Omicron Variant Poses "Big Wave" Challenge to Industries

[webfact]

 

By Paul Rujopakarn

    

BANGKOK (NNT) - The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) warns that the new Omicron coronavirus variant could, in combination with other factors, pose a major "big wave" challenge for industrial operators.

 

The highly transmissible strain has already prompted many European nations to reimpose strict measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.

 

Kriengkrai Thiennukul, vice-chairman of the FTI, said that, in addition to the Omicron variant, digital disruption, climate change, an aging society and geopolitical tensions will continue to weigh on manufacturing sentiment going into 2022 and beyond.

 

He described these factors as being like a "big wave" that can crash against Thailand’s industrial sector, noting that the aviation and hospitality industries have already been negatively impacted by the pandemic even as opportunities emerged in industries such as healthcare and electronics.

 

Global efforts to slash carbon emissions are meanwhile prompting the European Union to consider imposing a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) to charge manufacturers who fail to adopt climate-friendly measures.

 

Kriengkrai said industries targeted by the CBAM include steel, aluminium, electricity generation, fertiliser and cement, with supply chains expected to feel the impact in the near future.

 

Thailand currently aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

 

On the aging society issue, the FTI vice-chairman said workforce reductions amid expanding elderly care services will lead to shifts in business operations, as people over the age of 60 are projected to make up 30% of the Thai population by 2041.

 

As for digital disruption, Kriengkrai said factor operators will be faced with the need to modernize their manufacturing bases as 61% of domestic industries remain at the Industry 2.0 level focusing on productivity and production capacity. The government is meanwhile aiming to achieve Industry 4.0 goals that encourage manufacturers to employ digital technology and data analyses.

 

On the issue of geopolitical tensions, the FTI vice-chairman specifically pointed to the ongoing US-China trade war that continues to impact the global economy going forward.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2021-12-29

 

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[ThailandRyan]

A Tsunami Tidal wave at the rate this country is slow to act and late to open back up.

[rebo]

His posing looks sooo cool …

[hotchilli]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

BANGKOK (NNT) - The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) warns that the new Omicron coronavirus variant could, in combination with other factors, pose a major "big wave" challenge for industrial operators.

Can you imagine if this runs rife through the major factories?

Auto industry, food processing plants etc.

[ThailandRyan]

2 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Can you imagine if this runs rife through the major factories?

Auto industry, food processing plants etc.

It is already having a knock on effect in the west with staff shortages now, disruption of services including air travel and restaurants having to close, as well as hospital staffing being hit.

[thaibook]

The proportion of the workforce needing to be absent to affect an efficient company is much less than for an inefficient one, and organisations such as the emergency services and armed forces should be designed with built in redundancy in mind.  Is Thai manufacturing efficient?  From my observations, the retail sector is not but I do not know manufacturing. 

[Cake Monster]

58 minutes ago, thaibook said:

The proportion of the workforce needing to be absent to affect an efficient company is much less than for an inefficient one, and organisations such as the emergency services and armed forces should be designed with built in redundancy in mind.  Is Thai manufacturing efficient?  From my observations, the retail sector is not but I do not know manufacturing. 

If the retail sector is anything to go by, the Manufacturing Sector will be woefully inefficient.

Many Companies seem to be extremely top heavy here, with a Manager, assistant Manager, and several underlings running around doing their bidding.

The large Companies, specially the Auto Sector are very efficient, employing all kinds of streamlining processes such as Kaiban, Robotics, Automation Etc

I  think the more inefficient Companies are those with fewer Employees, and these are the ones that will suffer the most from staff absenteeism, but of course, these are also the Companies that are the supply chain for the larger companies, so everything will domino 

Could well end up as a very messy start to 2022

[Stargeezr]

With the big surges of COVID 19 omicron and delta cases, in Canada there are restaurants that

have to close as too many staff members have gotten sick. There are hundreds of flights being cancelled

as pilots and other airline staff are sick, and the flight had to be cancelled. Hospital staff are also getting sick,

as well as other types of front line staff, and that is becoming a problem.  Even if omicron may be less

fatal to a lot of people, they are still sick and cannot work, that is already a problem for quite a lot of companies, good 

thing that a lot of people are now working from their homes or the situation would be worse.  If the factories and big industries in 

Thailand get a lot of workers being sick, this will be a huge problem for Thailand as well.

[vandeventer]

3 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Can you imagine if this runs rife through the major factories?

Auto industry, food processing plants etc.

Wow, we will just have to sit at home and post to you, and starve to death!!! Not much different today.

[Pedrogaz]

IMHO Omicron is the end of COVID. You cannot have this many mutations in a single virus and it have long term viability. Parties should be encouraged and masks removed and have everyone try to get an infection by being close to others. Mothers used to do this with childhood infections like measles (the most infectious virus)....such that when a kid on the block got measles you would be sent round to play with him and so catch it yourself.

If everyone caught Omicron in a given nation then that nation would develop the herd immunity everyone talks about.

[jacko45k]

3 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

Mothers used to do this with childhood infections like measles (the most infectious virus)....such that when a kid on the block got measles you would be sent round to play with him and so catch it yourself.

Yeah, and blood letting and using leeches used to be popular too!