May 1, 2020

Pandemic in China

At the beginning of this year, we were all hit by a catastrophe we did not prepare for: the COVID-19 pandemic. As a manufacturing company with a supply chain in China and a production facility in the US, WAZER was hit twice in the span of 4 months. However, thanks to the dedication of various WAZER employees, we soldiered on in maintaining the basic operation and even started helping the cause in other ways. 

Things started looking bleak during the second half of January 2020. By that time, most of the factories in China had been gradually winding down in preparation for the Chinese new year. The slow down of production is something we always plan for, and we expected this year to be no different. Staff at WAZER Heavy Industries, WAZER’s manufacturing and supply chain branch in Shenzhen China, also looked forward to the 2-week national holiday vacation. 

But little did we know, the “vacation” would last nearly two months. 

On January 26th, 2020, Wuhan, the epicenter of COVID-19 started the lock down. Other cities soon followed suit. Shenzhen shut down all non-essential businesses by the beginning of February, with no concrete end date in sight. New part orders were inevitably pushed back; disruption of new years' plans were unavoidable. With our China team members locked in their respective hometown, there was nothing we could do. 

Gradually, the viral spread was brought down to a manageable level, and production around the Shenzhen region restarted. Stringent cleanliness and social distancing rules had to be followed, and individualized governmental permits had to be approved before any company could reopen. Luckily, after the excruciating wait in February and most of March, WAZER Heavy Industries finally reopened and started picking up what we left off. 

Pandemic in the US

Just as our Shenzhen branch looked like it was recovering (early March) and could be back to normal in a few weeks, COVID-19 cases exploded right in front of our doorstep in NYC. Seeing what had happened in China firsthand with our team there, we knew a long-term, multi-month shutdown was imminent. Within days, as mandated, we closed all our non-essential NYC operations at the end of March. This meant all production was halted and only some office operations were continued remotely. Ironically, at about the same time, our Shenzhen branch restarted work and began their catchup as a result of the lost last 2 months.

WAZER in a Pandemic

The limited US office operations have been devoted to maintaining existing orders, providing remote customer support, shipping vital replacement parts and helping some prominent users on essential small scale production. As it turned out, small scale production has played a major part in combating the virus in ways we did not expect. Due to massive shortages in testing and personal protective equipment, prototyping tools are being used around the world to produce makeshift masks, respirators and sterilization equipment. One manufacturing company is using their WAZER to make UV sterilization equipment using WAZER, and we devoted full attention to helping them nail down the most efficient production mode. Another customer in the Middle East is using WAZER to make face masks for transit drivers. We also worked closely with them to fine tune the cutting. Several new companies also reached out to us. We managed to ship out the last few machines sitting in our warehouse to those that were deemed essential operations.

Pivot to PPE

The medical supplies in New York State quickly became in short supply, and still are. So as a result we wondered: if we can quickly source custom-made hardware parts from China, why can’t we use the existing WAZER system and personnel to vet, source, and import the urgently needed medical supplies?

We created a new entity called Brooklyn Covid Response Corp, contributing WAZER employee resources in an effort to provide medical supplies without the massive markups that the industry was demanding due to shortages. Given the depth of our supply chain expertise, our China team quickly partnered with a few quality PPE suppliers over the past few weeks. We have secured a steady supply of:

• Nasal and oral swabs and Viral Transport Medium Kits

• Single use nitrile gloves in all sizes

• Surgical masks 

• KN95 masks

• Medical gowns 

• Face shield

We did not wait to have the medical supplies shipped in by sea. Once the supplies arrived at WAZER Heavy Industry office in Shenzhen, we immediately shipped the supplies to New York via air freight. The quick turn-around model worked as hoped. Not long into May, we have supplied more than hundreds of thousands of swabs, tens of thousands of gloves and masks. 

With supply chain staff engaged in the cause, our engineers got to it as well. Our engineers are collaborating with another company to produce custom Viral Transport Medium containers that are urgently needed for testing. We also investigated the viability of adapting a snorkel mask to be used as a CPAP device. 

With the customer support team helping our manufacturing customers, the supply chain staff sourcing medical supplies and the engineers designing PPE hardware, we are making good use of the shut-down time and contributing back to the community. Having a group of generalists that care to contribute their time to COVID and the ability to react quickly really shows the agility and flexibility of our team.