UPDATE: Ford working with companies to speed up ventilator, respirator production

President Donald Trump’s assertion that automakers can quickly manufacture ventilators and that some are already making them is false, according to fact-checkers from the Associated Press.

During a briefing on Saturday, March 21, Trump said, "General Motors, Ford, so many companies — I had three calls yesterday directly, without having to institute like: `You will do this' — these companies are making them right now."

Trump on Sunday tweeted, "Ford, General Motors and Tesla are being given the go ahead to make ventilators and other metal products, FAST! @fema Go for it auto execs, lets see how good you are?"

Ford, General Motors and Tesla are being given the go ahead to make ventilators and other metal products, FAST! @fema Go for it auto execs, lets see how good you are? @RepMarkMeadows @GOPLeader @senatemajldr — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2020

THE FACTS: No automaker is anywhere close to making medical gear such as ventilators and remain months away — if not longer. Nor do the car companies need the president’s permission to move forward, the AP said.

Ford and GM have yet to start production, and it would take them months, if not longer, to begin production. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Friday that his company was “working on ventilators” but he didn’t specify how long it might take, AP reports.

GM announced on Friday that it is working with ventilator maker Ventec Life Systems to ramp up production. The automaker said it would help with logistics, purchasing and manufacturing, but stopped short of saying it would make ventilators in its own factories, which have been idled amid the coronavirus pandemic

Ford, which also suspended factory production along with other automakers with operations in North America, confirmed that it, too, was in discussions with the Trump administration about helping.

“We’re looking at feasibility,” Ford spokesman T.R. Reid said. “It may be possible, but it’s not you go from Rangers (small pickups) one day to ventilators the next. We’re figuring out what is possible now.”

Unless automakers can move with unprecedented speed, redirecting plants to make completely different products will take a long time — possibly too long to help with medical gear shortages.

“When you are repurposing a factory, it really depends on how similar the new product is to the existing products in your product line,” said Kaitlin Wowak, a professor at the University of Notre Dame who focuses on industrial supply chains. “It’s going to be a substantial pivot to start producing an entirely different item.”

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