GM making rapid progress on Project V, despite critics (like me)
I commented on this story earlier this week that I don't see manufacturing our way out of the ventilator shortage and was dismissive of Ventec's stated goals cited in the press of 2,000 per month. Today it is clear that PROJECT V is aiming at 20,000 per month. Moreover, GM has identified 95% of the supply chain needed to mass produce ventilators and is working on the final 37 pieces.
God bless all the companies involved with employees working 24/7 to get tooled in a week for something that normally would take 3 months to convert to produce!
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/03/23/business/23reuters-health-coronavirus-autos-ventilators.html
Identifying the suppliers, pencils down on part design, and getting a complete BoM (bill of materials) is one thing, but getting the tooling and processes in place to spin up volume is an art.
The phrase "You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant" comes to mind.
The B-24 program at Willow Run during WW2 was an ABSOLUTE DISASTER for the first few months, and the Feds were very, very close in taking over the whole program. Not that the Feds could run it better, and material logistics and contrainsts of making bombers is far more complex than ventilators, but you get the point.
No doubt, but don't discount the motivation of a team who wake up surrounded by the fear and uncertainty of a pandemic that they are trying to partly defeat.
"You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant"
I don't think I've ever heard this expression. Is there data to back this up? I'm getting on Tinder right now and I'm going to find out. I'll check back in a month.
You can’t put nine men on the job and make a baby in one month.
Shawn Kemp admires your dedication.
AC Green disagrees
The version I've always heard was "9 women can't make a baby in a month" and I use that expression every time management wants to hire warm bodies to try and fix a project's schedule. Hint: it never works.
Antonio Cromartie disagrees
"You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant"
Shawn Kemp sure as hell tried...
The greatest generation did this sort of thing between 1939 and 1945. Their parents did the same between 1914 and 1918. They understood sacrifice and the need to innovate for the greater good. Lives will be saved because of these efforts.
March 23rd, 2020 at 11:33 PM ^
you can back that first set of dates to 1929; a full 15 years of hardship and sacrifice.
You gotta love American ingenuity. People can be inspired to greatness during a crisis. And never underestimate the motivation to get paid.
but doesn't a majority of the country want socialism???
/s
Uh No!
Just WD and two other MGoBloggers last I checked.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:54 AM ^
nah dawg
I have a large customer who supplies rubber products to all the major auto manufacturers (seals, gaskets, diaphragms, etc).
They are shut down now that all the auto manufacturers are shut down. They are trying to pivot to "essential" manufacturing to sidestep the gov shutdowns, by making respirators for healthcare workers. Their R&D contacted me and my boss (we regularly help engineers troubleshoot) to help identify something we can supply that they can use for straps for the masks, bc the materials to make masks are also wiped out. My boss jokingly said rubber bands -- like the thick kind you'd use to bundle a ream-sized stack of papers. They said they would actually explore that idea, and picked up samples. As of 3pm today, they approved a prototype for testing, with our rubber bands.
I have no idea what to think about this. Maybe it's genius, but I wouldn't want my healthcare worker family members wearing something slapped together like this in a hospital. But maybe it comes down to this being better than nothing at all.
Prototypes will get tested thoroughly - there is no doubt about that - and even before the start of production. Then the production copies will also be tested to ensure safety and efficacy. THEN they'll start shipping to customers.
I saw another story just yesterday that a dentist, a physician, a graphic designer, and a 3D printing company came up with a way to crank out masks as well. Another company took a look at the design and suggested a way to go from printing one at a time to four.
I was starting to think your post was going this way:
a dentist, a physician, a graphic designer, and a 3D printing company walk into a bar.
the means to affix it to the face isn't the issue...the filter is all they REALLY care about...I'm sure in a pinch it's better than nothing.
March 23rd, 2020 at 10:09 PM ^
I think it was just the fact that the engineers at a rubber factory didn't think of rubber bands that caught my boss and I off-guard. It didn't inspire confidence for the more important part of the mask.
March 23rd, 2020 at 11:36 PM ^
some of the smartest people i know, some even engineers, lack common sense sometimes.
*my boss and me
Fair enough
This is great, and we should be aiming for this. But a critical problem remains that can’t be fixed by logistics - limitations in workforce to manage these critically ill patients (i.e, who are the nurses, doctors, and other clinicians able to care for this surge in patients requiring ventilators?).
