COVID-19 GLOBAL PANDEMIC THE ENGINEERING RESPONSE
Four manic weeks
Jens Bleher, CEO of Fritz Studer AG
At the beginning of March, life in the UK (was still odicib),close https://is.gd/ announced to normal,that the
albeit with heightened awareness
of Covid-19’s threat and approach, plus company a focus had on achieved hand-the washing.third-best
But from Monday, 16 through
into mid-April as peak announced hospital deaths approached,annual turnover there in the
was frenetic activity within
company's history
UK manufacturing. This was evident all the way from top-level OEMs, right through the multiple
tiers of the supply chain network on which they draw. Within Machinery’s sphere of interest, it was
ventilators and personal protection equipment (PPE – most typically face shields/visors) that were
last year, and that, despite dif cult market
conditions, the cylindrical grinding machine
manufacturer had increased its market
share again. One reason for its success is
the top-line products spurring action.the The high proportion urgency of during new customers,this period at
was driven by the
almost 40%, it was underlined. Increased
market share is again forecast for this year.
looming possibility of too many patients and not enough equipment, most critically
the availability of ventilators. We capture here the mood of those four key weeks
Sandro Bottazzo, the company's chief strategy
of cer, noted that in North America Studer achieved
the second best result in the company's 100-year
history, while in the Asian region in particular,
incoming orders for internal cylindrical grinding
machines were held at the “high level of 2018”. But
The NHS started out with 5,900 ventilators, with the government widely
reported as having requested a further 30,000 following a Monday, 16
March request for industrial help, although in an article of Sunday,
5 April, The Guardian had this: “The sheer scale of the challenge is one reason
why the government has put in place orders that would lead to the delivery of
at least 61,000 machines ventilators – far more than are supposedly
required www.is.gd/pocelu." And on Monday,
6 April, Machinery was told that the AMRC
understood that the VentilatorChallengeUK effort
was a 50,000-unit affair – the AMRC being part of
the government's High Value Manufacturing
Catapult (HVMC) network that led
VentilatorChallengeUK. That challenge was focused
on two existing designs, one each from Penlon
and Smiths Medical. Of course, there was the Dyson ventilator design, the
GTech design and numerous others that appeared in the UK during this period,
let alone globally, with some designs made available free, including GTEch’s.
But it was VentilatorChallengeUK that was the main game, albeit that even by
21 April, only 250 had been delivered by this consortium, reported
The Guardian (www.is.gd/faduso) – the UK passed the peak of announced
hospital deaths on 21 April, peak UK new cases was on 19 April.
Andrew Allcock, editor
the consortium had received government backing
In turn, metal component makers called upon
“The sheer scale of the challenge is
one reason why the government has
put in place orders that would lead
to the delivery of at least 61,000
machines ventilators – far more
than are supposedly required.”
So, taking that 61,000 gure, it is no surprise that it seemed that a very
large number of component suppliers were pitching in to help the top level
VentilatorChallengeUK consortium. In fact, that
same 21 April newspaper report highlighted that
to buy 11m components.
material, cutting tool, workholding and machine tool suppliers to help them
gear up to produce, with tales of responses within hours
common. Weekend working was widely undertaken.
For face shields, the 3D printer came into its own, with
3D-printing bureaux, printer manufacturers and suppliers,
together with individuals with their own home units, all
stepping up to produce them by, collectively, the
thousand. Even the Royal Mint set itself up to make visors,
not by 3D printing it has to be said. Again, online designs
were made freely available to support a global effort.
In our April issue, we said that communication and collaboration would be
our most powerful tools in this crisis; and so it has proved to be. Of cial
collaboration has been engendered via the HVMC and its member
organisations’ linked OEMs and supply chain partners. This also included
representative organisations such as the British turned part makers'
organisation, the BTMA, and supply chain organisation the GTMA.
While larger organisations issued traditional press material that found its
way onto websites, including Machinery’s, wider collaboration as and when in
Celebrating engineering’s role in fi ghting the Covid-19 pandemic www.engineeringheroes.co.uk Join the campaign!
www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets | May/June 2020 7
www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets March 2019 25
Background images in following pages: Ra/stock.adobe.com Feydzhet Shabanov/stock.adobe.com Romolo Tavani/stock.adobe.com Bluejayy/stock.adobe.com
/faduso)
/www.engineeringheroes.co.uk
/www.machinery.co.uk
/stock.adobe.com
/stock.adobe.com
/stock.adobe.com
/stock.adobe.com