Gimax: a few words about coronavirus

"As you may all be aware, here in Italy we are having to face a situation that in some respects seems to recall one of the many disaster movies that have appeared on our screens over the past years. 

The covid-19 (of the coronavirus strain) is having quite an impact on our society in general, affecting most walks of life, from daily routines like school and work to the general economy. You have probably heard of all the measures that the Italian governing bodies have taken, seemingly exaggerated to some, but I can assure you decisive and certainly effective. 

One of the measures was to create areas of “containment”, but during the course of the past few days all of the Italian territory has been included in this area due to the constant increase in cases. This has resulted in restrictions regarding movements, circulation, travel, stores, closure of shopping malls, schools and similar environments, etc. to avoid contact between people and to avoid the virus spreading more quickly. 

Gimax is still fully operational but has taken a number of precautions to reduce risks to a minimum. Like many companies, those that can work from home have been given full support to do so - VPN connection to the Gimax server, digital conference programmes, etc.

Steps have been taken for those that still work in the factory to reduce to a minimum the risk of infection:

- maintaining a certain distance between workers both in the offices and factory, and use of prevention and safety devices (masks, glasses and gloves);

- daily sanitisation of the office areas and general cleanliness (disinfectant for hands and objects used by more than one person);

- cancellation of all visits to the premises, and meetings with any external company to be done by phone or video conference;

- differentiated factory working hours to limit the number of people in one area at any one time;

- limited access to changing rooms;

- lunch break and coffee breaks at different times during the day allowing not more than 2 people together maintaining proper distance;

- forwarders / deliverymen not to enter the factory but to be received outside and by a person adequately protected with mask and gloves. 

These measures reflect the necessity of containing the spread of the virus to a minimum, and will allow Gimax to face this crisis and continue offering the same level of support that it has always done in the past.

Unfortunately our personnel can not travel at this time, so where service is concerned, all of Gimax machinery for the past few years has been supplied with an integrated modem so that we have the possibility of intervening from here for any service that is not purely general wear or a mechanical fault. We are also looking into implementing another form of remote service which will not require service engineers to travel. This is known as “augmented reality” and without going too much into explanations, can be directly discussed with your contact in Gimax- all the possible suppliers of the interface to allow us to do this. 

Manufacture of machinery will continue as originally programmed in the hope that the original schedule remains unaffected, and for the moment this seems to be the case. However it would be a good idea to be prepared for some short delays as these would seem certain since several component (electrical, electronic and similar) suppliers are lengthening their lead times, forwarders are also more selective in the routes taken and to where machinery has to be shipped meaning a possible increase in the shipping time as well as maybe the shipping possibilities open to us. Of course, on top of this we also need to respect the requirements that will probably arise from certain members of our staff, the necessity to remain at home to assist family members.

So, all in all, Gimax will continue as before and will do so for the foreseeable future, for as long as the situation allows… in the hope that this situation will soon begin to reverse and bring things back to normal. 

Thank you for your attention, and do not hesitate to contact us for any further clarifications that you may require."

Gianluca Marangoni
GROUP PRESIDENT - CEO

The original document is available for download here >>

Update (April 2, 2020): considering the ever-changing situation, production activities are temporarily on hold until further provisions.