Ford's Jim Baumbick on helping fight coronavirus
Ford's Vice President of Enterprise Product Line Management Jim Baumbick told 'America's Newsroom' that their goal is to produce 60 new ventilator machines per hour
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Ford Motors' partnership with General Electric (GE) and Airon Corp. to build 50,000 new ventilators in the fight against coronavirus is in service to first responders and their patients, Vice President of Enterprise Product Line Management Jim Baumbick said Tuesday.
Appearing on "America's Newsroom," Baumbick said that Ford's announcement to build the new ventilators in just 100 days -- half of the time it normally takes -- was following the footprints of company history.
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"Well, there is a very famous statement at Ford and it's 'Go Like Hell,'" he explained. "We see an incredible need for getting medical devices and personal protection equipment into the hands of patients and first responders that need it the most of help fight this war. So, everybody at Ford is absolutely committed to doing whatever we can to help out."
Baumbick said that the auto company's partnership with GE health care and Airon medical manufacturing has been a "great collaboration," taking the best sides of each company and mashing them up together in order for production to ramp-up.
"So, it's really been kind of a two-pronged approach," he said. "We've wanted to get teams on the ground both at GE and at Airon and we're making immediate improvements in the through-put on their current production lines. We've seen almost a 40 percent increase in the amount of product that we're able to produce from GE's existing lines working collaboratively with them. So, that's getting units out to people right now, today."
Baumbick said that Ford would work with Airon in Florida to achieve the same results.
"And, as we bring these team members on to amazing partners of the [United Auto Workers], our goal is to get up to a production rate of nearly 60 of these machines per hour," he stated.
The design Baumbick and others had been developing is what they believe is the "right purpose-built machine to help for the current crisis."
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"Because, as we set up these makeshift ICUs and convention centers and other locations, electricity and other infrastructure is going to be a challenge," he remarked. "And so, this device has an advantage where it operates off compressed oxygen. The device delivers the basic need that is required to support COVID patients."
"There's a combination of those factors that really got us locked in on this as the best possible design to move quickly, given the urgency," Baumbick concluded.
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