Alcon Singapore Manufacturing,(ASM)

In December of 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was alerted on pneumonia due to unknown causes in Wuhan, China. The cause was later detected as the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the now famously known Covid-19 virus. Closer to home in Singapore, the first know of Covid 19 case was a traveler from Wuhan, China, who tested positive in Jan 2020. In the following three months, various nations in the region were detecting more and more such cases.  Finally, in March of 2020, Singapore closed its borders. The norm as we knew it came to cease globally.

In this article, I am focusing on sharing the experience of running an ocular health pharmaceutical manufacturing operations (Alcon Singapore Manufacturing, ASM) in times of Covid. This article focuses on how we kept going, keeping in mind the safety of everyone involved, the many challenges with the supply chain, and other social norms that were entirely new to everyone.

The article is structured around four key pillars Government & Policy, Supply Chain& Manufacturing Operations, Organization Management, and People.

Government & Policy

Since the start of the pandemic, governments around the world grappledto implement the right policy to be implanted that will safeguard the general population and avoid the widespread of the virus. Singapore in particular, there was multiple revisions made of the policy, starting with wearing a mask, social distancing and finally reverting to a “Circuit Breaker” (CB) – which was an initial two week time frame that was then further extended to 4 weeks and re-implemented in 2021 when the second wave hit Singapore. During the CB, the default modeof business was work from home (WFH) and only essential business such as pharmacy, healthcare, food and similar industry was allowed to operate with restrictions.

In ASM as part of essential business, we too had to do multiple iterations to our work policy and communicate this in a timely manner to ensure we are aligned with government regulations and more importantly safe-guard our associates. This was achieved by working closely with the relevant government agencies though most of the policy was made public via media channels. This meant we were actively watching the news channels and publications from the government. We had a person dedicated to this activity and  remained as the single point of contact for all developments in government policy. This helped ASM immensely as we were not second-guessing who should be watching the news or contacting relevant government authorities proactively for clarification where it was needed.

"We had to get comfortable, empower and trust our team to get things done from the “comfort” of their homes"

On the point of timely communication to our associates – email played a big role. We also resorted to other channels such as phone texting/WhatsApp and, where possible communicated in a face-to-face manner with social distancing in the shopfloor tier meetings. One should not underestimate the value of timely communication via a multi-channel as this resolved many questions and spread the info quickly to the impacted teams.

Supply Chain & Manufacturing Operations

Another key area severely impacted due to Covid-19 pandemic was Supply Chain and Manufacturing Operations. Just as ASM was dealing with Covid-19 and its related challenges, so were the key business partners,including suppliers and service providers. Located in Singapore ASM, relied on its key suppliers and business partners regionally and globally. This meant different Covid 19 restrictions in other parts of the world also impact ASM in Singapore.

To overcome this, three key actions were undertaken. First and foremost was increasing the inventory and safety stock levels of both our products, raw material & related consumables. A health pipeline of finished products means any delay or disruption in the production or shipping process can be softened. The customer would not feel the disruption of product supply while ASM adjusted to the new production and supply chain methods amid Covid 19. Increasedsupply of raw material and consumables so that ASM couldmitigate the disruption from the suppliers’ end as the suppliers were coping with Covid 19 related challenges on their end. The ultimate aim was the end customer or ,our patients received the required ocular health products on time and every time.

Second, alternate suppliers and service providers were qualified and brought on board as part of business continuity. The process of qualification and onboarding was done with the new ways of working, cutting routine administrate delays, and using data-driven approach to make business-critical decisions. In some cases, we obtained performance data from other Alcon sites and leveraged data analysis to speed up the qualification of some suppliers (where it was applicable). Spreading the business across a few different suppliers meant the business would not enjoy a volume-based pricing it may have had with one or two suppliers having all the volume, but on the hind side, the supply risk was mitigated. In the long run, I believe the cost of business disruption outweighs the volume-based pricing.

