Exploring the remarkable pivot of automotive companies during the COVID-19 pandemic, this episode highlights Tesla's initiative to manufacture ventilators using car parts, showcasing innovation in a time of crisis. The hosts discuss Elon Musk's response to the ventilator shortage and draw parallels to historical shifts in the auto industry during World War II. They delve into how companies like GM and Ford are repurposing their manufacturing capabilities to produce medical equipment, emphasizing the adaptability and resourcefulness of the automotive sector in addressing urgent needs.
"but abroad in Australia, in Europe, in Asia, every country that's dealing with this current COVID-19 pandemic."
COVID-19 is a sickness that spread all over the world starting in 2019, making many people sick and changing how we live and work.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a global outbreak of the coronavirus disease that began in late 2019, causing widespread illness and impacting many aspects of society, including healthcare and industries like automotive.
"I believe our conversation started when we were talking about how Tesla, the electric car company run by Elon Musk,"
Tesla makes electric cars that run on batteries instead of gas. They are famous for being high-tech and helping the environment.
Tesla is an American electric vehicle and clean energy company founded by Elon Musk. It is known for producing electric cars and innovative technology in the automotive industry.
"Tesla, the electric car company run by Elon Musk,"
Electric cars run on electricity from batteries instead of gas. They are quieter and cleaner for the environment.
An electric car is a vehicle powered by electric motors using energy stored in batteries, rather than an internal combustion engine using gasoline or diesel. Tesla is a leading manufacturer of electric cars.
"had pledged to start building ventilators to help with hospitals that were in short supply and to help patients who needed these medical devices so that they could get over the hump of infection,"
A ventilator is a machine that helps people breathe when they are very sick and can't breathe well by themselves.
A ventilator is a medical device that helps patients breathe when they are unable to do so on their own. It is crucial in treating severe respiratory illnesses like COVID-19.
"like the Tesla model's infotainment system. That's what controls the ventilator, the Model 3 touch screen and controllers."
The Tesla Model 3 is a fully electric car with a big touchscreen that helps you control things like music and temperature. It's one of Tesla's main cars and is known for being modern and easy to use.
The Tesla Model 3 is an all-electric sedan produced by Tesla, known for its touchscreen interface and advanced electric drivetrain. It is one of Tesla's most popular models and features a large infotainment system that controls many vehicle functions.
"Then it flows through some sensors to get, I guess, determine the mixture and the pressure of the air. Then it goes through a filter before it goes into the patient's lung. And then when the carbon dioxide and air exits the lung, it goes through some more sensors."
Sensors are parts that check how much air and oxygen is going to the patient and make sure it's right.
Sensors in a ventilator monitor parameters such as air pressure and gas mixture to ensure the correct delivery of oxygen and air to the patient.
"And then when the carbon dioxide and air exits the lung, it goes through some more sensors. And then to an exhale valve that throttles the pressure on the patient's lung."
An exhale valve is a part that helps let the air out of the patient's lungs safely.
An exhale valve controls the release of air and carbon dioxide from the patient's lungs, regulating pressure during exhalation in a ventilator system.
"And they routinely return those rockets back to Earth, landing them on a pad in the middle of the ocean. So I suppose that they could probably find their way around the ventilator."
Elon Musk's other company, SpaceX, makes rockets that can land back on Earth safely, even on floating platforms in the ocean.
Tesla's founder Elon Musk is also CEO of SpaceX, a company that develops rockets which can land vertically on pads, including on drone ships in the ocean, showcasing advanced aerospace technology.
"The War Production Board regulated all industrial production and all allocation of resources or fuel that could be considered war material."
During World War II, the government made sure factories focused on making things needed for the war, like weapons and vehicles, instead of regular products.
The War Production Board was a U.S. government agency during World War II that regulated industrial production and allocation of resources to prioritize war material manufacturing.
"They would also have a very high level of control over things like metal, rubber, oil, and they even put in wage and price control."
The government set rules to keep prices and wages from going too high during the war so things stayed affordable.
Wage and price controls were government-imposed limits on how much companies could pay workers and charge for goods to prevent inflation during wartime.
"They started working on things that, I guess, the best way to say it, in most cases, they were building things you could not buy at your local dealership, right?"
Car factories stopped making regular cars and started making things needed for the military during the war.
During World War II, automobile manufacturers stopped making cars and switched to producing military equipment and war materials.
