ShopBot Tools: Tackling COVID-19 Employer Challenges as a Small Business Owner

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ShopBot Tools is a firm that designs, manufactures, and distributes affordable CNC routing machines for milling, drilling, and cutting various materials. They have been operating in Durham, North Carolina for the past 18 years and the founder, Ted Halls, is continuously innovating to provide the best in affordable digital fabrication. The company leaned on its innovative thinking to continue working through the COVID-19 pandemic.

They created flexible schedules so that different teams could come into the manufacturing plant on different days to ensure the health and safety of all employees. They also implemented a mask policy and temperature checks at the door. On days where employees would stay at home, they would continue to work by bringing the necessary tools with them so that they could manufacture parts themselves in their garages. To keep everyone organized and on track, management began to hold stand up meetings over zoom every morning to check in with employees. They continuously communicated their progress to ensure delivery of their tools to customers. As a result, the company managed to not only maintain its operations but also have one of its best months ever.