How factories change production to quickly fight coronavirus

How factories change production to quickly fight coronavirus Protolabs How does a gin company start creating sanitiser at short notice? “We’d stopped gin production within hours of the Prime Minister’s announcement, and were working through the finer details of the World Health Organization guidance on formulations to create an effective hand sanitiser,” said O'Neal. “We set the task and within 48 hours they’d developed a design which could be mass-produced, and began testing it for NHS use.” Royal Mint Engineers at the Royal Mint took just 48 hours to design a plastic visor to be produced for UK health workers Something like a clear plastic mask can go from design to production in days, but more complex parts can also be made at short notice, thanks to 21st Century industries using things like advanced digital design and 3D printing technology. “And we've got several hospitals looking to us to build face shields – we're talking hundreds of thousands of those to get out quickly.” Advanced digital design and 3D printing technology make rapid product-switching feasible For an operation like Protolabs, producing 10,000 parts at short notice is not out of the norm, says Protolabs spokesperson Sarah Ekenberg. "Many of the rapid Covid-19 innovations have already spread far and wide – a great example being the UCL-Ventura Continuous Positive Airway Pressure design – and people have become far more accustomed to sensible open licensing collaborative networks which will cement new modes of working.” If any business is able to help produce much-needed supplies during these difficult times, it can only be a good thing, says 58 Gin's Carmen O'Neal.