Owens Corning

Business Challenge

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we needed solutions to address risks to business continuity, facility operations and plant production schedules in 100+ manufacturing facilities. Most importantly, we had to ensure employees’ safety while balancing the need to keep our facilities open and plants operating to meet our customers’ needs. Three areas of focus were employee health, providing safety equipment for front line workers in plants, and clear guidelines on employee travel globally in an ever-changing environment during the pandemic.

Analytics Solution

Working with the Crisis Management Team (CMT), the three scenarios were addressed quickly with data analytics as COVID spread rapidly across the globe:

1. Conducted a daily health survey of employees for COVID symptoms, providing real-time alerts to monitor employee safety at all locations.
2. Managed an increased demand for PPE at each of our 100+ facilities, along with a global shortage of safety supplies, by creating dashboards and analytics. Plant teams had insights on employee headcount, PPE protocol levels, safety supply inventory and usage reports to make timely decisions on running operations safely.
3. Provided clear travel guidelines through dynamic dashboards based on rules and regulations for travel by country, location and business restrictions.

Impact

• Employee safety ensured as a key priority: We enabled plants and office locations to ensure employee safety through real-time health status, contact tracing and follow-up to advise on quarantine and safe return-to-work guidelines.
• Business continuity in uncertain times: Plant operations were guided by visibility to the PPE inventory in 100+ locations for safe production of products to meet customer needs.
• Transparency of travel rules and risks across locations: Employees had a global view to make informed decisions on travel.