TheCOVID-19大流行的影响从今年早些时候的销售量下降到制造和交付实践的全新协议，建筑设备行业一直很严重。但是，尽管有这些最初的冲击，但主要的设备制造商仍在寻求反弹。
Rich Smith, Vice President, Products and Services for Komatsu America, took time recently to answer some of ENR's questions about the company's COVID-19 response efforts, both in the U.S. and across the manufacturer's global footprint.
新利luckENR：大流行如何影响Komatsu在美国设施的生产，其目前的状况如何？
史密斯: All of our U.S. factories are operating, but we did have some planned shutdowns to bring inventory in line with demand. We haven’t had any prolonged shutdowns primarily due to the pandemic. Of course, additional safety measures have been deployed to assist with social distancing, wearing of masks and promoting good hygiene.
Komatsu拥有遵循以下决策优先级的原则：安全，法律（和合规性），质量，交付，成本。遵循这一原则一直是我们成功的核心，并且在Covid-19的最新影响下为我们提供了很好的服务。
A lot of our focus and effort has been on measures designed to keep our employees and their families safe. As an essential business, Komatsu has continued to operate while following government regulations and global health organization guidance regarding COVID-19.
为了降低员工的风险，我们制定了政策，包括：
• Remote work for those employees whose job can be done remotely
•旋转和隔离基本操作和供应转移
•严格的旅行限制
• Prohibiting visitors to our facilities
•支持病假，并为共同关注的问题提供额外的休息时间
For our employees who cannot perform their jobs from home, we are fully complying with all Centers for Disease Control, state, and best practices for hygiene, social distancing and protective measures.
Komatsu是否选择延迟或推迟由于大流行而推迟任何新产品介绍，并且公司的供应链中是否有任何问题进行替换零件或维修？
Komatsu的优势之一是我们致力于在上下市场中继续研发。因此，即使全球市场倒闭，我们仍在继续努力开发高质量的机器和解决方案，以满足当今和将来的客户需求。3月在Conexpo-con/agg上we launched several new modelsand it was also the global launch of Smart Construction, our innovative suite of solutions for the digitized jobsite of the future.
Our supply chains are robust, and our teams are in very close communication with our suppliers to ensure we can support our distributors and our customers. Komatsu is fortunate because we have diverse and global supply chain business partners. We work hard to avoid disruptions in supply or in a market, but we do not see this as an issue at this time.
What precautions, if any, is Komatsu recommending for disinfecting and social distancing practices during equipment deliveries and service visits?
Working safely and promoting safety is a way of life at Komatsu. Managing our way through this pandemic, while difficult, is something our teams are diligent about. Of course, when servicing or delivering machines, we encourage everyone to follow CDC guidelines regarding wearing of masks and social distancing. If our people are in the operator’s cabin to operate a machine as part of the diagnostic procedures, we ask them to sanitize all the controls and monitor panels when they depart.
We developed the ability to update most of the controllers on our machines remotely without sending a technician to the machine about two years ago. We call it Komatsu Remote Solutions (KRS). Our intent was to reduce customer downtime, provide the customer with the most up-to-date program, improve machine performance and reduce the strain on our distributors dealing with technician shortages. We have performed over 10,000 machine updates without a technician being present. With the pandemic, KRS offers another benefit by limiting potential person-to-person interaction.
Have Komatsu’s digital offerings, such as Komtrax, provided any useful data for better managing equipment fleets during this ongoing crisis?
Komtrax continues to be a fantastic tool for Komatsu, our distributors and most importantly for our customers. At the beginning of the pandemic, we saw a drop in both the number of machines reporting and the number of hours run per month. In North America, that reduction was only temporary, and machine utilization has returned to normal levels compared to years past.
At CONEXPO/CON-AGG in March, we launched our new Komtrax customer portal, My Komatsu. Customers can sign up at mykomatsu.komatsu and view a complete new user interface for their Komatsu fleets. There is a wealth of information such as production, fuel usage, caution codes, upcoming services, etc. to help customers manage their fleets. We also incorporated parts books and the ability to purchase parts directly from the site to make purchasing genuine Komatsu parts easier than ever.
新利luckENR：远程工作是否对您正在进行的业务运营提出了挑战？
Our employees have been amazing, and they are very resilient. In many (if not most) regions, our employees are considered essential because they support our equipment and customers who build and maintain infrastructure, mine essential minerals, and keep waste services and landfills in operation. We are proud of our employees; they haven’t missed a beat and are innovating every day. We are able to use digital tools to conduct business more effectively than we thought possible. This shift will likely increase spending in ways that digitally connect us and reduce spending in travel expenses. For example, meetings or training that occurred pre-COVID in person were often “one and done.” Now we can conduct these digitally and reshare or repurpose them. In some cases, this is even an improvement from our former business practice.
这是一个例子：我们的员工，客户和设备实际上跨越了全球，最近，我们将瑞典的培训课程与亚特兰大的主题专家以及亚利桑那州的一台机器上的诊断实验室联系起来。
Komatsu在这场危机中一直在处理客户和经销商的总体心情是什么？
通常，我们的客户和分销商对不久的将来是积极的。承包商告诉我们，工作仍然有很强的积压。2009年经济衰退后，北美市场正处于异常漫长的上升周期。通常，在建筑和采矿市场中，我们有四到五年的上/下周期。鉴于当前的经济，政治和全球不确定性，很难预见到2018或2019年的水平。但是，在北美，仍然需要许多基础设施改进项目。18luck官网
I have seen an increased focus on collaboration between Komatsu, our distributors and our customers as we all know we must work together to be successful. During these difficult times many of our customers have come to Komatsu for suggestions on how to become more efficient or perhaps maintain production with a portion of their workforce unavailable due to illness. We have a group that is focused on exactly those customer needs, the Business Solutions Group. They work closely with our customers and distributors, listen to their concerns and can make fleet or schedule recommendations to help our customers be successful. Sometimes these must be done in person, but often we can make those recommendations with a couple of interviews and some jobsite specific information.
