TechNova delivers amidst unprecedented times of COVID-19 crisis

Health and safety of people is of prime importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The whole world, including India, has been under a long period of lockdown to break the chain of viral infection.Under such a difficult situation, TechNova Imaging Systems has ensured uninterrupted supplies of critical raw materials of printing plates, pre-press & pressroom chemicals and digital print media.

As soon as the national lockdown was announced TechNova received requests from leadin g newspaper houses and publishers to resume supplies, as print media is categorised under the essential services.TechNova thus approached the government authorities and obtained necessary permissions to operate its manufacturing plants, warehouses and transport vehicles for outbound distribution and inbound movement of input materials.

Despite numerous lockdown obstacles, TechNova carried out pre-start preparations and had set up innovative systems and restarted the manufacturing whilst ensuring that all precautions for the health and safety of its staff were adhered to. Listed here are some of the significant safety measures and precautions being taken by TechNova to combat COVID-19 at its premises, production plant, during and after the production process.

• Regular disinfection of all contact surfaces in work areas and transport vehicles.
• On-site medical facilities are available 24×7 for employees.
• Personal protective equipment (PPE)and sanitising consumables mandatory for all employees.
• Dedicated vehicles for pick-up and drop-off services for employees, following strict social-distancing seating norms.
• Social distancing measures at all areas including canteens, washrooms and production offices.
• Workshops with employees to educate them on preventive measures and hygiene guidelines as prescribed by the WHO and UNICEF.
• Thermal scanning of every person at the entry points.
• Mandatory handwashing at regular intervals.
• Hourly announcements on in-plant PA system on Safety Dos & Don’ts.

Further, Team TechNova created a virtual War Room with logistics, tech-support and sales team working 24×7 to effectively meet the customer needs.While the entire country is under lockdown, it is a matter of great achievement for TechNova to overcome all hurdles and keep its manufacturing operations on to ensure business continuity for its valued newspaper, publishing and packaging print customers.

A messiah for newspaper houses in tough time

TechNova as a one-stop solution provider of every pre-press and other needs for almost every single newspaper house in India has a strong foothold in the country. In this respect, Kolkata-based ABP Group articulates their pride of using printing plates, printing blankets, pre-press and printing press chemicals from TechNova Imaging Systems over a long period of time. TechNova’s support to the newspaper group has always been trouble-free. Even in the lockdown period, TechNova has done an outstanding job by maintaining the supply chain well as the group never felt the shortage of any material in their stock.TechNova prepared well in advance, so was ABP Group, especially when it came to getting permission from the government and local authorities for vehicle movement in West Bengal.

The newspaper group took all the precautions to avoid COVID-19, from procurement to delivery of newspapers. Disinfecting the newspapers before delivery has been a major step in this. Each copy is packed in an individual plastic bag. They have never faced any problem when it comes to newspaper production and delivery. However, due to the lack of activities during the lockdown, the number of newspaper pages has come down. This means consumption of chemicals, printing plates and blankets has also gone down by half. This has helped maintain the supply chain.

Another long-time customer of TechNova, Prabhat Khabar beats the blues of lockdown as they manage to print newspapers in full zeal. “It has been tough time for everyone. Many allied industries have pulled down shutters, but we can’t put our newspaper production on hold. TechNova has been helping us with printing plates and chemicals for pre-press and press. We are getting uninterrupted supply from the company,” says Gopal Poddar, AGM – Purchase & Projects, Prabhat Khabar.

He continues, “Most newspaper houses maintain a stock for 30 to 45 days production and that stock is also helpful.We are producing newspapers from our nine printing centers with half the regular pagination. In this tough time, we and our suppliers have helped each other, especially in getting permissions and documents from local authorities.” While the page numbers of Prabhat Khabar have come down, the delivery of the newspaper has also been tough. Newspaper hawkers cannot deliver the papers in red zones. In this respect, Gopal puts it as a long haul which they just have entered into it.

Newspapers production contains multiple variables and manpower. So, Amar Ujala has implemented a system where only necessary staff can come to the plant on alternate days and produce the newspapers. “In such unprecedented times, we appreciate TechNova for their commitment. We use TechNova printing plates, printing blankets, ink saving software and printing chemicals. They manage trouble-free supply during this tough time,” remarks Pradeep A Unny, Vice President – Production (Newspapers & Commercial), Amar Ujala Publications Ltd.

The number of printing copies and pagination of Amar Ujala went down. “Since the entire production has decreased, we don’t need manpower in full strength as there has not been much activity,” informs Pradeep. He adds that delivery is a big challenge because newspapers are ignored in many places due to COVID-19 concern. He mentions that most of the newspaper houses maintain a stock for 45 days, so no worries on that front, especially when they are running their plant at 65 percent of its utilisation with TechNova keeps operating its supply chain amidst the unprecedented times of COVID-19 crisis.

The importance of having a domestic print consumables manufacturer and ‘Make in India’ manufacturing has been well proven in such a time of crisis when Team TechNova extended itself in every way to meet the needs of their customers.