(SEYMOUR) – Beginning today Cummins Inc. has announced it will change shift patterns and reduce hours for employees at three local manufacturing facilities due to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s statewide stay-at-home order to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The impacted facilities include Cummins Fuel Systems Plant and Cummins Engine Plant in Columbus and Cummins Seymour Engine Plant, said President and Chief Operating Officer Tony Satterthwaite.
At the Seymour Engine Plant, the company will be spreading out the work over seven days to reduce the number of people who are on site at any given time, said company spokesman Jon Mills.
At the Columbus Engine Plant, employees will alternate manufacturing lines on a weekly basis to reduce the number of employees in the facility at one time. The two teams that run LDD lines also will alternate work weeks.
At the Columbus Fuel Systems Plant, the company will reduce the workforce present on-site at one time by about 50%.
Cummins also has reduced workforce hours or shifts at its technical centers, warehouses and service locations.
Cummins is not laying off employees locally at this time.
Cummins has implemented employee health screenings before they enter a manufacturing facility.
Company officials said the company has had “very few cases” of the virus among employees, and none of the employees are believed to have been infected or transmitted the virus while at a Cummins facility.
Cummins officials also said the company is taking measures to make its facilities clean and safe as possible by increasing the frequency at which facilities are cleaned and disinfected, reallocating cleaning crews to manufacturing facilities who were previously assigned to office facilities where most employees are working now from home.
Cummins also implemented social distancing at its manufacturing facilities by moving people around on production lines and staggering shifts.
