VentilatorChallengeUK, the manufacturing consortium established to address an anticipated shortage of ventilators for treating COVID-19 patients, has made its final shipment of finished ventilators.

Formed on 19 March in response to the anticipated escalation in COVID-19 cases, the consortium of UK aerospace, motorsport, automotive and medical businesses has more than doubled the UK’s stock of ventilators by scaling up the production of an existing system – Smiths Group’s portable paraPac ventilator – and a ventilator adapted from anaesthesia equipment produced by Oxfordshire firm Penlon.
During the project, which was led by High Value Manufacturing Catapult chief executive Dick Elsy, seven new large-scale manufacturing facilities were established from scratch at Airbus AMRC Cymru in Broughton, Ford in Dagenham, GKN Aerospace in Luton and Cowes, McLaren in Woking, RollsRoyce in Filton and STI in Hook.
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The consortium also set- up new parallel supply chains and acquired around 42 million parts and electronic components through a complex logistics network that saw DHL design and implement an end-to-end supply chain in only 1.5 weeks
Despite global competition for parts and lockdown challenges during the pandemic the team sourced parts from over 22 countries, with the furthest distance travelled by a single part being 5,226 miles. Ventilator peak production exceeded 400 devices a day, with the shortest time taken to achieve 1000 ventilators being three days
“What VentilatorChallengeUK has achieved in the space of twelve weeks is nothing short of incredible, creating and producing an approved product and setting up production facilities on this scale would normally take years,” commented Elsy. “Together, we have helped ensure the NHS has always had access to the number of ventilators it needs, and we’re pleased to have also contributed to building a resilient stock should ventilators be required in the UK in the future.”
He added that the consortium is now looking to capture lessons learned and share them across the engineering community – and with government – as key tools to help UK industry get back on its feet after the COVID-19 pandemic has passed.
It’d be interesting to know how many of the 13000 ventilators made have been needed (so far) in this pandemic.
What is needed is this kind of facility for the next time. It won’t be known quite what is needed. How about a hood that offered a high degree of virus barrier in both directions. You couldn’t design this quickly but if you started now and built a factory you would be ready for the next pandemic. Use the factory for leisure goods in the mean time. This could be the impetus for the flexible factory. Any takers?
Great achievement.
Something British engineers can be proud of.
Just think of how useful and valuable this would have been if the go ahead had been at the beginning of Jan, and not the end of March.
What happened to the JCB /Dyson ventilators?
A number of the “rival” projects to VentilatorChallengeUK (including the Dyson proposal) were stood down by the government a number of weeks ago
Was great to be a part of this just a shame about the occasion.
Well done to all the manufacturers and precision engineers who contributed.