Third, I would best describe the action as “Synergy.” Synergy with our business partners (supplier and service providers), our extended stakeholders within the organization, and external not forgetting the government agency. Due to the nature of business in Ocular Health, ASM was given an essential industry status from the government of Singapore. This meant that we were allowed to be in operation with proper measures in place during the height of the Covid pandemic. The same did not apply to some of our key business partners. It would not be possible for ASM to operate without their support (service and supply). For such cases, ASM worked with the relevant government agency to obtain special permission for such business partners to resume operations and continue to support ASM to allow us to make the ocular health products. The support from the government agencies in such concerns we remarkable, and we cannot thank them enough for all the support.

Organization Leadership

There is a saying I read a very long time ago that goes something like, “Strength of a crew is only tested in stormy weather.”. Anyone can set sail in good weather and calm waters to get to the destination. It takes an extraordinary crew when the forces of nature are against us. This was true in ASM during the height of the Covid 19 pandemic. We needed a strong team and a different level of leadership from the top to the shopfloor.

First, we saw individuals stepping up to the challenges posed by Covid 19. This includes associates that took on additional responsibilities outside of their areas of responsibility. We formed a cross-functional Covid taskforce that was empowered to formulate strategies for the business to deal with the pandemic. The task force team included management and non-managerial staff. Having a multi-discipline& multi-level stakeholder in the core task force team, helped the organization take on a holistic approach when actions were rolled out.

Secondly, we as leaders also had to adapt to the new ways of working during the pandemic. Without the familiar face-to-face meetings or walking over to someone’s desk to have a chat, we had to go almost entirelyvirtual. This took away some of the human element that was always inherent in the process. The routine of how are youor a discussion on favorite sports team performance  that usually warmed up the meeting/discussions was replaced with fixed agenda virtual meetings. While this format was productive initially, in the long run, it took the social interactions with the teams. To overcome this, we as leaders had to consciously start and end the meetings/discussionson a softer note. This included doing an emotional check, opening up with what we did over the weekend, or other items that may be of interest to others.

With working from home being the default mode for most, trust also played a major part. We had to get comfortable, empower and trust our team to get things done from the “comfort” of their homes. When Singapore defaulted to online schooling, the working arrangements also allowed parents to monitor their kids while performing their respective duties to the organization. It was not an easy transaction, but each team found what worked best for them to balance work and family requirements.

People

The final and most important pillar I wanted to discuss was the “People” pillar. I intentionally left the people asthe last topic of conversation. In Alcon, we believe in putting people in the center of everything we do. When I saypeople,I’m referring to the patients and customers we serve, not forgetting our own associates and our business partners. In all actions we took during the pandemic, our people and their wellbeing werat  the center of our focus.

When the Singapore borders closed abruptly, many of our daily commuting associates from Malaysia were left stranded in Singapore. ASM provided progressive support, including allowances temporary accommodation to help such associates adjust to living in Singapore. We did not stop there; we also celebrated birthdays and occasions such as Father’s Day with the associates in ASM for those away from their families. During holiday seasons, we sent hampers over to their families back in their home countries as a token of appreciation for being part of ASM and supporting the organization.

When travel with restrictions was allowed between Malaysia & Singapore, ASM also supported the associates’ travel by providing flexible working arrangements and some level of financial support in the quarantine and associated cost. This  greatly helped the associates return to see their families without a great financial burden.

Asstated earlier, communication played a pivotal role during the pandemic. We organized multiple virtual townhall sessions with the associates to communicate the policies and actions from the organization and opened up a two-way dialogue to get feedback and concerns from the people. This allowed us to roll out support groups to respective groups of people who were impacted in different ways during the pandemic.

Final Notes

The last known pandemic of such was the Spanish Flu back in 1918, whichmakes it 101 years when Covid-19 hit in 2019. The biggest learning we got was that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. We had to learn and adapt as we got along the journey.Generally speaking, we were well equipped than we were 100 years ago to face such situations. The Covid 19 pandemic also gave birth to the term “new norm.” Digitalization, going paperless, virtual meetings, and flexible work arrangements are just some of the known “new norms” that are here to stay. Organizations and leaders will need to quickly adapt, learn and manage the changes coming as we come out of pandemic and continue to drive forward into the coming years.