VENTILATOR CHALLENGE UK JULY/AUGUST 2020
This, in turn, extended
to the shopfloor. “We’ve had
to empower people to make
decisions,” Elsy explains.
“We’ve also had to allow teams
to self-organise. There was
no ‘command and control’
structure in place – it’s just a
group of companies coming
together on a common mission.
We didn’t set out with a grand
vision of collaboration or any
corporate values – there simply
wasn’t the time for that.”
This has meant the group has
learnt a lot about empowerment
and the importance of trusting
people to do the right thing –
something that Elsy says created
a “very energising environment
to work in”.
“All the consortium members
have learnt a lot of lessons that
Many of those get in the way of people being able
to do the ‘right’ thing and can slow things down.
“At no point in empowering people did we get
caught out; when things went wrong, because
there was such a high degree of ownership, people
naturally self-corrected. There’s an interesting
lesson to be learnt within big businesses – there
are constraints and controls put in, all for a good
reason, but hopefully we’ll all go back to our
workplace and challenge some of them. Is it
there for the right reasons, or is it getting in the
way of our people doing the right thing?”
Rising to other challenges?
The success of the Ventilator Challenge has
proven what can be achieved by an industry
working together. The logical question is whether
the combined forces of manufacturing could be
harnessed to meet some of the other challenges
facing society in the future, such as climate change
and the push for zero emissions.
“Mark Mathieson, who has led McLaren’s
response to the consortium, said to me on one latenight
call, ‘hey Dick, we could work like this all the
time!’,” laughs Elsy. “Aside from the 18-hour days,
he had a point – why can’t we apply this mindset to
the next big challenges that are facing us? We have
major problems to fix that are damaging the planet.
There are engineering solutions available, we just
need to get on with it.”
In fact, Elsy has already spoken to Business
Minister Nadhim Zahawi about the work of the
Ventilator Challenge and how it can be applied
to other challenges. This, he says, could also have
a positive effect on how industry is perceived by
the general public. “We hope it inspires current
engineers and will also help attract some new
blood – who wouldn’t want to be involved in
something like this?”
Despite the 18-hour days and 4am Zoom calls,
Elsy’s enthusiasm for the work of the Ventilator
Challenge is clear to see, and he’s keen that the
legacy of the past few months is remembered. He’s
keen to stress though, that it’s not ‘his’ project,
and instead all the consortium partners should be
equally recognised. “Ultimately, somebody had to
step up – it’s a national crisis,” he says. “The sense
of achievement is really profound, and has been
life-changing. It really is engineering’s finest hour.”
Elsy himself was due to retire later in the year,
but has decided to defer that to help lead the
Catapult’s work in meeting future challenges. If
the work of the Ventilator Challenge is anything
to go by, there will be no crisis too big that he –
and UK manufacturing – cannot conquer.
Watch the full interview with Dick Elsy at
https://bit.ly/2NGnWaX.
Manufacturing Management is proud to be part
of the #EngineeringHeroes campaign, an initiative
launched in collaboration with our sister titles at MA
Business to celebrate UK industry’s response to the
COVID-19 crisis. Visit www.engineeringheroes.co.uk
to find out more and lend your support.
Penlon’s factory
in Oxfordshire
saw production
ramp up from
five units a week
to 300 a day
we want to maintain when we
go back to our day jobs,” he
continues – adding that there
is “no reason why that spirit of
collaboration can’t carry over to
the wider industry” as the long
recovery process begins.
Elsy is also adamant that the
relatively hands-off approach
worked wonders on the quality
of work done – something that
he hopes will rub off onto other
manufacturers.
“Having given people the
freedom to operate, you might
think that would add a lot of
risk,” he says. “However, it’s
been interesting to reflect with
companies that have governance
structures and authority levels
that are put in place to ensure
tight control and the right degree
of discipline across the business.
The team at STI in Hook with the completed ventilators
Technology to the rescue
The need for speed and social distancing requirements mean technology has
played a key role in the work of the Ventilator Challenge. For starters, the whole
project has been coordinated “from our bunkers” over Microsoft Teams meetings.
The realignment of Airbus’ Broughton factory was designed using a ‘digital twin’.
“We did all of the factory planning and modelling using a digital twin, which
enabled us to have the actual plant up and running in under 30 days,” says Elsy.
It was the remote training of thousands of staff that caused the biggest roll-out
of technology, though. Traditional methods of classroom training, followed by
hands-on learning lineside, were, clearly, impossible. “We’d been developing a lot
of virtual reality capability as part of the HVM Catapult,” says Elsy. Microsoft supplied
hundreds of Hololens 2 devices to assist with remote training – probably the
largest-scale implementation of VR technology in the UK to date.
“This relationship enabled us to put big training packages together and train
people remotely,” explains Elsy. “It worked really well – and wouldn’t have been
possible without the technology.”
20 www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk
/2NGnWaX
/www.engineeringheroes.co.uk
/www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk