How COVID-19 Has Changed the Way Eagle Technologies Operates

As the world faces unprecedented times, the health and safety of Eagle Technologies’ teammates, customers, and partners remain its top priority. This temporary moment of crisis has transformed the way the company works and connects with others. As of right now, production will continue and critical infrastructure project schedules are still in place. However, Eagle Technologies has made some major operational changes.
SUMMARY OF CHANGES AND GOALS:
Our Changes in More Detail:
Supply Chain Management
The very first thing we did was send a letter to our supply chain partners. This information exchange provided us with insights into how our customers might be affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Just like Eagle to our customers, our supply chain is vital to keeping crucial infrastructure companies operational.
Health and Safety Management
“Safety and compliance have been a priority. We’ve been working hand in hand with our legal team to ensure we’re doing all we can to inform and support our people during this challenging time.” — Mike Levi, VP Finance/CFO
Health Information
We have provided the following information to all 230 of our teammates, as per CDC guidelines and our internal managerial decisions:
Screening Documents
We created a screening document for visitors and customers to fill out within 24 hours prior to arriving at our facilities.
Physical Screening Prior to Entry
We have implemented a policy that lets us screen all teammates and visitors entering our facilities. This screening includes:
Reduced Visits
No suppliers or visitors can visit our facilities without permission. Going forward, we will only allow for critical essential visits.
Social Distancing Guidelines
To keep our teammates safe, we will continue to follow social distancing guidelines, where people are required to stay six feet or more apart. We will continue to follow CDC guidelines to support customers who also provide national critical infrastructure.
We have also improved our remote working capabilities, which allows us to continue operations at this time:
Improved Internet
Our IT department has moved our VPN to a higher-speed internet connection, which gives 150 teammates the ability to work on our servers from their homes.
We upgraded our VPN equipment and software to allow all teammates who use a computer to work at home.
More People at Home
At the time of writing, more than 65 percent of our teammates are already working from home. We were able to facilitate this process in less than one week.
Video Communication
We have used Skype to communicate in all of our meetings. At first, this was a challenge for many of our teammates as we have never used Skype to this extent. All managers have now learned how to Skype successfully and can connect to the network remotely and adjust phone/video conferencing accordingly.
“I would be at a severe disadvantage without Skype for closely and effectively managing my team. Instant messaging, quickly transitioning to voice calls, and screen sharing is a huge time saver.” — Mechanical Engineering Manager
Other tools we use include FaceTime, Microsoft Teams, group text messages, and email.
Important Message to Customers
Our customers provide a valuable service to the United States. These are some of the products and services they provide:
As per an executive order from the State of Michigan, Eagle Technologies delivers critical equipment and production machines to key industries such as defense, health care, life sciences, food and beverages, and pharmaceuticals. Our equipment is used to supply essential products to consumers across the U.S.
Eagle Technologies’ services are essential, and we will continue to remain open during this mandate.
Currently, Eagle Technologies has at least 15 projects that provide products for customers in food and agriculture, health care, defense, and more. These will continue.
We are working with our supply chain partners to confirm that our essential customer base is not affected by products and services provided outside Eagle. This has been our top priority since the end of January. We are closely monitoring all our supply chains.
How We Will Help the Community
Eagle has reached out to organizations in the essential medical supply chain to see if we can help in manufacturing conversion efforts. We are willing to help manufacturers modify their existing equipment to solve the current shortage of medical supplies.
As a world-class engineering and technology company, we have the technological know-how to help these manufacturers with production solutions at this difficult time. We will continue to reach out to medical customers and offer assistance for assembly and test equipment that can expedite higher-volume supplies.
In cooperation with local authorities and health care providers, we are utilizing our additive manufacturing capabilities to manufacture PPE that is in short supply. We have three 3D printers running 24 hours a day to produce face shields for local hospitals and authorities.
In addition, our team is working on testing booth concepts for curbside testing. These booths can also be used in hospitals and other designated locations. Our team is working on three versions: A weather-resistant booth for outside testing, and a more streamlined version for hospital entrances, and a walk-up version. In all three cases, these booths will protect our health care workers.
A Message to Our Teammates
“I am extremely proud of how Eagle has adjusted to the current national emergency. We started making preparations for teammates to work from home back in February to keep our person-to-person employees safe, and we will continue to monitor the situation. Together, we can provide our essential services without interruptions.” — Brandon Fuller, Partner/COO of Eagle Technologies
“Within one week, we went from 70 engineers working from their offices in Bridgman, St. Joe, and Detroit to having nearly every engineer working from home. We are extremely proud of all of our teammates during this difficult time.” — Jason Cleveland, VP of Engineering at Eagle Technologies
Source: Eagle Technologies