LIFT Makes Connections To Support “Arsenal of Health”

As the current health crisis continues to unfold, and supplies for the healthcare system are in short supply with too much reliance on overseas manufacturing, the national manufacturing innovation institutes and their ecosystems are needed more than ever.

Recently, two of the institutes were able to put their networks and ecosystems to work in support of our nation, and the burgeoning “Arsenal of Health” developing among the domestic automakers.

Last Friday, March 20, the REMADE institute, the New York-based Department of Energy-supported institute, shared with the leaders of the other 13 institutes that it’s New York-team has designed a rapid-action ventilator, but urgently needed to contact Ford and General Motors to discuss quick production to fill the 300,000 unit ventilator shortage across the country -particularly in New York.

Much like during World War II when the Detroit automakers and suppliers banded together to support the war effort by producing munitions and vehicles with the Arsenal of Democracy, they are once again stepping up to produce ventilators as the “Arsenal of Health.”

It was then when the LIFT team jumped into action, contacting the Mayor of Detroit’s COVID-19 action team as well as the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) which then put the institute in contact with teams at both Ford and General Motors. LIFT is based in Detroit and supported by the Department of Defense. By 8:30 p.m., executives at both Ford and GM were in touch with REMADE to discuss rapidly producing the institute’s ventilator design.

This quick action and access into the U.S. manufacturing base is exactly why the institutes were created across the country over the last decade, and why the institutes must receive continued funding from their federal partners.