Ateliers Muquet, the specialist in luxury interiors, fine joinery and cabinet making, has put in place the measures required under the French coronavirus pandemic health emergency plan, including a Business Continuity Plan (BCP), in order to reopen for business in compliance with the new hygiene standards to ensure the safety of everyone. In implementing these measures, Ateliers Muquet based its actions on the recommendations of industry bodies L’Ameublement français and La Chambre française de l’Agencement to enable a partial resumption of work without compromising the health and safety of employees, customers and partners.
Getting back to work in accordance with all the safety rules
This resumption of activity is dependent on strict respect for the crucial safety rules on personal protective measures:
- wearing a mask and disposable gloves
- keeping at least 1-2 meters apart
- applying all the personal protective measures
- regular thorough hand washing
- systematic cleaning of areas of contact used by more than one person
- a matter of personal responsibility: everyone must take care of their own health and watch out for the appearance of symptoms such as a dry cough, high temperature, headaches or breathing difficulties, so that they can react as quickly as possible to avoid spreading a possible infection.
Passionate about reopening for business
For a company like ours, it was not immediately obvious how to interpret the lockdown measures announced by the French government on March 16. Deciding how to respond most effectively to events involved a long period of consultation. Although other companies in our industry continued working, Ateliers Muquet Chaiman Christophe Lalla and his partners Éric Delanne, Philippe Ducouret and Luc Villacèque took the decision on March 17 to shut down production as a precautionary measure to help fight the spread of the virus, and until it was possible to create a secure workspace that would keep everyone safe.
There was a real passion to reopen for business as soon as possible, with many of our employees ready to self-isolate… at work! During the shutdown, a Team Ateliers Muquet WhatsApp group was formed at the earliest opportunity: this allowed as many people as possible to stay in touch, swap ideas and make a collective decision about what to do next.
It is in times of crisis that you see just how cohesive a company is.
Ateliers Muquet has been as accessible as ever
Production may have been shut down temporarily, but Ateliers Muquet remained as accessible as ever, keeping in close touch with all its stakeholders. The management team maintained permanent interactive contact with our customers to offer them the best-possible level of service given the national lockdown measures. We wanted to maintain our business in this way so that we would be 100% ready to get back to work and prepared to:
- safeguard our jobs post-crisis
- protect our company, which despite its excellent management is not invincible
- restart our production resources as efficiently as possible at the earliest opportunity
Following official formalities and health standards
Together with a dozen or so employees – who we thank hugely for their incredible commitment – Ateliers Muquet Chairman Christophe Lalla did a huge amount of work to prepare for restarting reduction.
To make sure that everyone stays safe and push back against the spread of the virus, we have restarted our business in total compliance with formal documentation drawn up with input from our partner Gaia Consulting, our occupational physician and trade organizations.
- We also worked on formalizing the structure of our BCP. This crisis management guide has now been adapted to address the pandemic, and lists all the actions to be adopted by the company and its employees.
- We have also updated our DUERP (Unified Business Risk Assessment Document) which pulls together all the recommendations for combating the Covid-19 epidemic and the preventive initiatives to be implemented.
- We have established evidence of need for business travel on a case-by-case basis.
In terms of equipment, we have put in place all the preparations required for employees to return to their workspace. This involved:
- reorganization, storage, cleaning and disinfection
- ensuring that employees can maintain the safe separation distance of at least one meter
- training employees in the preventive and protective health rules
- sourcing more personal protective equipment to provide our employees with protection on a daily basis. In addition to our existing stocks of gloves, etc., an order for more personal protective equipment will be delivered on May 1, when we will receive 2,000 surgical masks, 1,000 FFP2 masks and 40 liters of alcohol-based hand sanitizer gel.
Thanks to everyone in the team!
It is in times of crisis that you see just how cohesive a company is. Ateliers Muquet is very proud of the fighting spirit shown by its teams, and would once again like to thank them: by working together, we have succeeded in finding solutions that have kept everyone we work with in contact with each other on Monday April 20 to get back to work while keeping everyone absolutely safe.