It will be most of the same nurses, doctors and clinicians - just taking a lot fewer days/shifts off.
March 23rd, 2020 at 10:02 PM ^
Currently at the DMC, the Anesthesia department they are completely overstaffed. Putting Dr's on forced vacations. CRN in the department can't even get enough hours
Getting people on respirators and watching them isn't going to be the problem. The Respirators are the problem
I read a few weeks ago a reference to a study one of the ventilator companies funded where they looked at who could get a week-long training and oversee ventilators. I wish I could find the reference again, but I recall that of the groups tested, veterinarians were the top scorers on the post-test.
March 23rd, 2020 at 11:39 PM ^
well, that is a reason why the state gov'ts waived the old rule that you can't practice medicine across state lines. hopefully, our country can shift doctors/nurses from one hot spot to another as this progresses from state to state.
another advantage of being a big-assed country.
and yet, most medicial professionals in manufacturing don't think the auto industry can help. At best, the most basic product that may or may not be good enough. Hoping they are wrong and these 'new' guys can add some benefit.
I work for a tier 1 and was skeptical too. They've since been in contact with us and apparently are trying to identify ways to fill in with existing parts or slightly adapt them. Pretty neat.
That said, the way these things tend to work is the first 95% is pretty easy but the bottleneck tends to be one or two parts. So, I'd caution people from expecting their close based on the raw percentage of parts they've identified.
March 23rd, 2020 at 11:43 PM ^
last paragraph is true for most any production or process; even getting a timely value meal from mcdonalds. why do you always run out of fucking fries!!
This doesn't really surprise me. I mean, these guys design the ways things get built, not just the things that get built. And they have a far deeper bench than your basic medical equipment producer. Sure, Ventec is good at designing, supplying, and manufacturing ventilators. They employ something like 20 people, with a ~$4M revenue stream. GM has a little more resources to draw on...
Love to see the country come together.
Love to see the country come together.
One other thing about this. One of the Army's new business ventures for special operations has released a competition challenge for ventilator design. The goal is to create a cheap, repeatable, efficient, and viable ventilator from easily acquired parts that can be found just about anywhere. Plans are due in two weeks, and it will not need to be FDA certified.
Who ever wins this competition may never bring their ventilator to production, but I don't doubt that some interesting designs will be brought forward. Maybe some of the various parts can be used to simplify an already certified machine, make it easier to assemble, or cheaper to produce? In any case, it can't hurt to get the people that design toys for special forces to look at it...
Thanks to the "most generous generation," who took on a personal USG deficit of $3,000 per millennial last year and likely triple that this year...DoD is awash in money. And as your comment suggests, it is also likely that they didn't bother actually communicating with anyone to see if they could leverage their resources to fill an actual need in the fight against the coronavirus. But who is counting, certainly not the Appropriations Defense sub-committee in DC.
March 23rd, 2020 at 10:06 PM ^
To bring this back to UM, a student led club called M-Heal (M-Health Engineered for All Lives) has that same vision, to come up with health solutions that can be brought to all lives everywhere using commonly available parts and tech.
Some of the projects they’ve worked on include surgical lighting using cell phone batteries/sunlight recharging, jungle portable exam tables, non-electrical motor blood centrifuges.
It would be interesting if they’ve looked at this at all.
March 23rd, 2020 at 11:48 PM ^
during the BP oil disaster in the gulf, i remember a similar contest being done to design and build an "ocean/oil cleaner/filter boat" (i don't know the correct term). winner got a nominal prize; like maybe $100k. well, i believe within a few weeks they got several designs that were better than current models; designed mainly by college-aged kids, iirc.
not sure if production on the winning design was implemented or not.
Love to see it. The auto industries ability to manufacture precision, at a large scale, and on short notice. I'll always think of my grandfather at Packard when they out produced Merlin engines of any 2 factories in the UK, despite some having a multi year head start. The Willow run turnaround, and the Chrysler tank plant come to mind as well. The auto industry are supply chain experts.
March 24th, 2020 at 12:02 PM ^
Now were all glad GM was bailed out!
March 26th, 2020 at 11:09 AM ^
Neulich habe ich es geschafft, eine sehr Coole Seite zu finden, wo man eine sehr Coole Droge kaufen kann, Dank der ich immer das genitalorgan heben kann. Ich bin sicher, dass Sie Erfolg haben werden, hier https://apothekefurmanner.de/viagra/ können Sie es kaufen