APM Hexseal’s Updated Operations During the Pandemic

APM Hexseal is an essential supplier of components used in the manufacture of a wide variety of medical equipment, including ventilators, hospital beds, and medical instrumentation. As such, we had to formulate a plan to keep our plant open and our lines running to insure that the supply chain for critical medical equipment was not disrupted. To achieve this, we established a number of safety protocols and procedures that allowed us to maintain the high level of service our customers expect, while ensuring the safety of our valuable employees and customers.

How We Worked Through

At APM Hexseal, we are dedicated to finding innovative solutions to a variety of challenges, including the ones that arose at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. To accommodate social distancing and sanitation protocols recommended by the CDC, we put our creative minds to work to best keep everyone safe and healthy. We created written guidelines and instructions for our employees, in multiple languages, that are displayed throughout the building.

New Methods of Communication

APM Hexseal established a variety of remote communication methods to ensure our customers continued to receive the highest level of service during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the use of video calls, telephone conversations, and other remote support methods, we were able to help customers select and troubleshoot sealing solutions. 

Additionally, in an effort to reduce interpersonal contact, we also divided the building up by geography, and employees utilized only the entrance, exit, break areas and restroom in their designated section.

Drop Locations

To ensure our employees maintained safe social distance, we established drop and transfer locations throughout our manufacturing plant and office. This allowed our staff to maintain a minimum of 6 feet of space between them at all times, while being able to safely hand off files, paperwork, documents, and other materials.

Fewer Personnel

At the height of the pandemic’s impact, we divided our entire work- force into teams, and only certain teams were in the building on certain days. We created this schedule to ensure that teams stayed together while preventing cross over. Utilizing this process meant that if one person were to get sick, only that team would be removed—not the entire work- force. This careful management of our on-site staff schedule and rotation of teams was what enabled us to continue manufacturing and delivering orders to our customers during the peak of the pandemic.

Frequent Sanitization

We provided all required PPE to our staff and they were instructed on how to utilize them. Additionally, all employees were given sanitizing wipes, gel, and hand cream to use throughout the day.

Temperature Checks

We checked all of our workers’ temperatures at the beginning of each shift and during the course of shifts if any employee showed signs of illness.

Looking to the Future

Moving forward, APM Hexseal’s highest priorities continue to be keeping our manufacturing lines running at full capacity and protecting the health and safety of our team and business partners. As such, while maintaining a number of the new protocols we implemented at the height of the pandemic, we are also applying more permanent solutions.

Our team is currently re-mapping our factory floor to be more COVID suitable. This entails re-positioning some of our largest and heaviest pieces of manufacturing equipment, including our mold presses. This is a huge undertaking but we feel it is necessary to ensure the safety of our employees and the continuity of our production.  After this work is complete, our press operators will be significantly spread apart to ensure the necessary 6-foot social distance protocol. By rearranging our plant floor in this manner, we are eliminating the need to separate our workforce into teams, and therefore, can continue to run at full capacity even if new pandemic-related business restrictions were to arise.

Reliable and Safe Sealing Solutions by APM Hexseal

At APM Hexseal, we are committed to providing superior quality sealing solutions, while keeping all of our team members safe. To learn more about the ways in which we are protecting employees and customers during the COVID-19 pandemic, ask the experts at APM Hexseal today. 

Ever Better.