Healthy RB unit off to clean restart

A factory producing disinfectant items including Dettol antiseptic liquid and handwash in Jingzhou, Hubei province－the hardest hit region in the COVID-19 outbreak in China－has reported no infections or suspected infections of the deadly virus among its employees to date, and has managed to maintain uninterrupted output of products to help in the anti-contagion battle across the country.

On Jan 23, amid the Spring Festival holiday, the outbreak was declared an emergency. The Jingzhou plant of United Kingdom-based RB－a leading consumer products company－knew it had to get workers back to the factory immediately.

"The challenges were unprecedented and hardly predictable," said David Gao, director of the RB Jingzhou plant, which provides all Dettol products and hand-washing liquid soap for RB's Asian markets.

"Most operators could not resume operations because of restrictions and a lack of public transportation due to stringent epidemic prevention and control measures. Our raw materials could also not arrive due to various significant constraints," Gao said.

Zhang Haitao, a production manager, said: "The novel coronavirus epidemic was much more serious than we thought, which led to panic buying of sanitizing and hand-washing products. Our priority was to get as many employees back as possible and keep them healthy and safe."

Luckily, most of the plant's workers live within the province. But to get them all back is no easy task. The company managed to obtain transportation passes for its employees to get past traffic restrictions after the province instituted widespread traffic controls beginning Jan 23.

Li Weimin, the plant's production supervisor, drove 300 kilometers to pick up 30 colleagues before returning to the factory from surrounding cities or regions in the province.

"My family at that time was worried about me being infected during the pickups. But I was not too worried after my team prepared me with surgical masks, goggles and sanitizing liquids. As a head of the production team, it is my duty to keep production running so we can produce more sanitizing products at this special time," Li said.

Chen Ying, a front-line worker, walked 105 kilometers in 16 hours to return to the factory. "I didn't think of anything else but returning to my position at work," Chen said.

As a result, the Jingzhou plant has resumed operations during this critical period when the public health emergency response had been raised to the highest level. From one line at first to six lines now, its daily production capacity has jumped from 40 metric tons to over 400 tons.

Getting workers back was only the first step. Keeping them healthy and motivated was also vital, Gao said.

Since the first week that operations resumed, all staff have been required to have temperatures taken before arriving at work, wear surgical masks and pay attention to hand hygiene. To minimize infection risks, the company has provided hotel rooms for its employees and arranged catering services, Gao added.

The nonstop production also benefited from successful efforts to access to raw materials, which were disrupted due to traffic restrictions.

On some occasions, trucks loaded with raw materials on the way to the factory were suddenly unable to proceed. The procurement team worked via 10 WeChat groups and numerous phone calls, closely coordinating material production and shipments round the clock.

RB's material import specialist Iris Ren handles multiple air shipments of key ingredients for antiseptic and disinfectant products from the UK to China. When most airline companies suspended cargo shipments to the Chinese mainland, Ren managed to facilitate cargo deliveries via Hong Kong.

The Jingzhou plant is a part of an Asian supply chain for RB, which announced the launch of a RB Fight for Access Fund last week. It donates 1 percent of its adjusted operating profit to help improve access to health, hygiene and nutrition for the world. An additional 32 million pounds ($39.5 million) as part of the fund has been mobilized to help support the fight against the spread of COVID-19, including a 55 million yuan ($7.76 million) donation to China through Dettol and Mead Johnson.

"I have been witness to heroic efforts across the company to live our purpose and fight," said Laxman Narasimhan, RB's global CEO. "The nature of our products has prompted us to play a critical role in promoting hygiene and health in the fight against the current epidemic."