer extra compensation as and when required.

4. Keep Your Team engaged

your team relies on you so keep them updated about every development. It is
company’s responsibility to keep the team members engaged and stay connected
with them through video conferencing tools like Google-meet, Zoom, Google
Hangouts etc. It is very important to maintain high spirits within the team and
understand the general mood within your remote workforce.

5. Communication to stakeholders
Consult with your investors or external experts to plan the right form of
communication with stakeholders, most importantly customers and employees.
Have an honest conversation on the situation and its impact on your business
with your entire leadership team. Any negative message should be delivered with
utmost empathy along with transparent reasons.

6. Follow demand disruption patterns

Manufacturers would need to quickly identify those products and services that
would impact stabilization and growth, balance the associated supply chains, and
reorganize the critical skills which are needed to meet near and long term
demand. They would need to devise work strategies to collaborate with partners
and customers.

7. Create a sustainable manufacturing ecosystem

The Manufacturing operations ecosystem relationships typically are impacted the
most during massive market disruptions, such as a global pandemic.
Manufacturers would need to account for the implications of COVID-19 and the
respective contract provisions for each critical ecosystem player, including raw
material suppliers, contractor companies, co-manufacturers, and logistics
providers. Finally, review contracts to determine if any pre-existing obligations
need to be changed in light of the current situation.

8. Use advanced digital capabilities

one of the most important aspects of responding to sudden change is to ensure
the digital enablement of the manufacturing operations ecosystem. This can help
build manufacturing resilience across a whole range of functions, including
demand and supply scenario analysis, labor and skill identification and scheduling,
partner ecosystem relationship collaboration, and network analysis.
Manufacturers who are doing this today, are already witnessing exceptional
success by accelerating digital capabilities to envision, design, and implement a
holistic digital strategy across the factory floor. 

9) Risk Assessment and mitigation: This includes key input materials, critical
employees and skills, essential equipment, assess suppliers and look for
alternatives. Consider employee cross-training to hone essential skills and
contingency plans if employees get sick. Have a plan and contingency in place for
essential equipment and technology.

10. Secure workforce safety and flexibility

COVID-19 has resulted in creating significant workforce availability, safety, and
productivity challenges. Manufacturers would now need to be prepared with
practical solutions to overcome the inefficiencies as a result of this. A decline in
productivity and quality along with health and safety concerns at worksites are
the most common issues today.

Therefore, it is imperative to have a “worker-first” mindset that uses distancing

protocols and unique personal protective equipment requirements for the safety
of workers and their families. Finally, optimizing crewing schedules and
implementing a remote working policy that balances safety and business
continuity, can help address the COVID-19 response plan.
 FINDINGS
From the above discussions we have observed the impacts and accordingly
these are the results:-

1. Unavailability of Raw Materials

Supply chains should be shifted from globalized to regionalize. We should switch
from global trade partners to local vendors to obtain a continuous adequate
supply of raw materials needed to carry out manufacturing processes. In addition,
the larger Raw material stock will ensure continuity of production in the case of a
lockdown imposed by governmental authorities. Switching to regional suppliers
can help to solve problems due to restrictions imposed by local authorities in the
form of lockdowns and closing of international borders as the material movement
will be much easier in regional supply chains.

2. Unavailability of Transport
The supply of raw materials from regional vendors would be convenient during
crisis periods, ensuring continuous manufacturing activities. In addition, using a
regional supply chain will avoid the need for international transportation of
supplies and goods, altogether side-stepping this large obstacle. Autonomous
smart vehicles can serve as transportation in these times without imposing any
threat to community safety.
3. Unavailability of Workforce
Accommodation of workers nearby the factory, ensuring safety in the workplace,
improving skill and morale of workers and automating Production operations. It
would be beneficial safety-wise, as there would be less chance to spread disease,
because workers would have less contact with outside surroundings. Cross-
training workers could be perfect in these times of crisis, as there would be
multiple workers to carry out a specific job.

