Robert Bosch said four of its factories in China -- three of which make components for vehicles -- are operating under closed-loop conditions as the country adheres to its strategy of limiting virus transmission.
Auto parts sites in Chongqing, Chengdu and Jinan, plus an industrial technologies plant in Beijing, have entered closed-loop systems, Bosch said, a set of working conditions under which employees are kept isolated from the outside world and tested for COVID regularly to allow production to keep running.
“In China, the company at the beginning of this year established plans on how to implement closed-loop management if required,” a Shanghai-based spokeswoman for Bosch China said in an emailed statement Wednesday. “It’s a comprehensive plan with the aim of stabilizing business activities including supply chain wherever possible.”
Closed-loop systems -- first deployed during the Beijing Winter Olympics as a way of keeping athletes and support staff separate from the wider population -- were meant to be the panacea that would keep China’s economy chugging even as Covid restrictions limited movement. They were employed successfully earlier this year but have proven harder to maintain in recent weeks amid growing dissatisfaction over Beijing’s handling of the pandemic.