In the last three months, the COVID-19 illness caused by a strain of the coronavirus has swept across the world. At the time of writing this article, it had claimed over 100,000 lives and completely disrupted operations across industries. One of the most severely impacted sectors was manufacturing.
Manufacturing has always been a labor-intensive industry employing 2.7 million workers in the U.S. alone. As more and more regions come under some degree of lockdown, factory staff is also shrinking. Further, the industry relies on porous international borders for procurement and distribution. The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc with the world’s manufacturing supply chains. Ultimately, people’s demand for most non-essential goods is coming down, which has a ripple effect on production. Currently, manufacturers in countries like the U.K. and others are exempt from lockdown – but a slump continues to loom ahead.