4. Surge in Demand
To keep up with demand surges in market, there needs to be better visibility and
end-to-end transparency of goods in supply chains. Advanced software and big
data analysis will help to forecast the consumer projections, and production will
be planned accordingly, hence reducing insufficient production or
overproduction.

5. Increased Machine Failures

Preventative maintenance will reduce machine/equipment failures and
increase the life of machines . Standardizing operations would ensure less
downtime, consistent quality, and optimum production. With a standardized
operations manual, workers need to follow the checklist designated at each
workstation, which would reduce machine/equipment failures and reduce the
need of opinions from specialized personnel at every instance.

6. Increase in Workload
Automated machining will reduce the workload of employees significantly,
as it will be sufficient to just monitor and calibrate the systems. Proper hardware
and software would enable employees to perform tasks much more easily and
efficiently. In addition, without knowing goals and objectives, employees can
spend a substantial proportion of their workday pursuing the wrong objectives,
which can decrease productivity and profit.

7. Restrictions Imposed by Government

Reorganization of supply change from international to regional supply
Chains can help to solve the problems caused due to restrictions imposed by local
authorities in the form of lockdowns and closing of international borders, as the
material movement will be much easier in regional supply chains .Reorganization
of the workplace is mandatory in accordance with governmental guidelines. In
addition, reorganizing the workplace will improve the safety of workers and the
workplace, which is vital in contemporary times to ensure continuity of
operations.

EXAMPLES AND FACTS:- Let’s take a practical example of my hometown JHARGRAM

(W.B).
Due to the sudden surge of COVID-19, Govt. imposed lockdowns and curfews
which were economically degrading for numerous people. Various types of Goods
production were limited. So, shops like Sacks, Small Grocery & Stationery shops,
Tailor shops, FMCG dealership shops etc were the worst hit along with education
and education related activities.
Due to this deadly virus, WHO and Ministry Of Health (MoH) published guidelines
how to stay safe by using Masks, Gloves, Face shields ,Sanitizer spray, soap along
with others healthcare products. So production of these above goods in heavy
quantity was made rapidly.

Following are the scenarios seen during this pandemic:-

i) With the start of unlocking process, Shop owners, merchandiser, dealers were faced problems
in availability of their regular products due to limited production and transportation problem. So
to survive they start procuring of Covid kits, HealthCare products like Masks, Gloves, Face
shields, Sanitizer spray, soap etc.

ii) Education process have entirely gone online mode by digital application like Google –meet,
Zoom, YouTube etc resulting in the increase of sales of Laptops, Mobiles, etc. Most of the
Pharmacies and other medical services (consultation) gone online through mobile apps and
over a phone call as well.

iii) As everything has become online and internet driven, consumption of data has increased
manifolds, which has again increased the commendability of telecom industry, boosted the
sales of internet packs, sim cards, thus upgrading the sales of small scale shopkeepers.
iv) Like the all other aspects, restaurants and hotels have also taken the hit. To survive eateries
have also gone online, be it tieing up with online food delivery apps or getting the food delivered
by themselves by calls. This has boosted up the need for delivery boys, which has again created
a space for jobs.

v) One innovative step that has been taken up by some local food stalls, they are allowing their
cooks to prepare food at home, and the delivery boys collect them from there and distributing
at the desired addresses.

vi) Local authorities along with Local clubs and committee organized workshops for stitching
Cotton Masks which was actively attended by members at community centers (economically
weaker sections specially women) and from Self Help Groups and those masks were sold at
nominal rate so that it is easily affordable.

vii) House Hold services like sanitary works, wiring, repairing of home appliances, personal
grooming, tailoring etc have gone online. Thus local household door to door services are in
demand more than earlier. Also grocery and stationery seller have started their sales over the
phone call, social media (mostly whatsapp).

So, this is the way people can somehow manage the situation smoothly and able to adapt the
digitization.
 RECOMMENDATIONS

From the above examples and facts, it is deduce that Risk can be seen as the
“expected outcome of an uncertain event.” Important dimensions of risk in global
SC are probability and impact of losses, speed, and frequency. Two of the
common external risks associated with SC disruptions are supply and demand
uncertainties. Hence we have to make a plan by which we can handle those in the
current pandemic situation.

