Lenovo enacting tough response to coronavirus outbreak

Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's largest personal computer maker, said the company is confident in its ability to minimize the novel coronavirus' negative impacts on its business, thanks to its global manufacturing and sales layout as well as the use of cutting-edge technologies to automate production.

Lenovo, which has its biggest plant in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province and center of the novel coronavirus outbreak, said it has immediately taken a string of actions to respond to the virus, and it donated all IT equipment necessary for the specialist treatment center being built in Wuhan.

Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo, said the epidemic and its resultant delay in restoring production will inevitably have a short-term impact on Lenovo, but the company's global manufacturing and sales network and its sprawling presence in the world will help the company minimize potential impact of this outbreak on consumers.

More importantly, the overall level of automation in China's manufacturing industry has been greatly improved, which has boosted the country's capabilities to cope with risks, Yang added.

"The virus outbreak will not affect the long-term development of China's manufacturing industry. China's complete industrial system, a wide range of application scenarios and the explosive growth of emerging technologies will give the country better resources to deal with the challenges," Yang added.

According to him, Lenovo's Wuhan plant is now highly automated. Take how a smartphone is made in the factory as an example. The company can trace how each component is being assembled to which smartphones, and many of the processes are being automated, which has greatly boosted efficiency.