"But it was an airplane manufacturing plant that manufactured the B-24 Liberator, the long-range bomber, and it got to the point where it could produce almost one per hour."
The B-24 Liberator is a big airplane used in World War II to drop bombs far away. It could carry a lot of bombs and fly long distances to help win the war.
The B-24 Liberator was a World War II long-range heavy bomber used primarily by the United States and its allies. It was known for its large payload capacity and long operational range, playing a significant role in strategic bombing campaigns.
"And Henry Ford was behind all of that kind of employed his assembly line techniques to plane manufacturing, and they pre-manufactured a lot of parts for the plane."
Assembly line techniques are a way to build things faster by having workers do one small part of the job over and over as the product moves down a line. This helps make many products quickly and was first used by Henry Ford for cars.
Assembly line techniques refer to a manufacturing process where a product is assembled step-by-step as it moves along a conveyor or line, allowing for faster and more efficient production. Henry Ford popularized this method in automobile manufacturing, which was later applied to other industries like airplane production.
"Because also with these airplanes came some quality control issues. However, the mere fact they were able to switch over relatively quickly and make these gigantic airplanes on the scale that they did is very impressive."
Quality control issues happen when things made in a factory aren't good enough or have problems. Fixing these issues helps make sure the products work well and are safe to use.
Quality control issues refer to problems in the manufacturing process that affect the consistency, reliability, or safety of the final product. Managing these issues is critical to ensure that products meet required standards and function as intended.
"these different representatives from the auto industry here in the States form something they call the automotive council for war production. The idea here was that these companies, these private manufacturers who are usually competing with each other year over year, quarter over quarter, they need to learn a new game."
During World War II, car companies in the U.S. worked together in a group called the automotive council for war production to help make things needed for the war instead of regular cars.
The automotive council for war production was a coalition formed by American automakers during World War II to coordinate and cooperate on manufacturing efforts for the war, shifting from making civilian vehicles to military equipment.
"maybe a week or so after production of all automobiles officially ceases, these factories are retooled at a frenetic rate. You know, these gigantic manufacturing machines have to be like literally jackhammered out of the concrete. And then you have to bring in these other equally huge machines to replace them. You got to strip all the conveyor belts."
When a factory changes what it makes, it has to take out old machines and put in new ones. This is called retooling, and it helps factories make new things instead of what they made before.
Factory retooling refers to the process of changing a manufacturing facility's equipment and layout to produce different products, such as switching from making automobiles to military equipment during wartime.
""Oh, by the way, around this time, the government sets a national speed limit of 35 miles per hour. Boo! Ah, yes, the victory speed limit. So the government instituted this between May of 1942 and August of 1945 to reduce gasoline and rubber consumption.""
The national speed limit is the fastest speed you are allowed to drive on roads, set by the government to save fuel and tires during tough times like war.
The national speed limit was a government-imposed maximum speed limit on roads, introduced to conserve resources such as gasoline and rubber during wartime. In the U.S., a notable example was the 35 mph limit set during World War II to support the war effort.
""And they were also only selling cars out of the stockpile of pre-42 production to essential drivers during that time as well from 42 to 45.""
Because of the war, car companies stopped making new cars and only sold the ones they already had made before 1942.
During World War II, car manufacturers stopped producing new vehicles and instead sold only from existing stockpiles of cars made before 1942. This was part of the war effort to conserve materials and focus manufacturing on military needs.
""Like you said, machines being ripped out of the floor and new machines being placed into factories used to build cars now they're building airplanes which you would think you would need a whole new building to go from cars to airplanes. Like in many cases I believe that's exactly what they did. You need a lot of space to roll a plane down an assembly line.""
During the war, car factories changed to make airplanes instead, which needed bigger spaces and different machines.
During World War II, many factories that originally produced automobiles were converted or newly built to manufacture airplanes and other military equipment. This required significant changes in factory layout and machinery to accommodate the size and complexity of aircraft production.
"It's interesting because we have a lot of historical sources that focus on the big three during World War II."
The 'big three' means the three biggest car companies in the US: General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. They made most of the cars back then.
The 'big three' refers to the three largest American automakers: General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, who dominated the US automotive industry especially during the mid-20th century.
"I guess that would be what they call the military industrial complex or what became known as the military industrial complex,"
The military industrial complex means how the army and companies that make weapons work closely together, and how war can help businesses grow.
The military industrial complex is a term describing the relationship between a country's military and the defense industry that supplies it, highlighting how war can drive industrial growth.
