The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Manufacturing firms monitoring, planning for possible impacts here
figure down however, more than 45 percent of respondents said they had not yet started on their plan, while about 18 percent said they either have a plan or are preparing. Just over 36 percent said they do not anticipate enough local impact to require a preparation plan.
“We are on the cloud, so working from home is possible,” Nate Bower, president of Rebling Plastics, which makes power connectors and custom molding in Warrington, Bucks County, commented in the survey, adding that home computers for employees will need to be vetted.
A number of the respondents indicated that they are in a “wait and see” mode, according to the results.
“We didn’t know what to expect because we were seeing conflicting reporting on the issue. The fact is a large percentage of the responses indicated they were already planning or getting ready to do it — recognizing it is a real threat,” Coakley added.
Breaking down the results as they relate to potential supply chain impacts, just over 59% said they anticipate some impact, while another nearly 14 percent said they expect the impact to be “significant.”
Dennis Bean, controller at John Evans’ Sons,, Inc., an industrial precision spring manufacturer in Lansdale, said that as of Friday, March 6, his company’s high-yield stainless strip steel supply had not been impacted by the virus.
“We have multiple sources for our steel, and most are domestic,” he said in a statement. The company sources no steel from China, but has some secondary sourcing from countries that aren’t affected by the virus, Bean told Kreischer Miller, adding the company is staying in close contact with suppliers.
“For us, it looks like it’s not immediately an issue, but it could be something down the road,” he said.
David Fryer, controller for Wayne Automation Corp., a pack