Swisslog customer magazine Inspiration: Issue Summer 2020

What is your responsibility at Swisslog?

I am working as a Maintenance & Support Supervisor.

How did your work change during the pandemic?

There is no much changes in work.  We still provide support to our customers with safety precautions.

How different is your daily work from the “normal times”?

Except for necessity of maintaining social distancing to ensure customer safety, I did not recognize any major differences.

How did Swisslog contribute to enhance your feeling of safety?

Swisslog provided all the safety measures and equipment for safe travel and work. We were provided with hand gloves, masks, and hand sanitizers. In addition, we liaise more often with our team to ensure the timely feedback and frequent updates.

How do you cope with stress in these times?

I do not feel tremendous pressure right now - I try to be prepared for upcoming challenges: I am using all safety measures and rules to avoid contamination. I also keep in mind the guidelines from our management.

What is your responsibility at Swisslog?

As a Field Service Engineer, I work both independently and with our field service engineer team to install, maintain, troubleshoot and repair a wide variety of equipment at our customer sites. I also provide on call support, expertise and technical support training both internally and to our customers. Lastly, I am responsible for some aspects of the implementation, execution and commissioning of new products. 

How did your work change during the pandemic?

This pandemic certainly has changed the way many people work. Every day I’ve learned to adopt new ways of working while practicing social distancing, wearing a mask and adhering to new site requirements.  

How different is your daily work from the “normal times”? 

Our Swisslog customers are providing essential products during this pandemic and to ensure more up time, I’ve learned to adapt to schedule changes by working odd hours and all while wearing a mask and gloves.

How did Swisslog contribute to enhance your feeling of safety?

Swisslog has been working hard sending out supplies, providing masks, gloves and other sanitary products. I am always informed with updates and management has been great at engaging to ensure my safety. 

How do you cope with stress in these times?

I stay connected with my family and friends.

What is your responsibility at Swisslog?

I act as a Site Manager in Swisslog, I manage and coordinate people and materials to ensure that everything follows the planning indicated by the project management. Within this role, I anticipate any problems that might delay the final delivery of the plants. I also provide targeted training for the customer's personnel in the use of our solutions and on safety directives in the workplace.

How did your work change during the pandemic?

During the pandemic, my planning schedules underwent changes on daily occasion. Together with all the other customer service technicians, we were a subject to continuous reorganization of shifts and changes in schedules. This new reality has been very hard to deal with, as we had to learn instantaneously how to adapt to restrictions and how to establish new quality in relations with people.

How did Swisslog contribute to enhance your feeling of safety?

Swisslog always gave me a confidence that my personal safety is in the first place. Together with my supervisors we strived to minimize the risks, providing me with masks, gloves and sanitization solution. Adding to this, we always liaised with customer on safety regarding an intervention plan.

How do you cope with stress in these times?

During the pandemic I have rediscovered new interests for myself. I have learned to bake a bread and prepare pizza from scratch at home. I invested some time in my hobby - woodworking. I dedicated a lot of time to family and friends.

What is your responsibility at Swisslog?

I am working as Project Engineer and responsible for site management and co-ordination.

How did your work change during the pandemic?

During pandemic I was working from home most at the time. In my case, coordination activities were possible to be done via calls.

How different is your daily work from the “normal times”? 

My work during pandemic turned out to be much more time consuming, and really challenged my concentration skills.

How did Swisslog contribute to enhance your feeling of safety? 

Swisslog was very supportive. Supplied necessary PPE and ensured safety procedures in working environment.

How do you cope with stress in these times?

By working calmly and avoiding over-stressing.

"We reacted rapidly to the outbreak and Swisslog delivered the scalable solution within ten days. Before AutoStore, we had small parts warehouse with RBG which did not carry such scalability.

During the coronavirus lockdown we registered soaring demand in almost all types of products. The highest demand we observed for safety products like disinfection, safety masks – which were quite unimportant before the coronavirus outbreak. Additionally, we noticed growing demand for toys (three times more), and food (with long expiry date)."

Roland Brack, CEO, BRACK.CH

"We all had to bend over backwards since the coronavirus outbreak. Without the intelligent logistics processes, tireless efforts of our employees and project partners like Swisslog, we would not have pulled off our new distribution center in Wustermark parallel to the challenges posed by COVID-19 in spring 2020."

Christian Bodi, Head of Logistics, dm-drogerie markt

"Before the pandemic, the Swisslog team helped us a lot in understanding automation and integration of conveying technology. We are making around 95% of our sales via AutoStore and this is an ideal setup for us, because it helps us coping with redundancy, scalability and we have much more confidence in our operations.

I believe that in a long-term perspective, warehouses will translate COVID-19 challenges into more-shift work, smaller teams, and room for more flexibility."

Max Meister, CEO, Ludwig Meister

"We are employed in the haircare industry and during the pandemic we registered a spike in hair dyes, as consumers make attempts in DIY colorization on their own.

Within the warehouse, we needed to organize our operations into three shifts. We had extended our warehouse capacities with Swisslog in November and that help us hedge against pandemic outcomes, but even now we are at the threshold of our capabilities. We invested in the CarryPick system due to its higher capacities for learning the process quickly and filling the gaps of scarce personnel."

Michael Hess, CEO, Salon Hagel

"Our automated distribution center offered many advantages to Stemilt as we operated as an essential business during the COVID-19 pandemic. It allowed us to load trucks efficiently and with minimal handling, so that we could get food off to grocery stores quickly.

We also found the modern facility and technologies within it made social distancing measures easier to deploy. The well-being of our team members remains our primary focus during COVID-19, and it was nice to have technology available to help limit interactions between people."

Brianna Shales, Senior Marketing Manager, Stemilt Growers LLC