Bruce Platzman, president & CEO of Leominster office furniture manufacturer, has told WBJ his company has made a number of adjustments as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, from how the company makes goods to donating time and supplies for the pandemic fight to anticipated changes in the office layouts of the future.
How have your operations changed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic?
We can look at this in a couple of ways.
Our orders. The impact the virus has had on our economy has impacted many businesses, including AIS. With many states essentially closed, so much of the daily commercial business has stopped too. While our regular commercial orders have slowed down, we are seeing more interest and orders from hospitals, local, state, and federal governments, and a variety of organizations preparing to serve first responders and needing furniture quickly.
Our teams. With everyone but the most essential employees now working from home, we’re all working through the new challenges. We’ve got plenty of video meetings scheduled, and we’re leveraging technology more than ever. For the most part it’s working out for us. Back in the factory, we’re doing all things possible to keep our onsite employee as safe as possible. We’ve implemented many practices and policies to help protect the teams, all in accordance with Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and World Health Organization guidelines:
Corporate employee protocols:
Non-essential travel has been halted.
Non-essential employees in Leominster and around the country are working from home.
No face-to-face meetings are being held with groups.
Use of tele-conferencing technology to service customers and sales requests.
Social distancing practices are in place.
Ill employees are required to stay home.
Operations and manufacturing:
Rigorous and regular cleaning in factory and office is ongoing.
Temperature checks for onsite personnel entering the facility.
Hand sanitizer has been placed across our facility and safe hygiene tips have been shared.
Advanced air ventilation system exchanges fresh air in the factory frequently.
Onsite employees are offered face masks or face shields to help prevent the spread of the virus.
AIS will soon be producing divider screens for use in the factory to allow greater isolation
of workers. These are currently in development.
National showrooms are all closed, in compliance with local and state requirements.
Visitors are allowed by appointment into our facility – and only in small groups of 10 or less.
What has the impact been on the office furniture market?
As you might expect, demand has softened as most businesses in many states are not up and running in the normal way right now. Some orders have gone on hold, as we all wait to see how long this lasts.
However, the orders we see today are often needing higher panels, more screens between people. We’re seeing many inquiries for more highly cleanable materials (vinyl, antimicrobial, laminate, etc.). Often we’re up against tight lead times as timing is urgent – and that’s an area AIS has always been very good at.
Our average order size has increased, too. We are seeing more large orders from critical customers.
The AIS team worked swiftly to rapidly develop a series of solutions specifically designed to respond to COVID-19. Many of these products were not part of our offering a month ago and today, we’re getting calls and orders for them as the marketplace gears up to fight the pandemic. We never had personal protective equipment in our offering and it’s there now.
We’ve also started manufacturing and donating high-quality facemasks to first responders. We’ve taken our second shift of sewers, who typically are sewing upholstery for seating, and they are now sewing facemasks. We’ve donated masks to hospitals, police and fire departments all over the state and beyond.