Statement from OMRON on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

7. april 2020

We are closely following the development of the coronavirus outbreak in the EMEA region. While we adhere to the guidance from relevant authorities and the WHO, the safety and well-being of all our employees and relations is our highest priority.

Update 1 April 2020

As the Novel coronavirus (COVID19) is affecting the global community, we as OMRON are working to minimize risks and ensure continuity for our customers, suppliers and employees. In response to the ongoing and evolving situation we would like to provide you with the following information.

We are carefully monitoring the situation across EMEA and globally. We are in regular contact with our country management & human resources from our EMEA entities to discuss the local situation and required actions, mandating employees to work from home as much as possible in order to reduce potential risks. We continue to closely monitor developments with respect to the Novel Coronavirus. To protect the safety and wellbeing of our employees and relations we have implemented travel restrictions, implemented working in a virtual office where possible and taken active personal protective measures onsite for those factories and sites that remain operational.

In line with the guidance from the Italian government we have temporarily paused production at our factory sites in Italy to prevent infection and minimize risk to our employees. Our office operations including customer service continue to operate through a virtual office. In line with governmental expectation we expect a partial restart of our medical device factory in Lonato, Italy to produce critical suppliers of aspirators by the 1st of April 2020.

Production & Warehousing activities in The Netherlands for our distribution centre remain operational, although with special measures to ensure the health of our employees. We are committed to maintaining business continuity towards our customers, suppliers and partners to manage these challenging times and get through this global crisis. Customer service remains operational and is available to support our customers.

Supply Chain and Customer Impacts

As you are aware, the entire global supply chain has been impacted due to the Novel Coronavirus outbreak, which has led to large-scale disruption in marine container shipping and airfreight services. OMRON has identified a clear impact to shipping and airfreight, which might result in a reduction of delivery reliability, route frequency and availability in the short- to mid-term.

While it is more difficult to confirm available logistics and delivery dates at this time, we believe our global manufacturing and logistics capabilities will keep us well positioned to work through these challenges and, if necessary, to help customers put the appropriate mitigation plans in place. We are working to secure future vessel space allocations and using track and trace of shipments in transit to provide customers with updated estimated arrival times.

We are working closely with our customers to determine any potential impacts or delays. We are also verifying our suppliers' ability to supply raw materials to our sites around the world to continue running our manufacturing sites.

We realize this situation remains very dynamic. We will continue to provide updates as we learn more. We are confident in our preparation and contingency planning for situations such as this. It's also important to remember that OMRON has a global manufacturing footprint to continue production of its products at alternate locations if need be.

We remain committed to providing the superior service and support that our customers have come to expect of our company throughout this situation.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact your local OMRON office.

Frequently asked questions and answers:

1. Is there an impact from your suppliers to produce materials?

Our procurement team has been actively engaged with our key material suppliers to understand any impact.  We continue to work closely to ensure our suppliers can meet our needs to keep our manufacturing processes running.

2. What issues are you seeing with shipments around the world at this time?

We are facing logistics and shipping challenges as ports, airplanes and trucking resources have been constrained. We believe our global manufacturing and logistics capabilities will keep us well positioned to work through these challenges and, if necessary, to help you put the appropriate mitigation plans in place. We realize this situation remains very dynamic, as information continues to change day-to-day, and we will continue to provide you with updates as we learn more and confirm logistics and delivery dates.

3. Are OMRON shipments from areas impacted by COVID-19 safe to receive at our facilities? Have they been fumigated, or other protective measures been implemented to contain the spread of the virus?

No guidance has been given by the World Health Organization that fumigation or any other pro-active measures need to be taken in the handling and shipment of materials at this time.

4. What impacts do you expect as a result of the rapid spread of the virus?

In line with the expectations of the national governments we have postponed all travel across EMEA and are enforcing working from home for employees.  We are closely monitoring the situation. We will follow the guidelines of the national governments where applicable.

5. When can customers expect to know more about any potential impacts?

Our commercial teams are very engaged with customers and are working to identify any potential impacts as we work through this together. our sales teams are working with customers daily to assess the situation and potential slowdown in shipping, airfreight and delivery.