Honda and Dongfeng Motor Group’s joint venture facility in Wuhan, China temporarily halted production late in January 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. In view of improving conditions, Honda has resumed full operations at the Wuhan facility. To ensure safety of its workers, the facility has temperature checkpoints and posters asking workers to maintain a distance of more than metre. The employees are also required to wear masks at all times.
Honda’s Wuhan facility was reopened in stages starting 11 March and the operations have now resumed as usual. Workers who have re-joined were required to reveal details about the places they visited since the start of the epidemic. About 98 per cent of its 12,000 workers are now back and are required to put in overtime to make up for the lost production. The joint venture facility reportedly produced 8,00,000 cars last year.
Speaking to media, Li Shiquan, Assistant Director of the joint venture’s No. 2 final assembly plant, said, “We have many customers who are waiting for cars so this week we have arranged for each worker to work 1.5 hours more.” A typical shift was eight hours. The factory ceiling has a sign that says that the goal was 1,237 cars for that day, which is 17 per cent higher than the 1,060 units that the facility usually produced.
The media report from Reuters states that the central industrial hub of Wuhan has started allowing people to leave the City on Wednesday in what is seen as a turning point for China’s fight against the coronavirus.
