Toyota outlines ‘new normal’ at local plants
All 8,500 employees will be back at work by Tuesday after shutdown
CAMBRIDGE — Even though a return to pre-pandemic production levels is weeks away, all 8,500 employees at the Toyota plants in Cambridge and Woodstock will be back at work by Tuesday.
They’ll be met by thermal scanners, a mandatory face mask policy and a series of new protocols marking a changed environment and a “new normal” at the plants, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada president Frank Voss said in an interview Wednesday.
“We have been here for the last seven weeks working on making this a safer place,” he said. “I feel very confident that we have got a good system in practice.”
The company says most work stations along the lines allow for physical distancing, but barriers have been installed where that’s not possible; workers in those areas must also wear face shields. Barriers and physical distancing will also define cafeterias and break rooms, and hundreds of hand sanitizer stations have been added.
Production ground to a halt in mid-March at all of Toyota’s North American manufacturing plants over COVID-19 concerns and slumping auto sales. Workers have been paid during the shutdown, and Voss said no layoffs are anticipated moving forward.
“We’ve committed to longterm employment stability,” he said, adding they’re proceeding with the planned hiring of several hundred summer students as in past years.
A total of five employees based at the Cambridge plant have tested positive for COVID-19, although at least two of those cases occurred in the weeks after the plant’s closure.
If any additional cases were to arise at the plants once employees return, “we would make sure that we are doing the right things from a safety perspective,” Voss said. The line in that area would be stopped, close contacts would be identified, and the area would be sanitized and restarted when safe to do so.
Some employees have already returned in advance of the larger restart. A recent health and safety complaint prompted a Ministry of Labour investigation that did not lead to any orders being issued against Toyota.
All employees will complete an online health survey before they return. Having passed it, team leaders (akin to a lead hand) will return to the plants on Monday to train. At one of the main entrances in Cambridge, 10 lanes with thermal scanners should process about 60 employees a minute.
All other employees will return on Tuesday, when they’ll spend the day on orientation, training and “work hardening,” Voss said. “They haven’t been building cars for seven weeks. To avoid any kind of ergonomic risk, we’ll take it slow.”
They’ll run the lines for the first time on Wednesday, with only a handful of cars produced each shift; a slow ramp-up begins Thursday.
“We are going to keep it at a slower pace for probably an extended period of time,” Voss said. “It won’t be before June that we start to get back into a rhythm, but it’s all about making sure that we do this right.”