Barry Engle, General Motors executive vice president for the Americas, recently sat down with Automotive News‘ Weekend Drive podcast to discuss the current situation the automaker is facing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
GM has taken on a starring role in the United States’ fight against COVID-19, accepting a $490 million government contract to produce up to 30,000 ventilators at its Kokomo, Indiana plant by late August. The automaker’s efforts will help the government double the number of ventilator machines in its Strategic National Stockpile and will be sent to hospitals as well as makeshift field hospitals that have been set up to take in overflow patients.
In addition, the company is also making facemasks at one of its former production plants in Michigan and announced last week that it would be doubling its face mask production output as PPE supply shortages continue to cause problems for frontline healthcare workers.
During his interview with AN, Engle likened GM’s ventilator and facemask production to the automotive industry’s collective efforts to support the war effort during WWII and said the automaker sees the situation as a “unique opportunity for us to be able to help and contribute here in the middle of a crisis.”
“I suppose the nearest conditions that would approximate what we’re looking at now, in terms of the challenge of it all and in terms of the impact on the business, the economy and the population, would probably be going back to something like a WW2 experience,” Engle said. “Which also was another point in time where the whole industry was impacted and essentially shut down, and interestingly there are some parallels in that just as we all mobilized then, now many years ago, to be able to support the war effort and rally together as a nation, we have a similar opportunity now in this very point in time to be able to step up and to be able to help.”
“So that’s probably the closest analogy or surrogate that I can think of and I’m pleased that as an industry, just as we rallied then we’re doing it again and we’re here to be able to support our customers and the country,” he added.
Similar to a wartime effort, GM is making the ventilators under the Defense Production Act of 1950, which authorizes the president to require businesses to accept and prioritize contracts for materials or products deemed necessary for national defense. The Defense Production Act was set up in response to the start of the Korean War.
Engle also said that when GM’s production plants come back online, it will work closely with its suppliers and the UAW to ensure its workers remain safe. He predicts the industry will slowly return to normal, rather than rush back to producing vehicles in a short timeframe.
“All of us collectively are concerned about the virus and providing appropriate, safe conditions for our employees as we do come back,” he said. “So what will be required is a united effort across the supply chain and all of the OEMs with the UAW to agree on what are the right protocols and to be able to provide uniform, consistently safe conditions for everybody. And we’re pretty much in that now, trying to collaborate and work with everyone to sort out what will that look like to help someone get back up (and running) as quickly as possible and do so safely.”
Check out the full interview embedded below.
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Comments
Except back then GM didn’t want to outsource to Germany and Japan. Today they want tariffs lifted on CHINA to supply the factories with components to build ventilators and shut out American companies that can make the components here……………………….. BIG difference…
Yes, pretty sure back in WWII the President didn’t have to tell them to get off their @$$… to quit talking and start building….
GM Senior Management live in a bubble where the air is filled with MaryJane… these idiots are all high and think their company and their “bro’s” on the team are so wonderful… its amazing any of them have jobs, they’re pathetic…
Air filled with Maryjane, someone call Starsky & Hutch.
President Truman nor Roosevelt didn’t need to threaten General Motors’ CEO with possible Federal prosecution as Trump did with General Motors CEO Mary Barra and the more GM talks about their effort.. they should be talking about how much profit the company is getting from the production of the ventilators at the expense of US tax payers.
Both you guys NAILED it!
They had an agreement to announce the deal between the Government and GM then sensing that he could use this to make himself look better.
That’s what happened the only person that he cares about is himself doesn’t care about you.
Dork man – “the only person that he cares about is himself ” you’re clueless. Keep your head in the trash.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/27/trump-orders-gm-to-start-ventilator-production-for-covid-19-amid-contract-dispute/
Dork man – Keep reading trash and watching CNN.
The order came amid a dispute with GM over a contract to produce the ventilators. – GM should have said, “we’re on it, we can work out the contract later…” GM Mgt is pathetic…
This is a weak comparison. The Second World War lasted 6 years and somewhere around 50 million people died.
Well said JQPublic! GM actually has the ballz to compare this with the WWII efforts?!!? Pathetic!! Apparently, anybody under 50 (who have the internet and know everything) didn’t learn a dang thing about American History either.
Some history on GM and Ford before 12-7-41 and after. US had diplomatic relations with Germany prior to the Pearl Harbor attack. One of many articles.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm
Great that GM is FINALLY making ventilators but sad they seem to be milking much needed good publicity out of it.
Poor comparison to WWII production.
The old WWII GM capacities would have made millions of ventilators by now. They would have moved on to PPE. America would be swimming in masks by now.