｜ESG

Pandemic Response Unit and Responsible Person

In January 2020, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced the establishment of the "Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) for Severe and Special Infectious Pneumonia". The Company's Environmental, Health and Safety Committee paid close attention to the development of the COVID-19 pandemic and prepared relevant countermeasures in accordance with the Company's "Epidemic Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response Plan". On January 23, 2020, the Head Office and the plant emergency response teams were established, with the Chairman serving as the commander, and the Environmental Safety Department responsible for coordinating all pandemic prevention work and resource allocation. Each responsible unit regularly reports on the status and handling of each plant and prepares for possible business interruptions in the event of a severe pandemic situation, in order to control and reduce the impact of the pandemic on the Company's operations.

疫情應變專案組織 疫情應變專案組織 疫情應變專案組織 地球地圖

Plant Responsible Person

  • Command and coordinate the pandemic prevention work at the plant.
  • Set up the pandemic prevention and response teams to carry out pandemic prevention work (including medical tracking group, information integration group, prevention control group, and protective equipment group).

Medical Tracking Group Group Leader

  • Notification window of government's Health Bureau
  • Provide information and answer inquiries
  • Tracking of individuals with suspected symptoms and home quarantine cases

Protective Equipment Group Group Leader

  • Purchase of masks
  • Purchase of ear thermometers, forehead thermometers, and ear muffs
  • Purchase of gloves, alcohol and cotton balls
  • Other necessary equipment

Information Integration Group Group Leader

  • External information collection
  • Integrate the information of employees in each plant
  • Compile and report daily information

Prevention Control Group Group Leader

  • Conduct visitor control
  • Perform employee and visitor temperature measurement
  • Schedule regular disinfection of public areas
Check full org. chart

Pandemic Management and Response Executio

  • Prevention period

    Phase 1 and Phase 2

  • Prevention control period

    Diamond-shaped infectious disease alert stage, phases 3, 4 and 5

  • Prevention control period

    Pandemic period, phase 6

  • Post-Pandemic Transition Period

Normal management｜No confirmed cases in the area (province/city) where the plant is located.

  1. Establish an emergency response team for epidemic infectious diseases to coordinate prevention efforts and resource allocation.
  2. Use video or telephone conferencing to reduce direct contact with customers and suppliers.
  3. Promote proper epidemic prevention concepts to employees.
  4. Prepare external communication for customers, suppliers, and shareholders.
  5. Control access to the plant and office.
  6. Restrict external visits to the plant.
  7. Identify existing customers, suppliers, and shareholders who may be affected by the epidemic infectious diseases.
  8. Identify alternative vendors for critical services, components, or products.
  9. IT department to assess remote work requirements and ensure that systems have the appropriate capacity to allow employees to work remotely at the same time.
  10. Revise personnel management regulations, such as flexible work arrangements, remote work, out-of-country business travel, recall of employees from infected areas, and self-quarantine management.
  11. Register employees in the infected area for their return to Taiwan or return to the plant for self-health management, and confirm that they are not ill before going to work.
  12. Ensure that the workplace is equipped with sufficient medical supplies, hand sanitizers, and cleaning products.
  13. Establish employee health monitoring mechanism for employees who are sick or have been in contact with patients.
  14. Confirm the laws and regulations on flexible working hours, job rotation training, and labor contracts for sick employees.

Countermeasures

Pandemic Prevention 360

In response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, Walsin Lihwa set up a company-wide pandemic prevention and response center, initiated the "Business Continuity Management Plan for Pandemic Prevention", and formulated "pandemic prevention measures" in accordance with the government's pandemic prevention policy. The company organized a complete protection network for employee healthcare to ensure 360-degree protection for every employee.

A letter was sent to employees from the Chairman, Vice Chairman, and President to explain the company's response measures and to maintain a stable work morale.

▲ 2020/12/14 Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-Che visited the Yenshui Plant to show his concern for migrant workers' pandemic prevention and care.

Healthcare

Cooperation among employees to protect the health each other

During the epidemic period, the Head Office's Epidemic Prevention Command Center kept track of the epidemic situation and epidemic prevention materials at each plant, assisted in the deployment of epidemic prevention materials, and canceled large events and gatherings. During the period of severe pandemic, regional job rotations and some remote work were initiated to ensure the safety of employees and to maintain the company's operation.

In addition, the environmental safety and health, human resources, and plant affairs units at each plant in Taiwan also found out about the work and living needs of migrant workers, promoted pandemic prevention knowledge and measures, and provided pandemic prevention materials and various assistance as needed.