"What happened over there at Willow, you know? Willow Run itself, the plant was run by Henry Ford's operation, but the government actually owned the building."
Willow Run was a huge factory in Michigan that made airplanes during World War II. It was run by Henry Ford's company but owned by the government.
Willow Run was a large manufacturing plant in Michigan originally built for producing B-24 Liberator bombers during World War II. It was operated by Henry Ford's company but owned by the government, representing a major industrial effort in wartime production.
"Willow Run itself, the plant was run by Henry Ford's operation, but the government actually owned the building."
Henry Ford was the man who started the Ford car company and helped make cars faster and cheaper by using new factory methods. His company ran the Willow Run factory during the war.
Henry Ford was the founder of the Ford Motor Company and a pioneer of mass production techniques in the automotive industry. His company operated the Willow Run plant during World War II.
"I think part of it is a museum called the Yankee Air Museum up there in Nipsilani, Michigan."
The Yankee Air Museum is a place near Willow Run where you can see old airplanes and learn about how they were made.
The Yankee Air Museum is an aviation museum located near Willow Run in Michigan. It preserves and showcases aircraft and the history of aviation manufacturing in the region.
"So yesterday, a news dropped that general motors had been given a $489 million contract from the federal government as part of the Defense Production Act to produce 30,000 ventilators for the federal stockpile by August."
General Motors is a big company that makes many kinds of cars and trucks. Sometimes they use their factories to help make important medical equipment too.
General Motors (GM) is a major American automotive manufacturer producing a wide range of vehicles under brands like Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, and Buick. GM also has a history of adapting its manufacturing capabilities for various needs, such as producing ventilators during crises.
"...a $489 million contract from the federal government as part of the Defense Production Act to produce 30,000 ventilators for the federal stockpile by August."
The Defense Production Act is a law that lets the government ask companies to make important things quickly during emergencies, like medical machines or supplies.
The Defense Production Act is a United States federal law that allows the government to direct private companies to prioritize and produce materials deemed necessary for national defense, including during emergencies like pandemics.
"...making personal protective equipment for doctors and hospitals like masks and face shields and things like that already, just kind of on their own, which is what PPE stands for."
PPE means things like masks and gloves that people wear to keep safe from germs and viruses, especially doctors and nurses.
PPE stands for Personal Protective Equipment, which includes items like masks, gloves, and face shields used to protect healthcare workers and others from infection, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Like GM is teaming up with Vintech life systems to make their ventilators, so that's the company they've brought on to help them with the specialized aspect of making ventilators. But obviously, all the manufacturing and things like that, GM has a really good handle on that kind of thing, just because they make cars."
GM is a big car company in the U.S. that makes lots of different cars and trucks. They are good at building many parts and vehicles.
GM, or General Motors, is a major American automotive manufacturer known for brands like Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, and Buick. GM has extensive manufacturing capabilities and has been involved in producing a wide range of vehicles and components.
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Welcome to Car Stuff,
a production of I Heart Radio.
Welcome to Car Stuff Folks
thanks for tuning in.
I am one of your host, Ben Bowlin.
And I am Kurt Garin.
And, like many of us
now in the world today,
Kurt and I are recording remotely
from our separate bunkers,
our good pal, the Walter White to my Jesse Pinkman,
Scott Benjamin, couldn't make it today,
but as well, and sends his regards.
Kurt, I want to check in before we get started.
How are you doing, man?
How long have you been in this lockdown stage?
Um, I guess about three, three and a half weeks now?
I've been well, though.
Um, just hanging in there,
like many people out there.
How about you, Ben?
I've been, you know,
I've been doing pretty well.
I've actually, uh,
I've actually taken the habit
of just getting out on the road,
just to get out of the house, you know.
I'm not really,
I don't really have a reason to go anywhere.
I don't have,
because I'm stocked up on everything I could need,
but I've always loved road trips.
I finally got a reliable vehicle
before all this stuff went down.
And so, uh, for anyone familiar with the Atlanta area,
our fair metropolis usually has terrible, terrible traffic.
And I have been driving around 285,
which is an interstate that encircles Atlanta.
I've just been driving around it.
And it's a, it's a great drive, dude,
because there's never any traffic now.
It used to be notoriously busy and choked up.
Uh, and now you can just zoom on by.
I would say, I feel like we do have to point out.
If you are listening and you're in an area
where you have been told that you cannot take any, uh,
non-essential trips,
then please abide by that to the best of your ability.
