P&G Sets Record, WFH Forever at Twitter, Pepsi Snacks Online

Procter & Gamble Tops Production Record — With Zero COVID-19 Cases

P&G environmental leader Jose Del Los Rios hasn’t seen this rate of production during his 28 years at the plant in Pennsylvania that makes toilet paper, paper towels and diapers.

“We are making more Charmin and Bounty and Pampers and Luvs than we’ve ever made before in the history of this plant,” Del Los Rios told Business Insider. “To do that, we’ve really had to focus our employees on keeping themselves safe.”

Focus, they have.

Business Insider reports that as of May 6, “there were no positive cases of COVID-19 for any employees at the Mehoopany (Pa.) plant,” which measure about a mile long, end to end.

Safety measures P&G has implemented include: pausing overtime work, assigning employees to use specific entrances, administering daily temperature checks and expecting employees to wear masks.

Grab a Spot for emPOWERUP Virtual: May 27

emPOWERUP Virtual, our latest technical training workshop and discussion, is live! Sign up for our next session on May 27 while spots remain available.

Here’s some of what we’ll cover:

• Benefits of Edge Computing
• First Look at GE Digital’s HTML5 Web Client, Proficy Operations Hub
• emPOWERGUARD: Overcoming IT/OT Convergence Challenges
• Cybersecurity for Operational Technology
• Project Discussion and Q&A (that’s questions from you!)

Google, Twitter, Facebook Project WFH Until 2021

Major technology companies often serve as workplace trend-setters.

If that holds true, companies that look to Google, Twitter, Facebook and Microsoft as examples could be planning to allow employees to work from home through the end of 2020.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in an email to employees on Tuesday told them they may work from home “forever,” if they want, even after the coronavirus lockdown is over, according to BuzzFeed and reported by NBC.

Other companies aren’t going quite that far.

Google says most employees will work from home until 2021 and Facebook plans to reopen offices after July 4, but it will allow employees to work from home until next year if they’re able to do so.

Microsoft and Amazon extended their WFH policy through October and Slack’s policy is currently through September, according to Forbes.

PepsiCo Gives Consumers an eCommerce Option for Snacks

On Monday, PepsiCo launched two eCommerce platforms to seize on customers’ desire to shop for groceries online.

Snacks.com is where customers can order and ship Lay’s Kettle Chips, Tostitos, Cheetos and other favorites; and Pantryshop.com is where they can find oatmeal, cereal, etc.

“We wanted to give the consumer another choice.”

Gibu Thomas, PepsiCo’s head of e-commerce

“Online food sales were up 66% for the week ending May 2, compared with the same period last year, according to market research firm Nielsen. Food had the biggest year-over-year growth in e-commerce for that week, Nielsen noted,” CNN Business reports.

Hardware Highlight: Red Lion FlexEdge

Flex is in the name of Red Lion’s latest network edge platform, so that’s probably a clue that adaptability is the priority with the company’s latest innovation for companies going through digital transformation.

There are a ton of features here, but a key one to pay attention to if you’re thinking about deploying them in oil and gas, water, wastewater, maritime or factory applications is the interchangeable “sled” architecture.

Sleds are basically swappable parts that enable the device to capitalize on new communications technologies as they become available.

No more “rip and replace” to avoid obsolescence.

Want to learn more? Visit our products page and click “Place an Order.”

emPOWERUP Virtual: May 27

To learn more about FlexEdge and other edge communication strategies and solutions, don’t forget to join GrayMatter on May 27 for our next emPOWERUP Virtual Webinar.

Yes, mentioning it once more in case you forgot.

We’re kicking off the agenda with a discussion by Kelli Settell and Greg Hazel of GrayMatter about the benefits of edge, so bring your FlexEdge questions.