UniControl Inc. wishes all of our customers and suppliers a safe and happy Holiday Season as we look forward to 2021.
As Covid-19 continues to spread, unprecedented concerns and issues have emerged for all of us. Every aspect of conducting business is evolving as we prioritize the health and well-being of our employees, customers, and the wider community. UniControl appreciates your patient support of our efforts to maintain safe and reliable operations amid daily changes in the business environment.
As an essential business, UniControl Inc. has taken additional steps to ensure our ability to keep our doors open, our workforce safe, and our products shipping out to customers who depend upon us. Within the facility, we have adopted enhanced protection strategies. These include providing PPE to our employees, enacting new cleaning protocols, installing barriers and increasing the spacing of workstations, converting to work-at-home assignments wherever possible, and conducting daily health questionnaires and temperature checks for employees returning to the campus. We employ professional cleaning services to mitigate any possible Covid-19 related contamination. We have initiated an internal contact tracing program following CDC guidelines in an effort to stay ahead of the spread of the virus in our facility. In short, we strenuously comply with all Federal, CDC, state, and local guidelines.
We take our role as an essential business very seriously, and continue to work with all of our valuable customers and suppliers to maintain effective production levels. Despite our best efforts, the effects of CoVid-19 on our production capabilities are many. They include absences, and, due to precautionary procedures, quarantines. Also, at times, we must cope with component shortages due to our suppliers experiencing the same or worse difficulties. We believe that excellent communication is key to managing these circumstances. Therefore, we are renewing our commitment to providing our customers with timely, honest, and realistic information.
Unfortunately, in some areas we have reached a point now where essential components are on allocation from our suppliers, and shipments to us are therefore delayed. This compromises our ability to maintain a steady, predictable production rate across our product lines. In addition, due to vigorous contact tracing, we are sometimes left with no choice but to reduce our output to ensure that no potentially infected individual comes to work.
We continuously work with our suppliers to monitor and improve their ability to meet our requirements. Even so, the short-term availability of additional materials inventory is unpredictable, and disruption is likely to occur. Many of our customers will note that, for the first time in decades of growth, we have extended our lead times temporarily in order to manage the shortage situations. We ask that customers reach out to us with their scheduling needs when problems arise so that we can work together toward optimal results.
As we begin this most unusual Holiday Season, we thank you very much for your business and your confidence in us. As always, we will continue to make every effort to align our priorities with yours.
We at UniControl Inc. are confident that, working together, we can put Covid-19 behind us in 2021, and advance toward a stronger, more secure future for everyone.