GM making rapid progress on Project V, despite critics (like me)

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.

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. 

You gotta love American ingenuity.   People can be inspired to greatness during a crisis.   And never underestimate the motivation to get paid. 

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.

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?). 

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. 

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...

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. 

Now were all glad GM was bailed out!