News › Opto­Net Press Release • Pho­to­nics indus­try on course in the crisis

Accor­ding to a sur­vey con­duc­ted by the Thu­rin­gian indus­try net­work Opto­Net e.V., the majo­rity of com­pa­nies and rese­arch insti­tu­ti­ons are suc­cee­ding in actively facing the chan­ged con­di­ti­ons. In recent weeks, pro­duc­tion areas have been res­truc­tu­red under high pres­sure, per­son­nel plans have been adjus­ted and strict hygiene mea­su­res have been intro­du­ced, so that as a result most com­pa­nies in the pho­to­nics indus­try can con­ti­nue to pro­duce and rese­arch. Opto­Net bund­les the cur­rent needs of its mem­bers, brings their demands into the poli­ti­cal dis­course and con­verts events to digi­tal offerings.

Thomas Bauer
Tho­mas Bauer | Mana­ging Direc­tor Opto­Net e.V.

Tho­mas Bauer, mana­ging direc­tor of Opto­Net e.V., has spo­ken per­so­nally with many of the 100 play­ers in the net­work over the past few weeks. While in other indus­trial sec­tors pro­duc­tion has been shut down or greatly redu­ced, in the pho­to­nics indus­try pro­duc­tion pro­ces­ses are lar­gely con­ti­nuing. Many com­pa­nies have quickly crea­ted the con­di­ti­ons to enable num­e­rous employees to work from home, but also to stay in cont­act with cus­to­mers and suppliers.

Pro­duc­tion con­ti­nues • Thanks to the employees

»Of course, short-time work, decli­ning orders and incre­asing pro­blems in the sup­ply chains also play a role,« says Tho­mas Bauer, »but not a sin­gle com­pany has had to com­ple­tely shut down pro­duc­tion so far. Since most com­pa­nies are very well net­worked inter­na­tio­nally, order can­cel­la­ti­ons from cer­tain regi­ons can often still be com­pen­sa­ted. The industry’s broad ori­en­ta­tion towards a wide range of users, such as mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, medi­cal tech­no­logy or infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­no­logy, also enables short-term reac­tions. The mana­ging direc­tors of the com­pa­nies praise above all their employees, who have respon­ded to issues such as child­care, shif­ting working hours or home office with great enthu­si­asm, per­so­nal com­mit­ment and flexibility.

Fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment depen­dent on inter­na­tio­nal economy

Howe­ver, most Opto­Net mem­bers do not dare to look into the future. The long-term effects of the cri­sis also depend on how long the shut­down lasts in Ger­many and other indus­trial nati­ons and what con­se­quen­ces it has for cus­to­mer and sup­plier net­works. Many entre­pre­neurs are loo­king with con­cern at busi­ness in the USA, while at the same time report­ing posi­tive signals from Asia.

Fur­ther sup­port needed

The aid pro­gram­mes set up by the State of Thu­rin­gia and the Fede­ral Govern­ment in the form of grants, loans and short-time working allo­wan­ces are lar­gely wel­co­med by the respond­ents, with short-time working allo­wan­ces being used in particular.

»We are pre­pared to shape our own future. Howe­ver, the glo­bal scale of this cri­sis urgen­tly requi­res accom­pany­ing mea­su­res for the pho­to­nics indus­try as well,« says Dr. Tors­ten Poß­ner, entre­pre­neur and CEO of Opto­Net. The mem­bers men­tio­ned, for exam­ple, the imple­men­ta­tion of qua­li­fi­ca­tion mea­su­res, the estab­lish­ment of sup­port pro­grams, but also mea­su­res to sta­bi­lize liquid assets and the equity ratio of the com­pa­nies, inclu­ding the orga­niza­tion of child­care. The pho­to­nics sec­tor in Thu­rin­gia is cha­rac­te­ri­zed by close inter­ac­tion bet­ween indus­try and rese­arch. For this reason, the active pro­mo­tion of rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment coope­ra­ti­ons by the state is par­ti­cu­larly neces­sary in order to sus­tain­ably accom­pany the adjus­t­ment pro­cess of indus­trial struc­tures that will be neces­sary after the crisis.

Opto­Net bund­les requi­re­ments and con­verts formats

Opto­Net e.V. bund­les the sug­ges­ti­ons of its mem­bers and pres­ents them to poli­ti­cal decis­ion-makers for dis­cus­sion. At the state level, Opto­Net is an active part of the Cross-Clus­ter Initia­tive Thu­rin­gia (CCIT), in which the Thu­rin­gian net­works have joi­ned forces to pro­vide the best pos­si­ble sup­port for com­pa­nies in the cri­sis. The office coor­di­na­tes clo­sely with the network’s board of direc­tors, which includes small and medium-sized com­pa­nies, the large Thu­rin­gian com­pa­nies JENOPTIK and ZEISS as well as rese­arch insti­tu­ti­ons. As com­pen­sa­tion for at pre­sent not rea­lizable mee­ting for­mats digi­tal net­work mee­tings were con­cei­ved and alre­ady first Web­i­nars accomplished.

 

Cont­act

Nora Kirs­ten
Com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons & Events

+49 (0) 3641 573 36 50
ed.anej-tenotpo@netsrik.aron