Component Supplier Ramps Up Support during Crisis

Expedited support

Hasco expedites all work and supplies for Coronavirus projects. They have first priority. “Many of our customers are in the medical field and they need support from us. For example, we have a moldmaker building a second tool for a Coronavirus test kit, a molder needing essential spare parts to keep a mold running longer as the product is used to test Coronavirus, and three molders making plastic vials for automatic testing who needed overnight temperature controllers, as they took old equipment out of the basement and running them now 100% as well,” René Eisenring, General Manager of Hasco America says.

As of last month, HASCO has stopped all non-essential traveling of all employees globally, grounded all sales engineers and area sales managers, split workers 50% working from home and the other 50 in the office, moved all workers in separate offices or set up desks in the warehouse to create appropriate social distance.

Amid those changes, the company is still able to fulfill its commitment to customers. For example, Hasco recently overnighted a controller to a medical molder in North Carolina who needed more controllers to run additional presses for a COVID-19 testing kit. On top of that HASCO China shipped Hasco America over 2,000 N95 protective masks that are no longer needed there, which were shared with employees, customers and local medical facilities in North Carolina. The company has also increased local stock in North America by 32% over the last 2 months and uses sea freight to replenish the local stock regularly.

The work being done by mold builders and molders right now across North America speaks volumes about the capabilities and commitment of manufacturing, and that plastic saves lives!

René Eisenring, General Manager of Hasco America says communicating with your employees and customers more than ever before is vital to working through this crisis.

Management holds daily morning meetings with Germany to adjust efforts and has weekly meetings with the global management team, which includes China, to exchange information, including what worked at Hasco in China and what did not work. “Our China team is informing us that they are slowly ramping up business,” Eisenring says. They also hold weekly group meetings with all staff via Skype.

“Daily communication between everyone with phone calls and group texts is key—we use this as an opportunity to not only provide updates but to share a little humor,” Eisenring says.

Eisenring reports that productivity is up around 95%, although they’ve lost a little due to social distancing. “The only supply chain issue we have are shipments from Europe. However, we found a good working solution and Hasco covers the higher cost for our customers in North America,” Eisenring says.