Uh, but I haven't been stopped by anybody.
You know, I haven't been like hot rotting or redlining anywhere,
but it's good to get out there in nature.
I mean, I don't know if you, if you all had been going on any hikes or anything.
Oh, yeah, it's been very important for me at least for my sanity,
to get out there and enjoy some of the spring weather,
which I love so much, um,
but running in my neighborhood and going all walks
and, uh, just trying to stay away from those purpose-built paths
because I hear that people are all over those these days for some reason.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's, uh, it's real strange, you know.
I think I think we're learning just how much of a toll cabin fever can take on people.
But as many folks have said, not just in our country,
but abroad in Australia, in Europe, in Asia,
every country that's dealing with this current COVID-19 pandemic.
I said this at some point. We're all in this together
and this got you and I thinking about some tremendously impressive acts,
both in the current day and in the past.
So it occurred a little while ago off air.
You and I were, uh, we're just kicking around ideas,
just shooting the breeze and we started talking about how,
I believe our conversation started when we were talking about how Tesla,
the electric car company run by Elon Musk,
had pledged to start building ventilators to help with hospitals
that were in short supply and to help patients who needed these medical devices
so that they could get over the hump of infection,
which can be, you know, can be quite dangerous.
But a medical ventilator is something that you wouldn't really expect a car company to build,
even one that's a little bit more sci-fi like Elon Musk, you know,
because he's known for his crazy sci-fi ideas.
Yeah, and let's rewind several weeks ago when this thing was ramping up in the United States
and Elon Musk came out on Twitter and said the coronavirus panic is dumb.
That kind of rubbed people the wrong way.
Perhaps what he was saying was that panic isn't necessarily a productive reaction.
So what he has decided to do is to use some of the minds he has working for him at Tesla
to create ventilators that hospitals can use,
because there is a high likelihood that as this virus progresses,
that there will be a need for ventilators throughout the country.
He has also been buying machines from other places where he can.
He's been buying a less intrusive type ventilator known as a BPAP machine
and Dotters in New York at Mount Sinai have been able to come up with a way
to turn these into fully fledged ventilators.
They put out a 15-page instruction manual,
and now other hospitals can use that manual to convert these types of machines
over to full-on ventilators as well.
So all of this problem-solving and ingenuity is really exciting
in a time when there's not a lot of excitement to be had.
So I guess it can be said that Elon Musk is not panicking
and he's doing what he can to try to help.
Yeah, absolutely.
This is something that I was interested in because not being a doctor,
not being a maker of ventilators myself.
I, like many people, was hearing this word thrown around on the news
and I didn't know what a ventilator was.
And at first, I didn't understand other than having a factory.
I didn't understand what Tesla could be doing to create these machines.
But then once you learn what a ventilator is,
it makes a little more sense.
So a ventilator is a machine that provides mechanical ventilation.
It moves breathable air in and out of human lungs.
So it essentially, it breathes for you if you are unable to breathe
or if you can't breathe well enough on your own.
So instantly we can see how this could literally be a life-saving device for people.
Now Tesla at this point, as far as we can tell,
their engineers have just made a prototype ventilator.
But the cool thing, the really impressive thing,
is that this ventilator mainly uses car parts,
mainly uses things they were already using,
like the Tesla model's infotainment system.
That's what controls the ventilator,
the Model 3 touch screen and controllers.
That's also what you use as an interface and the oxygen and air mixing.
You know, that's something that cars need to do too.
So it makes way more sense than you might think initially.
And there's this pretty great YouTube video that walks through it
that shows Elon Musk and the Tesla engineers talking about
what they're using and how they're assembling these things
to make working ventilators.
Again, they don't have the hundreds of thousands of these out now,
but the proof of concept is impressive, I would say.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
And like you, and I'm sure many out there can relate to this.
But the terms of the day seemed to be changing a month or two ago.
I had no desire to learn what a ventilator was.
And I didn't know what PPE stood for.
I didn't know what herd immunity was.
But now as we become more immersed in this world of a pandemic,
we are becoming more familiar with these types of medical terms and devices.
And so I sketched out based on Tesla's description of what their ventilator is,
kind of how the air flows down the line.
So you have oxygen that comes in through a hospital air supply.
That goes into a mixing chamber, which is a car part that Tesla has on hand.
And then the air flows into a valve body that controls the air pressure.
