On March 30th, Ford announced that it would make 50,000 ventilators by July 29th to meet the critical demand caused by the novel COVID-19 outbreak. The company plans to start production on April 20th.
Ford, in partnership with GE Healthcare, will produce a simple kind of ventilator called “GE/Airon Model A-E,” which doesn’t require electricity and operates using air pressure. Since 2004, the ventilator design has been approved by the FDA and sells for $7,000. GE Healthcare plans to license the device and secure its approval for manufacture by Ford. The automaker company will serve as a contract manufacturer.
Ford explained:
Ford will provide its manufacturing capabilities to quickly scale production, and GE Healthcare will provide its clinical expertise and will license the current ventilator design from Airon Corp. — a small, privately held company specializing in high-tech pneumatic life support products.
Ford will produce the ventilators at its Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan. It could potentially ramp up production to 30,000 ventilators per month, as needed. “The Ford and GE Healthcare teams, working creatively and tirelessly, have found a way to produce this vitally needed ventilator quickly and in meaningful numbers,” added Jim Hackett, the CEO of Ford.
Hackett stressed that production couldn’t happen without the assistance of the United Auto Workers membership. Their cooperation makes it possible to accomplish the task in such a short time.
Initially, Ford will work with Florida-based Airon to boost production in the sunshine state before beginning work in Michigan. The automaker said that if it runs its Rawsonville factory around the clock with 500 paid volunteer UAW members, it could produce 1,500 ventilators by the end of April, 12,000 by the end of May, and 50,000 by July 4th. Full production would see 7,000 ventilators per week.
Ford and General Motors both shut down all US vehicle manufacturing about two weeks ago. The automakers partnered with ventilator manufacturers to rapidly expand the scale at which the devices can be made.
Peter Navarro, the White House Defense Production Act Coordinator, said:
Ford and GE are moving to speed urgently needed ventilators to the front lines of the Trump Administration’s full-scale war against the coronavirus.
Ford’s director of manufacturing core engineering, Adrian Price, announced that employees would begin training in the next few weeks to make the Airon ventilators.
