Cash flow tops list of concerns for some Canadian mold makers
Cash flow concerns keep manufacturers up at night more than any other issue, according to the latest COVID-19 impact survey by the Canadian Association of Mold Makers and Automate Canada, a national association for industrial automation companies.
The cancellation of future projects, reduced demand, concerns about employee health and the state of the economy round out their top-five list of concerns. The state of the economy bumped employee morale off the top-five list of concerns for the week. The survey provides a snapshot of the status of a small number of companies, primarily mold makers, as well as automation providers and other companies.
Other key items from the survey include:
• The number of employees out of the workplace due to isolation or quarantine dropped to 58 compared to 97 the previous week. Thirty-five manufacturing workplaces reported having no employees on quarantine, down from 51 the previous week.
• Thirty-five workplaces, or 65 percent of respondents, laid off no workers this week, compared to 46 percent of respondents who did not lay anyone off the previous week. The number of employees laid off also decreased this week, declining to 143 employees laid off temporarily, compared to 197 the previous week.
• There were 395 furloughed employees, down from 475 reported the previous week.
• Twenty-nine employees were reported as permanently laid off, down from 32 the week prior. Some 87 percent of respondents reported not letting anyone go permanently.
This is the fifth week of the COVID-19 impact survey, which closed April 21 and received 54 responses. Sixty-four percent of companies responding listed their business as mold tool or die manufacturers, and 15 percent are primarily involved in custom automation. Companies providing software services and other products made up the remainder of the respondents. Sixty-two percent of respondents are small companies with between one and 50 employees.