Effective Prevention Ensuring Business as Usual

In response to escalating COVID-19 infections while ensuring business as usual despite pandemic prevention in 2021, Walsin Lihwa fully complied with the government’s pandemic prevention regulations to strengthen various preventive measures by preparing sufficient surgical masks, medical grade alcohol, disinfectant sprays, and forehead thermometers while setting forth relevant pandemic prevention guidelines and plans. The guidelines and plans included office distancing, flexible work hours, pandemic prevention management for migrant workers, emergency notification and responsiveness, prevention of inflight infections, arrival quarantine, strengthened environmental disinfection on a regular basis, mandatory mask wearing, people traffic control at plant and office entrances and exits, daily temperature taking required for all employees before they go work, daily intelligence gathering on pandemic developments with health education and promotion, daily health status tracking for employee health management, working from home drills , ongoing promotion of employee COVID-19 vaccination to reach a vaccination rate of 93%, and effectively strengthened pandemic prevention. At Walsin Lihwa, corporate citizenship fulfilment under pandemic situations enables proactive preparedness and exhaustive effort among employees with business partners to make it through the difficult time.

Supply chain management

Proactive pandemic management

The COVID-19 epidemic in 2020 caused a break in the supply chain of some industries. The Company has actively worked with our supply chain partners at the beginning of the epidemic to confirm the incoming and outgoing stocks of raw materials and to coordinate stocking and production. Under pre-contingency management, there was no significant impact on the incoming raw materials and production in 2020.

With regards to the Wire & Cable Business, domestic procurement of the Taiwan plants has not been affected by the pandemic; while for overseas procurement, the pandemic has affected the production of suppliers and we have suffered delays or failure to receive orders from suppliers. In the second half of 2020, there will be reduced shipping schedules and severe container shortages, which will result in unpredictable and delayed shipments. The Company's countermeasures of developing secondary sources of materials, notifying manufacturers for advance production, and arranging flights have resulted in no significant impact on the Company. In early 2020 Dongguan Walsin was subject to inter-provincial movement control of drivers and trucks. The Company used measures such as adjusting inventory, negotiating delayed delivery date, and applying for special traffic release permits to reduce the Company's production loss. By April 2020, we had gradually returned to normal and suffered no significant impact.

Supplier coordination

COVID-19 Supply Chain Risk Management and Countermeasures

Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the supply of raw materials continue to be affected by shortage of containers, port congestion, and delayed arrival in 2021. To ensure the supply of raw materials, in addition to internal pre-contingency management to actively stabilize our supply chain partner relationships, Walsin ensured a stable supply of raw materials by regularly reviewing and establishing reasonable safety stock, decentralizing the purchase of goods, and flexibly adjusting the production mix of raw materials.

  • • Hsinchuang Plant and Yangmei Plant
    In response to the Level 3 Alert of the epidemic from May 2021, our employees worked in shifts. The raw material procurement unit maintained raw material procurement operations through pre-built supplier contact mechanisms and online tools (e.g. video conferencing software, communication app, remote work information platform). The supply of domestic raw materials has not been affected by the epidemic. In addition, in order to cope with the delay in the arrival of overseas raw materials due to port congestion, we have developed a second source of raw materials and placed orders and arranged flights earlier. No significant delays has been caused to our production operations overall.
  • • Shanghai Walsin
    To avoid the delay of order delivery due to Yangzhou city closure, we coordinated with customers to move the delivery to a later date for some orders, adjusted the production schedule, and arranged new suppliers to supply materials to ensure the smooth delivery of orders.
  • • Dongguan Walsin
    During the pandemic control period, suppliers’ drivers had to be quarantined by 14+7 days after each delivery, so no suppliers were willing to send their staff to the cities under lockdown control. To prevent the supply of a small amount of key raw materials from being cut off, we asked the manufacturers to send the goods to a nearby non-controlled city, and then transferred the goods to Dongguan Walsin by vehicles with quarantine permission to ensure normal production during the pandemic.

Corporate Citizenship

Fighting Against the Pandemic Together, Donated to Lo-Sheng Sanatorium and Hospital

In mid-2021, the COVID-19 pandemic grew rapidly nationwide in Taiwan. In light of the shortage of medical supplies in hospital and increasing medical demands, Walsin donated NT$1.2 million to Lo-Sheng Sanatorium and Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) for purchasing necessary medical supplies and relevant equipment in the hope of providing sufficient supports for medical professionals at the frontline to combat the pandemic.

Countermeasures

Pandemic Prevention 360

In response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, Walsin Lihwa set up a company-wide pandemic prevention and response center, initiated the "Business Continuity Management Plan for Pandemic Prevention", and formulated "pandemic prevention measures" in accordance with the government's pandemic prevention policy. The company organized a complete protection network for employee healthcare to ensure 360-degree protection for every employee.

A letter was sent to employees from the Chairman, Vice Chairman, and President to explain the company's response measures and to maintain a stable work morale.

Healthcare

Cooperation among employees to protect the health each other

During the epidemic period, the Head Office's Epidemic Prevention Command Center kept track of the epidemic situation and epidemic prevention materials at each plant, assisted in the deployment of epidemic prevention materials, and canceled large events and gatherings. During the period of severe pandemic, regional job rotations and some remote work were initiated to ensure the safety of employees and to maintain the company's operation.