And then it flows through some sensors to get, I guess,
determine the mixture and the pressure of the air.
Then it goes through a filter before it goes into the patient's lung.
And then when the carbon dioxide and air exits the lung,
it goes through some more sensors.
And then to an exhale valve that throttles the pressure on the patient's lung.
Now, all of this got me wondering about Tesla's credentials as far as,
like, can they make these precise medical devices?
But then I thought about how they are a company that shot one of their cars into space on a rocket.
And they routinely return those rockets back to Earth,
landing them on a pad in the middle of the ocean.
So I suppose that they could probably find their way around the ventilator.
That's a really, really great perspective, man.
That's what I didn't think about.
Because I have given Elon Musk his fair share of guff in the past and in past episodes of car stuff,
because there have been times where he's been a real shoot for the stars,
landing the clouds kind of guy with his approach to things.
But he's definitely a visionary and you're right.
They did put a rocket into space, so hopefully they can put some air into lungs.
What also interests you and I both about this and what we hope interests you listeners
is that this is not the first time we have seen the auto industry do what's called a pivot, right?
Tesla is just one example of some stuff we'll talk about in a few minutes.
But we have to point out that this is not a new strategy.
It is an extreme strategy, but the idea that an enormous auto manufacturer might be able to change their product
to help for a greater good is a pretty old idea.
As a matter of fact, if you look back to the era of World War II,
here are the United States.
The US manufacturing of automobiles virtually halted from February 1942 to October 1945.
They weren't making cars or trucks or semis or auto parts.
As a matter of fact, they weren't doing this on their own initiative.
At first, the government had put in a freeze on this,
the office of production management on January 1, 1942.
They said every sale of every vehicle is going to be frozen.
And we're going to go on a case-by-case basis for people or entities that can had a contract
for delivery of a vehicle.
If they had signed that contract before January 1,
we'll go case-by-case to see if they can be delivered.
And this is interesting.
It ties into something else, the Office of Production Management, right?
That was pre-existing.
But in 1942, President Roosevelt creates something called the War Production Board.
And for anyone who has nightmares of big government overreach,
this is a crazy story.
Here's what they did.
The War Production Board regulated all industrial production
and all allocation of resources or fuel that could be considered war material.
So they would coordinate heavy manufacturing.
They would also have a very high level of control over things like metal, rubber, oil,
and they even put in wage and price control.
So when all the manufacturers in the U.S.
ended their production of automobiles there in February 22, 1942,
they didn't just mothball the factories.
They started working on other things.
And they started working on things that, I guess, the best way to say it,
in most cases, they were building things you could not buy at your local dealership, right?
Right, right.
I mean, you have to put in a little bit of perspective, too.
So you have World War I.
That was the war to end all wars.
After that, you have the Great Depression.
The U.S. military was 12th largest behind Brazil, shortly before World War II,
and it had the 18th largest air force, which the air force was, you know, hugely important
in this overseas battle here on two different fronts, World War II.
The Dotto industry, they made, you know, airplanes, bombs, torpedoes, helmets, tanks,
jeeps, you know, that sort of thing, stuff that's more in their wheelhouse.
And then one of the famous examples would be Henry Ford's Willow Run Plant.
It was in Ipsilani, Michigan.
Willow Run also developed this nickname Will It Run in the press,
because it had some issues getting up and running.
But it was an airplane manufacturing plant that manufactured the B-24 Liberator,
the long-range bomber, and it got to the point where it could produce almost one per hour.
And Henry Ford was behind all of that kind of employed his assembly line techniques
to plane manufacturing, and they pre-manufactured a lot of parts for the plane.
And they had a crazy timeline, right?
Ground was broken in April 18th of 1941.
The building was dedicated in June 16th, 1941.
They started making planes later that year.
It took them a little while to get up the full capacity on this.
As you can imagine, there's a lot of, you know, planning and things like that.
They were working with consolidated aircraft.
They were the company designed the plane.
Henry Ford had engineers working out in California as well.
They produced five miles of drawings per day.
So 30,000 drawings in total.
And by the time they made it back to consolidated 10,000 of those drawings were obsolete.
Wow.
And apparently consolidated also had some reworks along the way.
So they would be calling up Willow Run from time to time,
redirecting the plant to do things a certain way.
Because also with these airplanes came some quality control issues.
However, the mere fact they were able to switch over relatively quickly
and make these gigantic airplanes on the scale that they did is very impressive.
