How can suppliers support medical device manufacturers ramping up for COVID-19?

Coronavirus is here. And while our doctors and nurses fight the virus on the front lines, many of us are wondering what we can do to help.

As manufacturers, we make stuff. And ventilators are in short supply. The manufacturers that make ventilators are trying to ramp production as quickly as possible to get products in the hands of the people that need them.

But what can manufacturers that don't have ventilator expertise do to help?

Over the last 2 days, I have seen an increasing number of posts on social media from component manufacturers offering their help to the manufacturers of ventilators.

These suppliers are not just trying to profit off of the moment. The posts I've seen portray a genuine desire to help and capture the feeling that we're all in this together.

And for every person that writes a post, there are even more people that share the sentiment. Bryan Packard, a Rhode Island based machine shop owner, wrote a post on Thursday offering his help. Since then, he has had a dozen other shops contact him to back him up in any way they can.

"The bad news," he says "Is that I have not been able to find anyone in the medical industry to tell me what needs to be made."

Meanwhile, manufacturers of medical devices are looking for labor and components to meet increased demand. Perma Pure manufactures respiratory therapy and oxygen monitoring equipment. Their President, Sharon Bracken, posted on LinkedIn Monday looking for temporary assembly help in the Lakewood, NJ area.

So the question is, how can we connect the people that want to help with the businesses that need it most?

It struck me that if I were trying to ramp up production of medical devices right now, there would be a lot of fires to put out. I wouldn't be able to proactively seek out suppliers. So I asked a few contacts with supply chain experience, what is the most helpful thing suppliers can do right now for a manufacturer looking to ramp production?

Here's what I learned:

Sharon at Perma Pure suggests that qualified equipment manufacturers contact medical device manufacturers by phone or email. The most important information these manufacturers need to know right now is, what each component manufacturer could do to accelerate their capacity and by when to accommodate increase in demand.

NOTE: Perma Pure has a current need for more flow meters to build oxygen system supplies. If you are qualified to meet this need, please reach out to them directly.

If you are unable to reach the companies that might need your help, here are two suggestions:

1. Reach out to the major distributors of medical device components and coordinate through them. That simplifies things for the medical device manufacturer's supply chain team, because they have a single point of contact for multiple suppliers via that distributor.
2. Reach out to the major OEMs of medical device components to see which components they cannot meet the demand for and work with them to fill in the gaps.

If you want to make sure that companies seeking help can easily do business with you:

1. Make sure they know whether or not you can meet their timelines
2. Be very responsive and make sure you can quickly qualify or disqualify yourself as a potential vendor. Live chat on your website is a very effective way to do this.
3. Make sure you can stay open! Manufacturers of mission critical items and their suppliers are allowed to stay open even when shelter in place is in effect.

Update 3/26: The Precision Machined Products Association (PMPA) has released drawings of the 36 machined parts required to manufacture ventilators to all of its members. PMPA members responded by indicating whether they had capability to produce these parts. The collective information has been sent to General Motors, FEMA, and the White House. PMPA plans to send an addendum to the original list soon. If your shop has capacity, consider getting involved with the medical device ramp up effort through PMPA.

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What else can suppliers do to make sure they are helping medical device manufacturers in this stressful time? Share your feedback in the comments.

I have reached out to several operations professionals at manufacturers that currently trying to ramp production of ventilators, and I will update this article with their feedback if they have the time to reply!