The coronavirus has caused us all to reevaluate how we work and go about our lives. Dynapro Pumps, a privately owned company of more than 30 years that services customers in the United States, Mexico, Canada and China, is no different.
Jonathon M. Bell, CEO of Dynapro Pumps Mexico, shared the measures the company has taken to deal with the new working conditions because of COVID-19.
Pumps & Systems: What kind of safety measures have you put in place?
Bell: The first measure we put in place was to sanitize our work areas and send all administrative staff home starting Monday, March 16. The team had taken supplies and equipment to be able to set up their home offices. All staff that were required for assemblies and shipments adjusted their schedules in order to follow healthy social distancing measures and were required to wear masks and gloves the whole time. Now, our assemblies are stopped until April 30.
P&S: What types of training and checkups/oversights have been implemented?
Bell: We have been video conferencing daily. We've maintained our schedules and regular training. We now have a supply of hand sanitizer, masks and gloves prepared for when we return to work. I believe it will become normal to wear masks at work for the remainder of the year.
P&S: How much emergency preparedness was in place before all of this started?
Bell: We were prepared to be able to work from home. We use technology in all aspects of our business. Where we were unprepared was with masks and hand sanitizer.
P&S: How much has that been ramped up or changed to respond to this particular event?
Bell: I believe we are stronger now, to be able to complete more administrative tasks from home. For the future, we will maintain a higher quantity of masks and hand sanitizer in stock.
P&S: How is the virus affecting your business?
Bell: Our business has [been] very busy. The changes are that we can't provide service in-person these days and some of the projects we were working on are now on hold.
P&S: How do you foresee this impacting the pump industry in the future? Please address short and long term.
Bell: The pump industry is impacted by the price of ore and the economy. When projects are placed on hold because of the economy, pump sales go down. The positive impacts are learning to work together through technology in an industry that is predominantly face to face. It's giving us time to gather all the questions that we constantly receive from our customers and prepare articles and other informative material on pump technology and how to resolve their different problems. These pieces will be shared with our clients to help them when everything is running again as normal.
P&S: What types of changes will your business make going forward?
Bell: Our business is taking a step back to analyze how can we be better prepared to service our clients when we can't see them face to face. The answer that we see is to provide more useful resources for them (videos, articles, etc.) that can be sent to them. Training is an integral part of our client relationships, and we need to be able to provide advanced technical support from anywhere and under every circumstance.