We have learned to learn from everything. After this maxim, which Germans love so much, we should act now in times of COVID-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First and\nforemost, it is the infection and the mortality rate associated with it, but\nalso the necessary and vital measures taken by governments, worldwide contact\nbans, curfews and quarantines, which restrict customary economic activities and\nparalyze many areas of private life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what\ndoes this mean for us, what can we do in the time of standstill? People always\nneeds something to do, a goal, a meaning of life. Now, we actually have the\nopportunity to rethink the actual state of our work, to break new ground and in\nsome cases to realize that today’s procedures are not up to a mutated virus. We\nshould also use our time to find an answer to the big question: How do we fill\nall the informal, financial and material gaps created by COVID-19? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Production\nwill restart and the outstanding orders will be manufactured again, be it the\nlatest mobile phone, the missing machine parts or the T-shirt for fall. The\nproduction losses will be made up for by the introduction of piecework working\nhours, the hiring of more auxiliary personnel or triple shifts. The same will\nprobably happen in the shipping industry, companies are switching between air\nfreight and sea freight accordingly to the need. Can they not sell their items\ndue to closures of stores and entire branches? Then they are choosing the\nlongest route possibly on sea freight to actually use the ships as floating\nstorage. Do the goods need to find their destination fairly quickly, for\nexample in the pharma or medical industry, air freight is the choice to be\nmade.
\nThe changes to logistics are coming so quick that the data is changing every\nweek. There is no time to reset. Companies need to act fast and yet also have\nthe delays of production, of delivery and of commerce in sight. COVID-19 will\nnot go away as fast as many would like to. The same goes for all the changes.\nIn the time of catching up, personnel service providers in every country will\nhave to perform exorbitantly, but some will also experience an upswing that\nthey have been missing for years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what\nabout those who actually could have worked now, but are currently unable to do\nso because, well, why not? Because they are not allowed to go to the office,\nbecause their children must be looked after and the schools and day-care\ncenters are no longer available. Because they would have to speak personally\nwith their clients or with the colleague who is based in Hong Kong or Munich.\nBut partly it is also simply because of those who would like to see figures,\norders and delivery delays on paper and have not yet arrived at the\ndigitalization stage. For those, that do not want to implement home office in\ntheir companies. But the old school way of doing business, for which the\nhandshake still counts and personal contact is more important than a succinct\ne-mail or a video conference call, still exists and this sector is now\nsuffering particularly. Just as those companies who don’t trust their employees\nand think that home office is another way of gaining leisure time and therefore\nhave not aligned the company accordingly, are now unfortunately at a\ndisadvantage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
…was a\nvery provocative title of a lecture of one of my colleagues in the forum of DTB\nat the TEXPROCESS 2019. At that time, we already shared the opinion that companies\nwho refuse to digitally position themselves, must change this as soon as\npossible in order not to lose touch with the market. We still share this\nopinion. In times of COVID-19 many manufacturing companies lose the overview\nbecause they simply lack important information. It already starts with the\nquestions: Where is my product actually produced and under which conditions?\nThis becomes especially important in the time after COVID-19, especially in\nview of the upcoming introduction of the supply chain law. Will the goods be\nproduced within the specified time frame? And if not, what is the reason? Are\nthe raw materials missing or is there no production capacity available? Do I\nhave to relocate production and if so, where to? Can I load the goods by sea freight\nas planned or do I have to plan by rail, sea\/air or even air freight instead to\nstill be able to deliver reasonably on time? In the digital age, all this\ninformation can be seen and, above all, controlled much faster and more\ntransparently in a Vendor Compliance and Supply Chain Management System.\nInstead of sending the Excel sheet still via e-mail – in which 10 people make\ntheir entries one after the other, by fax or even by telephone leased lines with\nthe factories, agents and carriers – it is very time-consuming to manage. Time\nthat one simply does not have today. And of course, the error rate increases\ndramatically. This usually results in costs that nobody has calculated and\nwhich few people can cope with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now is the\ntime to trust the employees and to offer and enable the possibility of home\noffice within the company. Even after the COVID-19 virus, there will still be\nsituations where the single parent accountant will have to look after the sick\nchild at the end of the month, but could do her \nor his work from home and thus prevent the backlog. Or in which the IT\nmanager simply has to finish the manual, for which he or she simply does not\nfind the time in the office. Or in which the manager has to work out an agenda\nfor new strategies or acquisitions at home. There are many important and\nbusiness-optimizing reasons for home office, also according to COVID-19, and of\ncourse also for the digitalization of your business processes. Once you are\ndigitally set up, you can now control everything in your home office with\ncomplete peace of mind, without the fear that your staff will infect each other\nand paralyze the business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now is the\ntime to rethink and hope that all employees, bosses, colleagues, friends and\nfamily members stay healthy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We have learned to learn from everything. After this maxim, which Germans love so much, we should act now in times of COVID-19. The coronavirus, what makes it so dangerous and what opportunities arise from these difficult times for all of us? First and foremost, it is the infection and the mortality rate associated with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-at-setlog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n