GM CEO Mary Barra called the White House to disclose plans for a production shutdown, then asked what the automaker could do to help.
The nation’s two largest domestic automakers are exploring ways they could help offset the worsening shortages of ventilators and other medical supplies needed to cope with the worsening coronavirus pandemic.
Ford and General Motors say they are currently “exploring” ways to put their manufacturing expertise to work, much as they anchored America’s “Arsenal of Democracy” during World War II. Several sources TheDetroitBureau.com spoke to indicated that one approach could involve using 3D printing technology to create ventilators and other medical gear.
The subject came up during a call placed by GM CEO Mary Barra to the White House, explained spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan. “She called to give (Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council) news that we were going to suspend production and also said we wanted to help” in other ways.
(Detroit automakers temporarily shutter North American production.)
White House economic chief Larry Kudlow said he spoke to two senior Detroit execs about their possible role in providing much-needed medical supplies.
That led the largest of Detroit’s automaker’s to begin looking at what medical gear is in short supply. Along with coronavirus tests, one of the biggest gaps involves the ventilators needed for severely ill patients. Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, can cause serious damage to the lungs, making it difficult to breathe without assistance.
Kudlow referred to the conversation with CEO Barra and another Detroit executive during an interview on Fox News. He did not disclose which companies but the second is believed to have been Ford. Both manufacturers on Wednesday announced plans to halt North American manufacturing operations until at least March 30th, as has cross-town rival Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
(US auto sales expected to plunge to Great Recession lows — off 50% or more in April.)
Cristian Fracassi and Alessandro Ramaioli show off on Facebook the ventilators they created.
“One of them,” Kudlow said during his interview, “told me that, even while the men and women may be off for two weeks due to the virus, she’s going to try to call them back so they can produce ventilators. They might even ask them to do it on a voluntary basis for civic and patriotic reasons.”
Ford spokeswoman Rachel McCleery confirmed the second-largest Detroit automaker also is exploring ways to address the shortages.
“As America’s largest producer of vehicles and top employer of autoworkers, Ford stands ready to help the administration in any way we can, including the possibility of producing ventilators and other equipment,” Said McCleery, adding that the automaker has also had “preliminary discussions” with the British government.
(Facing sales collapse, wave of repos, automakers reach out to consumers.)
A prototype seat bracket produced by GM using 3D printing, a technology it could use for producing much-needed ventilators.
Such efforts are already ramping up in both the U.S. and the UK. Vauxhall, the former British-based GM subsidiary purchased by Groupe PSA three years ago, is working to repurpose some of its own equipment to provide ventilators. So is Boeing. The Italian 3D printing start-up Isinnova is already producing valves for hospitals in that country – Italy currently suffering the world’s worst outbreak of the coronavirus.
Also known as additive manufacturing, 3D printing is particularly well-suited to producing devices like ventilator valves and masks. The technology takes digital blueprints and uses the data to blast a laser at a vat of epoxy liquid or other materials, building up a solid product one pixel at a time.
The process is slow compared to traditional automotive manufacturing methods but automakers are beginning to use the technology for specialized and low volume parts on products like the Ford Shelby GT500, as for the development of concept and prototype vehicles.
If the Detroit makers do step in it would mirror the way they joined the war effort nearly 80 years ago. “That was a time when we did take America’s manufacturing might and bring it to bear on an issue affecting the whole country,” Kristin Dziczek, CAR’s vice president of industry, labor and economics, told trade publication Automotive News. “And that’s what we have to do now.”