PROTON Adapts Operations To Movement Control Order And Carries On

PROTON is adapting to the limitations of the Movement Control Order (MCO) and carrying on its work. The government-imposed MCO, which began on 18 March 2020, is a necessity to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus, but has caused major disruption to everyone’s lives and the way we do things but it is all about adapting to this temporary way of life.

Despite having to work with the requirements of the MCO, PROTON is still running its daily operations on a limited scale. To ensure its employees are not caught by the restrictions, the company had obtained approval from the relevant agencies for essential operations to be carried out by certain employees.

With a staff strength of about 10,000, keeping track of the health of everyone is difficult but important. During the MCO, the health status of every employee is monitored twice a day. Suspected infections are told to isolate and get treatment. The monitoring includes weekends and takes into account where the staff is based during the MCO as well as the active work status. A task of this magnitude requires the cooperation from all levels.

“When the news of the COVID-19 virus made headlines, PROTON put in to effect an action plan to mitigate against infection. We have been diligent in our efforts and even before the MCO was announced, we cancelled all overseas business travel and enforced work from home operations for a few departments with staff who were quarantined for possible infections. Our main priority is the health and safety of our staff and we are hopeful of emerging from this situation unscathed,” said Dr Li Chunrong, Chief Executive Officer of PROTON.

While adhering to the restrictions of the MCO means all PROTON facilities have been temporarily shut down since 18 March, certain job functions within PROTON still require to be performed onsite. This includes the maintenance of PROTON’s production facilities, and the operations of a few service centres earmarked to service the fleet of PROTON vehicles used by government agencies.

Operations for other areas within the company continue. Each department is required to hold daily meetings with department heads updating the team members on management decisions and apportioning work with daily deliverables. All of this is done via video conferencing, ensuring all employees can meet remotely and safely.

“While we are cognisant of the need to adhere to the MCO, PROTON has obtained approval from the authorities for a small number of its staff to continue working at specific locations to perform essential services. As for our other staff members, we have asked them to adapt their work practices to the MCO rules. Thanks to video conferencing and messaging technology, meetings and discussions can be held from anywhere with an Internet connection so we are hopeful of keeping disruptions to our business operations to a minimum level,” said Dato’ Radzaif Mohamed, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of PROTON.

Supporting The Government’s Fight Against COVID-19

To support Malaysia’s front liners in the fight against COVID-19, PROTON has loaned the Ministry of Health 50 units of its Proton X70. The vehicles will be used to shuttle health workers to and from work as well as to send them to any virus hotspots in the country requiring immediate attention.

“As a Malaysian car manufacturer and significant contributor to the local automotive industry, PROTON sees it as a duty to assist the government in its battle against the spread of COVID-19. The frontliners are especially in our thoughts and we felt that this was an area that we could offer assistance with very quickly. For now, this is the most direct assistance we can give but we are also looking at other avenues of support as well,” said Dr Li Chunrong.

The effort was welcomed by the Ministry of Health as it helps alleviate some of their challenges in terms of logistics.

“The Ministry of Health is thankful to PROTON for its contribution of vehicles. It is a deeply meaningful gesture and specifically assists the Malaysian government’s efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dato’ Sri Dr Chen Chaw Min, Secretary General of the Ministry of Health.

PROTON, while acknowledging the scale of this health crisis, is confident the country will be able to navigate itself to a safe outcome. “These are trying times but we are certain that if we pull together, Malaysia will come out of this strong. PROTON will be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with all Malaysians as we see this through”, added Li.

Keyword: PROTON Adapts Operations To Movement Control Order And Carries On