The COVID-19 pandemic has been the largest disruption to the manufacturing in modern history, causing even the largest global manufacturers to stop production. The pandemic forced factories to minimize or stop production for the safety of the employees and often at the demand of local and federal governments.
To minimize the spread, many companies required nonessential employees to work from home when possible and furloughed employees who worked on assembly lines. For essential manufacturers, this meant staggering shifts and running the facilities with the smallest number of employees possible, often producing at a significantly reduced rate.