General Motors is readying its Kokomo electronics components facility and training staff to begin volume production of Ventec Life Systems’ critical care ventilators

GM says production will be scaled up to build 10,000 critical care ventilators per month

GM says production will be scaled up to build 10,000 critical care ventilators per month

GM says it is actively training its employees at the plant in the extensive screening, cleaning and other CDC-recommended procedures that will be in place when production begins in mid-April.

The OEM highlighted some of the measures being put place. Everyone arriving for work will be required to sanitise their hands immediately upon arrival and have their temperature checked with a non-contact thermometer before entering the job site. Medical-grade protective masks (some produced at GM’s Warren, Michigan facility) will have to worn by all staff during their shift.

In the work place each workstation will be manned by one person, and be spaced at least six feet apart, and signage throughout the facility will remind team members to practice social distancing. Cleaning crews will clean and sanitise common touch surfaces such as door handles, as well as common areas, at least three times per shift, and there will also be a 30-minute interval between shifts to allow employees to clean their workstations when they arrive and again before they leave.

General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra (l to r) and Ventec Life Systems CEO Chris Kiple talk with a worker while touring the GM manufacturing facility in Kokomo, Indiana. GM and Ventec Life Systems are partnering to produce VOCSN critical care ventilators at the facility in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

General Motors and Ventec Life Systems are partnering to produce critical care ventilators in response to the Covid-19 pandemic

An area of GM's manufacturing facility in Kokomo, Indiana has been rapidly converted into a ventilator assembly hall

Ventec Life Systems Vice President Engineering Joe Cipollone meets General Motors employees who will be helping to produce the ventilators at the GM Kokomo, Indiana manufacturing facility

General Motors employees will be helping to produce the ventilators at the GM Kokomo

GM says production will be scaled up to build 10,000 critical care ventilators per month

The production team, which will reach more than 1,000, includes people who already work for GM and new hires from the Kokomo area

General Motors employees will be helping to produce the ventilators at the GM Kokomo

The UAW has worked with GM to put in place stringent CDC health and safety protocols

Medical-grade protective masks (some produced at GM’s Warren, Michigan facility) will have to worn by all staff during their shift

GM says production will be scaled up to build 10,000 critical care ventilators per month

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Initial production will begin with one shift, with second and third shifts added soon thereafter. Each shift will enter and exit through a different door to minimise social contact. The production team, which will reach more than 1,000, includes people who already work for GM and new hires from the Kokomo area.

Gerald Johnson, GM executive vice president, Global Manufacturing said: “People have moved mountains to help increase production of Ventec’s critical care ventilator and we are just weeks away from delivering these lifesaving devices. I have never seen anything like it in my career.”

Terry Dittes, vice president, UAW-GM Department said. “The UAW has worked with GM to put in place stringent CDC health and safety protocols. Our goal is to make sure that each and every day, people return home to their families and communities safe and healthy.”

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