There also are monumental issues regarding efficiency to grapple with, Ostermann said.
“We are trying to start up 200 vehicle programs in a matter of days or weeks,” he noted. “The likelihood that there are some hiccups with some Tier 1 suppliers or some Tier 2 suppliers is just very, very high.”
It’s a good thing, he added, that most assembly plants are only anticipating to resume at half of their normal production capacity.
“That, at least, gives us a little bit of a window,” he said.
It was not known last week whether compan- ies up and down the supply chain possess adequate personal protective equipment and testing capacity to put employees back to work.
Wilm Uhlenbecker, CEO of Brose North America, also wondered about how the new normal of factory procedures will affect production efficiency.
“We all have to adjust to the new normal in our factories and on the shop floor,” he said in the Automotive News webcast. “How does staggered shifts begin? Six-feet social distancing, all of these elements — how does that effect our efficiency on the line?”
Several suppliers noted varying degrees of ramp-up progress last week.
Carol Stewart, executive vice president at ADAC Automotive, the Grand Rapids, Mich., maker of vehicle door handles and exterior mirrors, said that while some ADAC plants have been running during the past two months to produce aftermarket parts, most are just now starting to ramp back up.
ADAC was operating at about 10 percent of capacity last week and expects to be at only about 20 percent this week. Stewart said ADAC’s primary roadblock has been state restrictions on manufacturing.
“Our biggest issue really was getting the OK for the OEMs to start manufacturing in Michigan,” she said.
A spokesman for ZF North America Inc. said only about half of its U.S. plants were in operation at the end of last week. And it will be the end of May before all of ZF’s North American plants are back in operation, the spokesman said.
“Financial assistance very well could be needed for the supply chain and we’re watching this closely,” the spokesman said.