In addition, the environmental safety and health, human resources, and plant affairs units at each plant in Taiwan also found out about the work and living needs of migrant workers, promoted pandemic prevention knowledge and measures, and provided pandemic prevention materials and various assistance as needed.

Effective Prevention Ensuring Business as Usual

In response to escalating COVID-19 infections while ensuring business as usual despite pandemic prevention in 2021, Walsin Lihwa fully complied with the government’s pandemic prevention regulations to strengthen various preventive measures by preparing sufficient surgical masks, medical grade alcohol, disinfectant sprays, and forehead thermometers while setting forth relevant pandemic prevention guidelines and plans. The guidelines and plans included office distancing, flexible work hours, pandemic prevention management for migrant workers, emergency notification and responsiveness, prevention of inflight infections, arrival quarantine, strengthened environmental disinfection on a regular basis, mandatory mask wearing, people traffic control at plant and office entrances and exits, daily temperature taking required for all employees before they go work, daily intelligence gathering on pandemic developments with health education and promotion, daily health status tracking for employee health management, working from home drills , ongoing promotion of employee COVID-19 vaccination to reach a vaccination rate of 93%, and effectively strengthened pandemic prevention. At Walsin Lihwa, corporate citizenship fulfilment under pandemic situations enables proactive preparedness and exhaustive effort among employees with business partners to make it through the difficult time.

Supply chain management

Proactive pandemic management

The COVID-19 epidemic in 2020 caused a break in the supply chain of some industries. The Company has actively worked with our supply chain partners at the beginning of the epidemic to confirm the incoming and outgoing stocks of raw materials and to coordinate stocking and production. Under pre-contingency management, there was no significant impact on the incoming raw materials and production in 2020.

With regards to the Wire & Cable Business, domestic procurement of the Taiwan plants has not been affected by the pandemic; while for overseas procurement, the pandemic has affected the production of suppliers and we have suffered delays or failure to receive orders from suppliers. In the second half of 2020, there will be reduced shipping schedules and severe container shortages, which will result in unpredictable and delayed shipments. The Company's countermeasures of developing secondary sources of materials, notifying manufacturers for advance production, and arranging flights have resulted in no significant impact on the Company. In early 2020 Dongguan Walsin was subject to inter-provincial movement control of drivers and trucks. The Company used measures such as adjusting inventory, negotiating delayed delivery date, and applying for special traffic release permits to reduce the Company's production loss. By April 2020, we had gradually returned to normal and suffered no significant impact.

Supplier coordination

COVID-19 Supply Chain Risk Management and Countermeasures

Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the supply of raw materials continue to be affected by shortage of containers, port congestion, and delayed arrival in 2021. To ensure the supply of raw materials, in addition to internal pre-contingency management to actively stabilize our supply chain partner relationships, Walsin ensured a stable supply of raw materials by regularly reviewing and establishing reasonable safety stock, decentralizing the purchase of goods, and flexibly adjusting the production mix of raw materials.

  • • Hsinchuang Plant and Yangmei Plant
    In response to the Level 3 Alert of the epidemic from May 2021, our employees worked in shifts. The raw material procurement unit maintained raw material procurement operations through pre-built supplier contact mechanisms and online tools (e.g. video conferencing software, communication app, remote work information platform). The supply of domestic raw materials has not been affected by the epidemic. In addition, in order to cope with the delay in the arrival of overseas raw materials due to port congestion, we have developed a second source of raw materials and placed orders and arranged flights earlier. No significant delays has been caused to our production operations overall.
  • • Shanghai Walsin
    To avoid the delay of order delivery due to Yangzhou city closure, we coordinated with customers to move the delivery to a later date for some orders, adjusted the production schedule, and arranged new suppliers to supply materials to ensure the smooth delivery of orders.
  • • Dongguan Walsin
    During the pandemic control period, suppliers’ drivers had to be quarantined by 14+7 days after each delivery, so no suppliers were willing to send their staff to the cities under lockdown control. To prevent the supply of a small amount of key raw materials from being cut off, we asked the manufacturers to send the goods to a nearby non-controlled city, and then transferred the goods to Dongguan Walsin by vehicles with quarantine permission to ensure normal production during the pandemic.

Corporate Citizenship

Fighting Against the Pandemic Together, Donated to Lo-Sheng Sanatorium and Hospital

In mid-2021, the COVID-19 pandemic grew rapidly nationwide in Taiwan. In light of the shortage of medical supplies in hospital and increasing medical demands, Walsin donated NT$1.2 million to Lo-Sheng Sanatorium and Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) for purchasing necessary medical supplies and relevant equipment in the hope of providing sufficient supports for medical professionals at the frontline to combat the pandemic.

▲ 2020/12/14 Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-Che visited the Yenshui Plant to show his concern for migrant workers' pandemic prevention and care.