Through Fire and Flood

Text by KK Chong and David Nakayama, DET Corp Comm

In the past two months, we had two major disasters near Delta Thailand that added to the disruption to our COVID-19 “new normal” lives. In July, a massive explosion at a foam and plastic pellet factory in our area damaged property and forced some of our colleagues to evacuate from the toxic smoke. Then at the end of August heavy rains caused flooding in our industrial estate and disrupted our operations as we ensured the safety of our people and controlled impact.

After the explosion, residents within a 5km radius were evacuated due to the rapidly spreading toxic fumes. This has affected several of our colleagues staying nearby. However, our factory operations were not disrupted since the nearest Delta plant is about 20km away from the accident site.

Nevertheless, instead of just counting our blessings, DET’s Safety team started picking out lessons from the mishap. Since it was reported that rescue works were hindered due to the lack of the factory blueprints, our Safety team promptly issued copies of the blueprint to several other related departments including the guardhouse.

Similarly, during the early onset of the pandemic, a cross-functional taskforce was assembled and went into full throttle mode to promptly implement a multitude of preventive measures based on consultations and a keen sense of urgency.

Just weeks ago, Delta’s resilience and crisis management were once again put to the test when heavy rains resulted in an unexpected flash flood in the early morning. Our night shift employees were stuck in the factory as the water level reached 1.15m and normal transports were unable to enter the premises.

The crisis management team responded promptly and within hours, all affected employees were safely evacuated and just slightly over 48 hours later, operations were back to normal. During the 48 hours, for the safety of all employees, alerts were sent out twice a day via emails, official LINE chat group and department heads to inform everyone not to come to the office until the floodwaters have fully receded.

Sustainable business culture isn’t built in a day. It is built with dedicated employees who seek to continuously improve and benchmark excellence. Like everything in life, the true grit of an individual can only be proven when faced with the toughest challenges. Delta Thailand has weathered many challenging times and with a  company culture built on the belief in our people and crisis awareness, come fire or flood, Deltans are ready.

In our September issue Town Hall column, DET president Jackie Chang updates our latest actions and recognizes the dedication of our teams and each Delta Family member who chooses to protect themselves and the nation against COVID-19 with vaccines.

In the Onsite section, our 8^th part of the DET Voices audio series brings you the true voices of our QA/QC women who share why quality is so important in our work and lives. In the same section, we also find out about our first Angel Fund for Startups Hackathon event.

In the Focus section, we feature two engineering interns who share their experiences in the Delta International Exchange Program and get to hear from Delta India’s Business Head for Display solutions on how Delta Displays is supporting the efficient functioning of Metro Rail Systems in India. In our Up Close column, we introduce Delta Vietnam and Myanmar Country Manager, Mr. Tony Meng, who share secrets to Delta Vietnam’s remarkable growth.

In the Our Success section, we celebrate Delta Singapore’s launch of a containerized smart plant factory at Singapore’s first smart business Punggol Digital District (PDD); Delta Thailand teams victories at the first-ever virtual Delta Cup; our Thailand Energy Award 2020 is three categories.

Our CSR section features Delta India’s commitment to sustainability on the occasion of Delta’s 50^th anniversary and Delta Thailand’s initiatives to donate our used carton boxes to produce eco-friendly field hospital beds and open our new factory as a government vaccine center.

Finally, our Fun section celebrates our cute furry on International Dog Day and relives the moments of glory for India’s new Olympic heroes at the Tokyo 2020 games. In our Hotspot section, we visit Bangkok’s largest park and a water sports center not far from our Delta head office. And don’t forget to check out the latest episodes of our new Delta 99 video series in the Whiteboard section.

About the Author (DET Corp Comm)

KK Chong and David Nakayama

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