Ford is teaming up with GE Health to produce ventilators as the United States faces a shortage of these critical machines.
The automaker revealed that it will be able to produce 50,000 ventilators in the next 100 days. The ventilators' design has been simplified by the private medical company Airon for easy set-up and quick usage in emergency settings.
Jim Baumbick, vice president of enterprise product line management at Ford Motor Company, told Cheddar Wednesday that ford brings its manufacturing acumen to the table in this partnership.
Airon Model A-E Ventilator (Image courtesy of Ford)
"Many of these medical supply companies that make these units operate at much lower volumes … 3,000 to 5,000 a year," Baumbick said. "We know how to do high-volume manufacturing at scale, at quality, and they know how to do medical devices."
Ford will begin using its manufacturing plant in Michigan on April 20 to produce the ventilators. But the automaker is already hard at work producing 3D-printed disposable respirators and has shipped out half a million face shields for medical professionals on the front lines.
Baumbick says Ford is working with 3M to scale up this production.
"In just a matter of days, we've been able to boost production from 30 to 40 percent to get more of this equipment to the people that need it the most," he said.
The assembly lines putting together the personal protective equipment (PPE) are filled with volunteers from the United Auto Workers union.
"We have had a huge amount of volunteers that have come forward," Baumbick said. "Our UAW partners, which are outstanding, are going to actually support us."
While the workers wear a lot of the PPE they're helping to produce, Ford is looking at ways to employ technology to monitor the health and safety of employees as the companies produce at a rapid clip.
"We wanted to move quickly. Time is really the enemy here and the need is so great," the Ford executive added. "We just want to make sure we're doing everything possible to help."
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