Despite some of the issues they had with manufacturing along the way.
It's tough to really convey the enormity of the change here,
both in terms of speed and in terms of scale.
So in April of 1942, while Willow Run is in action,
these different representatives from the auto industry here in the States
form something they call the automotive council for war production.
And the idea here was that these companies, these private manufacturers
who are usually competing with each other year over year, quarter over quarter,
they need to learn a new game.
They need to figure out how they're going to share things with their former rivals.
You know, who knows how to build this component best.
It's not something maybe we would advertise to the public,
but we all kind of, you know, behind the scenes,
we all know who makes the best version of this part.
Who has the best ability to mobilize their manpower?
Who has the best line on things like steel and so on?
Who can we work with?
Who can we help?
And they had to do this.
This would not have happened without this extraordinary level of cooperation.
I mean, just think about it, almost like within days,
maybe a week or so after production of all automobiles officially ceases,
these factories are retooled at a frenetic rate.
You know, these gigantic manufacturing machines have to be like literally jackhammered out of the concrete.
And then you have to bring in these other equally huge machines to replace them.
You got to strip all the conveyor belts.
You got to take all the electrical wires you had hooked up,
bundle them together as neatly as possible while in a devilish hurry.
And then they just sort of tucked it up in the factory ceilings.
And they were trying to be optimistic like, okay, all right, Greg, you're in charge.
You're the guy rolled up the wires.
You got to roll them back down and put them in the right place when this is over.
And Greg's like, man, I should have took better notes.
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Cut the camera. They see us.
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Hear that? That's what it sounds like when you plant more trees than you harvest.
Work done by thousands of working forest professionals, like Adam,
a district forest manager who works to protect our forests from fires.
Keeping the forest fire resistant, synonymous with keeping the forest healthy
and we do that through planning more than we harvest.
And mitigate those risks through active management.
It's a long-term commitment.
Visit WorkingForestInitiative.com to learn more.
And then even if they had parts that were not all the way finished,
that were still in the stage of fabrication, they would be stopped,
of course, that fabrication process or that assembly process.
And these parts would be shipped off the steel mills,
and the steel mills would re-melt the parts.
And the thing that really got me is, you know,
one of the biggest components of manufacturing is going to be the die that you use
to fabricate auto parts.
At some point, they decided that they would even take the die they had used
and they would send those to salvage to help with the war effort,
which means that they were adding so much extra time
onto whatever their process would be to become car manufacturers again.
They went all in, it was nuts.
Oh, by the way, around this time, the government sets a national speed limit
of 35 miles per hour.
Boo!
Ah, yes, the victory speed limit.
So the government instituted this between May of 1942 and August of 1945
to reduce gasoline and rubber consumption.
And they were also only selling cars out of the stockpile of pre-42 production
to essential drivers during that time as well from 42 to 45.
So it's interesting to think about how the country completely shifted
during that time, even if you weren't in the military at war,
you're at home.
Yeah.
Like the landscape basically changed.
You know, giant factories were being converted or even constructed
and all this on the heels of the Great Depression.
People at home begin to see things start moving again
and progressing forward in a way that they hadn't seen in years
and maybe for a lifetime.
Like you said, machines being ripped out of the floor and new machines
being placed into factories used to build cars now they're building airplanes
which you would think you would need a whole new building to go from cars to airplanes.
Like in many cases I believe that's exactly what they did.
You need a lot of space to roll a plane down an assembly line.
Oh, I might imagine, right?
It's interesting because we have a lot of historical sources
that focus on the big three during World War II.
But we have to remember there are like nine other auto makers
in play, right?
Yeah, like Nash and Studebaker?
Yeah, yeah.
So we've got Bantam, Packard, Studebaker,
Willie's Overland, Grand Page, Hudson, Nash,
Kelvinator, Crossley.
I mean, what we're saying is that everybody made their contributions.
Now, of course, the luminary himself, Henry Ford, played a massive role here.
But what's surprising about this, I'd like to kick some numbers for everybody in the audience here.
When it was all said and done, the US auto industry alone,
just the car makers of this country created 20% of the total US output
of manufacturing to fight in World War II, 20%.
And the total value we would say of the things they made,
is like well over $29 billion.
Yeah, it's crazy.
I guess that would be what they call the military industrial complex
or what became known as the military industrial complex,
this notion that conflict can fuel industry.
Yeah, Eisenhower is the one who said,
he called it the military industrial congressional complex in his original speech.