During the planning and implementation of improvement actions proposed in the

previous section, the following 3S framework should be considered.

Survive
Most important aspect of this phase should be responsiveness to tackle problems
and ensure continuity of business hand to hand with health safety of all the
stakeholders.
Stabilize
Companies should look to stabilize and improve productivity and reduce losses by
getting used to new normal.
Sustain
By adopting best practices and continuously improvement, businesses should be
able to control the processes inspite all the disruption caused by pandemic.
Following are the recommendations
i) The global and national production policies should be revised. The government
needs to support the production system by providing adequate incentives in
future policies.
ii) Current production facilities should shift to digital manufacturing and promote
the digital technologies such as AI, 3D printing, Robots, Cyber-physical systems,
Digital manufacturing, Block -chain, etc. for production of goods.

iii) A strong coordination mechanism is required among and between

stakeholders such as government, manufacturers, medical institutions, NGOs, and
possibly military agencies to better control the infection rate of such pandemic.

iv) The present pandemic situation would boost the application of digital
manufacturing in the healthcare, FMCG sector, Heavy Engineering ,Online
education, online finance consultation, digital law firm etc.

v) The pandemic control can be handled with the adoption of a robust

information technology management system to share the real-time production
and consumption patterns.

Therefore, governments and central banks should implement support programs

(extended unemployment insurance and benefits to vulnerable populations, credit
support for SMEs) to avert protracted difficulties. The shock to labor supply in
each country should be managed in a manner that does not leave a post-COVID-
19 world more disastrous. It is recommended that stimulus packages from
governments should target businesses, especially SMEs (which employ the
majority of the labor force in developing countries). Doing so will help these
businesses to survive this crisis and significantly reduce the number of employees
that will be left jobless.
 CONCLUSIONS & LIMITATIONS
Conclusion
According to my point of view, restrictions imposed by local authorities have had
the highest impact on operational activities, followed by unavailability of
transport and unavailability of workers; after that, scarcity of raw materials and
shortage in demand were reported to have highest significance. In addition,
increased workload and decrease in working days have had significant impact.
Finally, increase in machine failures, overproduction, and insufficient production
to fulfill demand, respectively, have had an impact on operational activities.

The most important result of this study is the 3S generalized framework for the
manufacturing industry. The framework might look arbitrary, but it is important
to acknowledge the fact that the manufacturing industry is very vast. This above
discussions contributes to ascertain and construct a structured framework to
formulate the possible Strategies. In current situation while managing the
vulnerability of this major outbreak event COVID-19, the Production, Planning &
Control (PPC) of any industry need to continue increase the versatility as well as
the flexibility of their respective supply chains (SC) in order to improve economic
as well as social sustainability.

The discussion also identifies the top benefits associated with work from home
like online work, tele-work, which are the flexible schedule, working from any
location, no commute, and more time spent with family.

Limitations
Analyzing the limitations of the current study, it has verified that the above result
in different industrial sectors, such as Education, Transport, Pharmaceutical, and
Furniture, FMCG etc. Considering the possible strategies of different impacts in
certain supply chains, the findings may be generalized to other supply
Sustainability chains.
The top drawbacks the employees had to face while working remotely for the
organizations were identified as -

 Collaboration/communication
 Lack of necessary equipment
 Fewer mental stimuli
  Staying motivated
 Distractions from media, spouse/partner, and children.
 Power outages and network connection issue.

Limitations of this study are related mostly to the fact that these aspects can be
generalized for the whole industry and incorporated in future workplace models.

REFERENCES

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40171-020-00248-4

https://www.unido.org/news/covid-19-critical-supplies-manufacturing-repurposing-
challenge

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15487733.2020.1860345

https://unctad.org/news/coronavirus-outbreak-has-cost-global-value-chains-50-billion-
exports

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/hr-leadership/leadership/survival-
strategies-for-businesses-during-covid-19-lockdown/articleshow/75371157.cms?
from=mdr

https://throughput.world/blog/topic/manufacturing-operations-post-covid-19/