Ford Motor Company Chairman Mr. Bill Ford walking through the new cleanroom workspace built by GIFFIN
The COVID-19 global pandemic has drastically changed the dynamic of our day-to-day lives, and it’s been challenging for everyone to say the least. Since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and supplies diminished rapidly with the staggering number of positive cases increasing throughout our country, and globally.
To help support hospitals and healthcare workers across the U.S., Ford Motor Company has committed to producing 50,000 ventilators in 100 days, and up to 30,000 a month thereafter as needed. In preparing for this critical project, Ford has teamed up with GIFFIN to help convert Ford’s existing Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti Michigan, with the goal of fabricating and installing a cleanroom workspace where Ford employees can safely produce 7,200 Airon PNeuton Model A Ventilators per week.
On March 29th, GIFFIN was called upon by Ford to meet on site and begin discussing initial design and engineering concepts. The following day, GIFFIN and their team of partners were on site beginning the demolition of the existing Ford plant equipment in preparation for the cleanroom installation. In just two-and-a-half weeks, GIFFIN led the charge with hundreds of skilled trades to construct an FDA approved medical equipment manufacturing space.
On April 17th, the cleanroom was completed and commissioned with hospital grade ventilation and hundreds of individual workstations all equipped with pneumatic equipment and ethernet capability to build Airon PNeuton Model A Ventilators. Today, Ford is building and testing Ventilators in the newly installed cleanroom and has promised 50,000 units in the next couple months.
GIFFIN is both honored and humbled to have been an essential part to ensuring that our front-line workers have the tools and equipment needed to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. We thank all our hard-working men and women who have been a critical part of making this project a huge success!
To learn more about FORD’s contribution to the COVID-19 relief efforts, check out this 60 Minutes story > How Ford and GM joined the fight against the coronavirus