Yeah, it's important to say these fellows weren't going broke
doing this.
It's a huge change and it's profoundly inspiring
that everybody was able to come together and support the country,
but it's not like they weren't being paid to do so.
They were getting enormous government contracts.
And Ford wasn't exactly new to making aircraft.
They had the Ford trimotor, which was well,
not the most successful airplane ever, but it was no model T.
Yeah, no, right.
But it's not like they went fully in a different direction
as something they had done before.
Yeah, absolutely.
So they did have some more expertise
and it was very smart of them to partner with an aircraft designer.
And it was strange because when you think about it,
it makes it, it's logical to say,
all right, let's have a auto manufacturer build trucks,
build armor cars, build jeeps, you know, even tanks.
But I really appreciate that you're pointing out how brand new
a lot of this manufacturing was,
if not for Ford for other players in the game.
Because general motors also built planes for the conflict, right?
And in addition to that, they weren't just assembling planes.
They were also producing aircraft components,
which, again, outside of Ford, they had never really done.
You can look at some of the stuff they've created
at the Virginia Museum of Military Vehicles
over there in Knoxville, Virginia.
You can see some of the tanks, like Buick built a tank.
That still blows my mind.
Buick built the M18 Hellcat in Flint, Michigan.
And it looks like a tank.
I mean, it doesn't look like a Buick to me, but it's a Buick.
Well, a lot of people referred to Buick's tanks
even long after the war.
Right.
Yes.
I mean, that's a good point.
And the thing about this, we have to remember,
is that, regardless, like historians love to argue
the what ifs about the great conflict of World War II, right?
Like, what if event A happened a little earlier,
a little later, you know, we know how close we were
to a very different outcome at times.
But regardless of what kind of questions you want to bandy
about with your fellow history buffs,
the fact of the matter is that the US owes a great deal
of its success in World War II to the automotive industry.
And it's a story that Kurt, I think you and Scott and I wish,
was told more often.
And so all in all, just to get a sense of the scale here,
of how complete the switch was.
I want to point out that in 1941,
more than three million cars were produced in the US alone.
During the entirety of World War II,
they only made the entire industry,
only made 139 more.
Instead, it was all focused on this war effort
and that war effort, you know,
as inspiring and as amazing as it is,
it makes us wonder, you know, what happened after the war?
What happened over there at Willow, you know?
Willow Run itself, the plant was run by Henry Ford's operation,
but the government actually owned the building.
So after the war, Ford decided not to buy the plant.
I guess he figured he didn't need a millions of square foot
facility that was told for making airplanes.
So eventually a general motor is actually ended up with it,
and they closed it in the 2000s.
But like the building is torn down, you know,
and you would think that there would be a museum
or something, at least part of it.
I think part of it is a museum called the Yankee Air Museum
up there in Nipsilani, Michigan.
But I mean more of a museum dedicated to what it once was
or the manufacturing feats that happened during that time period
or something like that.
But that is a lot of real estate to dedicate to a museum.
I just get a little bit down when stuff gets lost at time.
Yeah, agreed.
I'm sad that we've missed the chance.
But luckily we know that historians and car fans
have not forgotten this amazing story.
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And now more than ever, we see parallels with the current day.
It turns out that as the world confronts in the COVID-19 pandemic,
like you were saying, Kurt, the auto manufacturers of the planet
are also taking a page from the US auto manufacturers of World War II.
And we're seeing car makers pivot from making their typical, you know,
their sedans or what have you and trying to supply materials, expertise,
logistics to countries that need to, in hospitals, of course,
that need to combat this infection.
We mentioned Tesla because Tesla grabs headlines pretty easily,
but there are a lot of other players in the game.
And so we thought we would talk a little bit about different companies
that are making heavy modifications to their own supply chain,
heavy modifications to their manufacturing process and their factories
to help fight this battle against this disease.
As we tape this, it's April 9, 2020.
So yesterday, a news dropped that general motors had been given a $489 million contract
from the federal government as part of the Defense Production Act
to produce 30,000 ventilators for the federal stockpile by August.
And according to the contract, 6,000 of those ventilators are supposed to be available
by the end of May.
So that's just one of the things that has been happening.
I know Ford and GM have also been involved with making personal protective equipment
for doctors and hospitals like masks and face shields and things like that already,
just kind of on their own, which is what PPE stands for.
Correct. Correct.
It's one of those acronyms that's very of the times, you know, month or two ago.
