This post will not be a reflection of my day, rather an opinion on President Trump’s latest effort to move the country through the COVID-19 virus. This morning I listened to a news bit about Trump’s direction to General Motors to make respirators by the thousands and in a hurry. GM offered to help the country, but is moving slowly so the president being a typical impatient CEO has taken over and is using the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to force them into action. My comment on that is “Good Luck Pres.”
At one time GM was the largest car maker in the world and they let the Japs take it away from them. If any company will work like government i.e. slow, sluggish, takes forever, gets lost in its own bureaucracy General Motors is it. One of their largest problems has been with dealing in downsizing in order to increase profit. They have not learned how to make more with less, and that is after thirty years of trying. One anchor around their corporate neck is the UAW union.
GM knows how to make cars, that is their business and that is what they can do best. How in the world will they be able to translate car manufacturing into respirators is a wish. Unfortunately, wishes don’t get things done. I give them credit for trying.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am a disgruntled former GM employee. I started at GM in 1963 working for the Electromotive Division. At that time GM had over 90% of the world market share for diesel locomotives. What is their market share today? Who knows, but they lost the bulk of it to competitor’s because of two reasons; 1. They didn’t listen to their customers, and 2. They continued to kiss the ass of the UAW. GM finally gave up making locomotives in 2005 after converting the world from steam to diesel.
I can not picture the kind of respirator that GM will build. It will most likely have four wheels and great styling, and they will all look like a Chevy or Cadillac . . . SUV’s.
Another problem is that GM produces cars from components made in countries around the world. They only assemble them in the US. An internet search reports that 55 percent of GM car parts are from the United States and Canada, 20 percent from Japan, 15 percent from China,…
Any car company would be better off starting a new factory in an available warehouse with all new CNC machines installed for making parts. They would also buy ready made high volume components like pumps from companies that make pumps for a living. Put a team of engineers on this project and challenge them to get the problem solved, and respirators made in record time. I wouldn’t use GM engineers, because their culture is not to do things fast. The guys at Ford would be better suited for this type of project.
In my day as Chief Engineer, I would have had a field day managing this kind of work, and could easily have respirators in production quickly. The only requirement being that we don’t have to design the device from scratch.
Companies that make equipment like respirators for hospitals.
- Resmed (USA)
- Weinmann (Germany)
- Philips Healthcare (Netherlands)
- Carefusion (USA)
- GE Healthcare (USA)
- Medtronic (USA)
- Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (New Zealand)
- Teijin Pharma (Japan)
- MEKICS (South Korea)
- Dräger Medical (Germany)
- DeVilbiss (USA)
- Apex Medical (Taiwan)
- Air Liquide (France)
- Hamilton Medical (Switzerland)
- SLE Ltd (United Kingdom)
- eVent Medical (USA)
- Maquet (Germany)
- Siare Engineering (Italy)
I don’t see General Motors on this list anywhere. I would use these companies to make respirators en masse, not GM.
Another thing, I would demand a realistic estimate of the quantity needed. There is at least one report I read that stated we need seven billion respirators. Really? That is one for every citizen on the planet Earth. That is panic reporting and stupid. Not all seven billion people on this planet are sick today. The panic sellers conclude that this pandemic has the potential for infecting the entire Earth. Even if that happened only a small percentage would need respirators. And if we all needed them who would be healthy enough to hook us up to them? Calm down folks, there comes a time when we have to let nature take it’s course.
People who worry about death from pandemics also worry that the population of the Earth is too large thus causing all kinds of pollution and global warming. Wars reduce population too, so does terrorism, and humans love to kill each other. A good purge might be healthy for Earth.
My prediction is that we will get through this pandemic in good condition because the virus will disappear for reasons we don’t understand. That will give us some time to finish and proof the vaccines in process, and that will happen long before GM can tool up to make seven billion respirators.
Filed under: Conservative, family, Government, health care, Manufacturing, Uncategorized | Tagged: Common Sense, Covid-19, General Motors, Respirator Manufacturing, Trump |
Interesting. A couple of large Indian business groups, the Tatas and the the Mahindras, that already make automobiles, have said they are converting some of their auto production facilities to manufacture respirators. How fast and how effective that will be remains to be seen. But the good thing is that it seems to be an offer from them, and not a direction from the government.
I must be missing something about their capabilities to manufacture. Perhaps they are thinking to use their prototype shops with lots of versatile CNC manufacturing machines.
Not able to comment on the technical side. As of now it is only an announcement.
Many companies can and do respond to changes that allow them to manufacture quickly. Most of the changes involve breaking traditional rules and by passing internal bureaucracies.