The Precautions Taken to Safeguard the Health of Our Employees and Ensure Business Continuity

At Arçelik, we are closely monitoring the developments in the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on national and global scale. With the responsibility of being one of Turkey's pioneering companies, we see health as our top priority, and take the highest level of precautionary measures in all our operations. We are walking through these challenging days without disrupting our production and services for the basic needs of the society and by completely doing our part in ensuring the health and safety of all our colleagues, stakeholders, business partners and consumers.
 
 At Arçelik, in the very early stages of the pandemic, we have put into effect a preparedness and action plan in line with the announcements of the Turkish Ministry of Health and the measures that are being implemented across Koç Group. The measures taken in accordance with this plan and the decisions we make in keeping with the guidance from the Koç Holding Emergency Coordination Center, are shared with our entire organization on daily basis, and we deliver a transparent communication management. While our head offices switch to home office model, our production facilities, stores, authorized services and supply chain operations continue their activities as per high-level hygiene rules. In addition to taking precautions to safeguard the health and safety of our employees, dealers, services and suppliers, we also map out actions to meet the needs of our customers uninterruptedly in this period, within the limits of legal working rules. We regard the full traceability, triple shift and cluster models, which are production-oriented practices adopted in our manufacturing facilities, as advanced industry standards that will ensure the continuity of production and our industry while also securing the health of our employees. And we share our experiences with our industry and sub-industry partners. We deeply care about all the concerns of our customers hosted in our stores and who continue to get service through our authorized services. On this occasion, we underline once again that the health and safety of our society always comes first for us.While the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is seen all over the world, Arçelik A.Ş., operating in a wide geography, carefully follows the precautions taken in the countries in which it operates. In this context, our production and sales activities in Pakistan ad South Africa have been temporarily suspended as the official authorities in these countries have declared curfews to combat the epidemic. Our production and sales activities in Russia, India and Bangladesh began as the declared curfews have ended in early May.About Our Production and SalesIn this context, we would like to share the measures we have taken across our entire organization as follows: 
 
Our Plants
• Our production facilities implemented the necessary and recommended precautions set out by the Ministry of Health and local health authorities in the early stages. This includes increased cleaning, hand sanitizer stations at accessible points for all colleagues, periodical disinfection for personnel service buses and employee guidelines. We continue to carefully monitor the situation in each facility.


• Full traceability is initiated with the method of numbering and matching workstations, offices and work zones with employees. And so, by securing that our colleagues interact with the same people at contact points, in the event of a possible case, contacted individuals can be detected rapidly and a wider spread can be prevented.
• The cluster-based production system is implemented among our colleagues according to the operation groups and production needs, and their inter-zone interactions is restricted. In the event of a possible case, a wider spread can be prevented.
• Our colleagues working in the production lines are divided into three groups, and a rotation system is deployed to allow one group to stay home every week. In case of a group’s inability to work, including another one in the operation maintains our business.We regard these practices as advanced industry standards that will ensure the continuity of production and our industry while also securing the health of our employees. And we share our experiences with our industry and sub-industry partners.
• In addition to our common use areas, measures and practices that will keep the social distance of 1.5 meters, is implemented in all manufacturing units.  Equipment such as shared hand tools, trolleys, touch screens are disinfected prior to each shift.
• Rotational dining plan is started in cafeterias, capacities are reduced, and the table layout is adapted to the 1.5-meter distance rule.
• All Arçelik locations are closed to visitors both from across Turkey and abroad; all meetings planned in our units are cancelled.
• All domestic and international travels of our colleagues are cancelled. In the case of mandatory travel, company vehicles and use of employee’s own cars are advised, to avoid the use of public transport.
• All of our working system and free time practices are rearranged so that our colleagues can maintain the necessary distance between them. Service hours are arranged to prevent the encounter of entry and exit shifts.
• Number of shifts and of colleagues on production lines are reduced. Units are disinfected by leaving time between assembly shifts.
 

Our Authorized Services
• By activating additional precautions and measures to meet the needs of our customers, our authorized services across Turkey continue to operate.
• All Arçelik authorized service personnel wear special masks and gloves, and also take precautions to disinfect themselves in line with the instructional material provided. Following the completion of their repair process, products are delivered to our customers after disinfection.
• Measurement of body temperatures and health checks are carried out every morning for our authorized service personnel.