I had no idea what PPE stood for and now I do.
It's becoming a part of everyone's vocabulary these days.
Yeah, and we know that other industries are a play here.
Of course, Ford is assembling more than 100,000 plastic face shields per week as we speak.
And it's leveraging, it's 3D printing capabilities
to make medical equipment parts that require a high level of manufacturing precision.
They're also collaborating with 3M on what they call a powered air purifying respirator.
They want to try to use off-the-shelf parts from both companies.
Essentially, the stuff they just had laying around to assemble these things
and make the production process as fast as possible.
Like for example, they're taking fans from the F-150 cooled seat apparatus
and they're taking HEPA air filters and then they're combining these with portable battery packs
that 3M has already been making for a long time.
We do have to point out, I know some people were probably going to ask about this,
but the Defense Production Act does come into play here.
GM is being paid, but they're also being compelled through the Defense Production Act to make this.
The Defense Production Act didn't come from World War II.
It dates back to 1950, sort of a response to the beginning of the Korean War.
And since 1950, it's been reauthorized a ton of times, like 50 times, more than 50 times.
And this is part of the government's private industry team up.
Picture them like different members of the Avengers.
And they're teaming up to take on their big bad, their Thanos or their Loki or whatever.
And that is the coronavirus.
Really?
I don't know.
It's not my best comparison.
I'm working live here.
But we also see, for instance, that Mercedes is working to make positive airway pressure devices.
And it took them a couple of days to figure out how to prototype this and how to test it.
They made 100 for testing within just a few days.
And now they are all set to produce 1,000 a day.
So one thing that's amazing to me, and we've talked about this in the past on car stuff,
is just how powerful scale of economy can be when you are a large manufacturer.
We talk about this with how the auto industry in some cases emerged from people who were making bicycles,
or people who were making refrigerators appliances.
It's a weird relationship.
And it's surprising.
Even Lamborghini.
Do you hear about this?
Even Lamborghini is getting on board?
Yeah, Lamborghini.
No, haven't heard.
Yeah, they're converting not all of their production plant, but some departments of it to make it so they can create surgical mask
and then protective plexiglass shields.
And they have a sadlery that just makes the interiors of all these Lamborghinis.
Even that group has been repurposed.
And instead of making custom interiors, they're making 1,000 masks a day.
And then they're also using 3D printers to make 200 medical shields there in the carbon fiber production plant
at their R&D department, which is pretty, pretty crazy, right?
Ford is, you know, we were bragging about Tesla or giving them their due a little bit in the beginning of this episode.
We should also point out that Ford is increasing production of general electric healthcare ventilators,
so they were already making these, so it's a little bit different,
but they want to make an extra of 50,000 ventilators in the next 100 days.
I get to say, I am pretty impressed with this.
Definitely.
It's also nice to see that in an era where manufacturing is becoming more and more specialized,
and there are tighter and tighter tolerances to many manufacturing processes
that the term manufacturing is manufacturing still holds true in some cases.
I don't think that car companies and other big manufacturers get enough credit
for just pushing out tons of product to the public on a constant and consistent basis.
And that alone is a giant feat that often goes over.
Look, just the constant reproduction of components and parts and full on products
that are just ultra consistent.
And during times like this, when manufacturers can just up and change it up,
shows you that modern manufacturers can pretty much make anything with a little bit of retooling
and some direction or some engineering from more specialized companies.
Like GM is teaming up with Vintech life systems to make their ventilators,
so that's the company they've brought on to help them with the specialized aspect of making ventilators.
But obviously, all the manufacturing and things like that,
GM has a really good handle on that kind of thing, just because they make cars.
And cars have tons of different systems in them.
Yeah, I mean, that's a really good point.
Even a let-ite like me knows that we're moving increasingly toward the era of the connected car,
right?
The ton of vehicle stuff.
And there's so much hardware and software that goes into that kind of endeavor.
It naturally can transfer to other sophisticated computer systems.
So again, the thing, I don't know about you, man,
but the thing that baffles me about this is first off,
you and I growing up, we've been around to see the glory days and the tough times
for the big three manufacturers.
And we've seen times where people in the media are reporting like massive layoffs
and insert company here is just too slow to adapt to the time and to adapt to consumer demands.
Having seen all that news growing up, and even in recent years,
I remain astounded by how quickly someone can say,
let's take this gigantic thing and make it do something that appears from the outside completely different.
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