Robert Joore, Total Lubmarine General Manager, explains the strategies being taken globally to ensure real-time support for customers anywhere in the world.
Seemingly no matter where we are in the world, the Coronavirus Pandemic has had a massive impact on life – both personal and business. As Goldman Sachs recently reported in a research note, social distancing measures now impact 92% of global GDP. In the face of this pandemic, we have innovated in the way we have worked with our partners to create, deliver and successfully provide business continuity measures to limit disruption in deliveries of our complete range of products and services.
We established a global crisis management team early on that continues to monitor and take care of our customers’ supply chains. Our approach includes forecasting, scenario planning, prioritising critical deliveries and finding new ways to keep the supply chains operational.
Our supply chain remains robust and continues to deliver in these extreme circumstances. All around the globe, our major manufacturing facilities are all operating to match demand with supply capacity.
Although our own commercial, technical and administrative teams are largely working from home, our teams remain available in a ‘business as usual capacity’ to help with any of our customers’ needs – and we are using technology to provide that immediate, real-time support for all our customers.
Daily contact with ports and port operations has provided a level of reassurance for our customers on product supply and logistics, as many of the challenges we face are centred on how vessels, ports and ship to shore operations can operate 24/7. This includes our International Port Directory which is updated with the latest information on each port’s delivery status, and on-demand downloadable listing.
In our laboratories in Belgium, Singapore, Shanghai, Panama and Chicago, we are closely monitoring and following local Government mandates and guidance. The Total laboratory teams are also operating specific shift patterns to reduce any impact Coronavirus may have. Dependent upon local Governmental impacts on our laboratories, we are working to ensure we limit any potential delays. To minimise potential disruption for our customers, we have also developed operational Tech Care kits for use onboard vessels to ensure engine maintenance and performance can be frequently assessed and diagnosed with immediate and localised decision making with online support from our experts when needed.
Our number one priority remains the safe performance and well-being of everyone across the Total Lubmarine network, and we take daily assessments across all our operations to ensure we can deliver the best service to all our customers in the current and fast developing circumstances.