Inside the auto giants’ efforts to build prototypes and revamp factories to produce tens of thousands of ventilators in time for covid-19 patients.
By Reed Albergotti and Faiz Siddiqui Washington Post April 4, 2020
With ventilators in short supply, a small business teams up with GM to fill the gapVentec Life Systems is working with General Motors to ramp up production of ventilators, which hospitals across the U.S. need amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Tim Matsui, Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post)
This week, union workers at a Ford manufacturing plant outside Detroit raced to set up new production lines. But instead of making hybrid car batteries, the usual output from the factory, they are preparing to churn out tens of thousands of ventilators, joining the sprint against the clock to fight the coronavirus.
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Scrambling to get production underway, the workers took apart a ventilator and 3-D scanned each of the roughly 300 parts, creating computer simulations of how the device could be assembled efficiently. Ford, which has partnered with a ventilator-maker and GE Healthcare, has been rushing to train workers and obtain the parts to have its first prototype ready early next week.
Ford and General Motors both announced in late March that they would build the medical machines after shutting down car production and sending workers home, a historic redeployment of their factories and workers.
But the relatively late start of both companies means the bulk of their production will come online in May, possibly missing the peak load of cases expected by most U.S. health officials in mid-April.
“Time is not on our side,” said an auto executive involved with the efforts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the progress of the effort. “Even though we are moving mountains … and we are moving as many as we can as fast as we can … these herculean efforts might not be enough.”
More than a month after the global pandemic took root in the U.S., manufacturers across the country are overhauling their operations to produce the equipment needed for an anticipated spike in infections and hospitalizations, often under political pressure.
Ford said it aims to produce 1,500 ventilators by the end of the month. GM, which brought its first group of 100 project workers into training this week, said it will start producing 10,000 units per month by as early as mid-May.
But the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that 32,000 ventilators will be required by the peak in mid-April, and the government only has about 10,000 stockpiled, President Trump said Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of novel coronavirus patients are expected to flood hospitals around the country in the coming weeks, overwhelming medical staff who don’t have enough equipment to keep all the patients alive. New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) has said his state needs 30,000 ventilators alone.
And while the ventilator Ford is building is simpler and could allow it to go faster than GM, it is designed to be used on patients who are being transported to hospitals in ambulances or helicopters and doesn’t have some advanced features that doctors, intensive care specialists and ventilator experts told The Washington Post they’ve come to rely on when treating coronavirus patients afflicted with acute respiratory distress syndrome.
President Trump ordered the automakers to build ventilators “NOW!!!!!!” in a tweet last week, invoking the Defense Production Act to order General Motors to get on the case.
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