Richard Aboulafia, Vice President, Analysis, Teal Group Corporation, will discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on civil aviation and defense markets in this free webinar, May 12, 2020, 12 pm to 1 pm EDT.

A widely respected aviation industry expert and contributor to Aerospace Manufacturing and Design’s annual forecast issue, Aboulafia will also explain the big picture factors that will impact the downturn and recovery.

Aboulafia manages consulting projects in the commercial and military aircraft field and analyzes broader defense and aerospace trends. He has advised numerous aerospace companies, including most prime and many second- and third-tier contractors in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He also advises numerous financial institutions on aerospace market conditions.

Frequently cited as an aviation industry authority by trade and news publications, Richard has appeared on numerous television news and radio programs including ABC, BBC, Bloomberg, Reuters, CBS, CNN, NBC, NPR, and PBS.

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By attending this webinar, you’ll learn:

• How COVID-19 is different from the Great Recession of 2008 and what that means to aerospace markets

• How oil prices and interest rates affect commercial aircraft markets

• How government aid can pull demand forward

• What recovery will look like

• What’s prompting the shift toward single-aisle jetliners

• How defense budgets and export demand are helping

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Bunting has remained operational to manufacture essential products. These products include magnetic separation and metal detection equipment for the food industry and plastics industry to keep essential goods such as food and medical plastics products safe and pure for the consumer. At Bunting-DuBois, we manufacture custom magnets and magnetic assemblies that are part of critical medical devices, including ventilators. Bunting’s products are in extremely high demand right now, and our staff is working diligently to fulfill the orders of our customers.

Many other vendors are struggling right now due to supply chain disruptions. Fortunately, Bunting-DuBois has not been negatively affected by these disruptions, as Bunting-DuBois has always made sure to structure a diverse supply chain that does not rely on any singular source. Specifically, our supply chain for compression bonded and injection molded magnets does not rely on China, which was the first country to be hit hard by COVID-19 disruptions. Our diverse supply chain provides us with raw materials for magnets that are then mixed, pressed, cured, painted, and assembled within our USA manufacturing plant. Our manufacturing supply chain structure allows us to provide essential magnets and magnetic assemblies when so many other companies have been forced to a halt during COVID-19.

Ventilators are particularly critical, in-demand products at this time. Magnets from Bunting-DuBois are used in rotors for blower motors that are a key part of a ventilator’s construction. These blower motors create the air that helps people breathe, and are key to the survival of patients battling COVID-19. Aside from ventilators, Bunting-DuBois provides magnets for other medical needs as well. Our magnets are being used in hospital water filtration systems, virus testing equipment, and personal protective equipment (PPE). Bunting-DuBois has seen a greatly increased demand for magnets used in these types of applications, and our intact supply chain and expert engineering and manufacturing team allows us to meet demand and fill orders promptly.

“It’s a great feeling to know that we are providing products that are sustaining life and saving lives,” says Don Lindstrom, general manager at Bunting-DuBois. “During this critical time of need, we are able to support key manufacturers of critical care equipment as they ramp-up production. Our magnets and magnetic assemblies go into medical equipment that provides life-saving treatment of those who have been infected and helps to prevent the further spread of the virus.”

Cleveland, Ohio – Unable to make or sell cars in most of the world because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) lost $1.9 billion in Q1 2020, but it hopes to resume production soon.

As with Ford, which lost $2 billion in Q1 and projects a $5 billion loss in Q2, FCA expects numbers to get worse in the second quarter as most of the coronavirus impact came at the end of the first quarter. Losing most of April and May will translate into plummeting revenue with expenses little changed. The automaker did not predict how bad the financial results could get, but it did line up new financing and has more than $20 billion in liquidity to survive the short term.

“Throughout this unprecedented adversity, FCA's first priority has been the health and safety of its employees and communities. The pandemic has had, and continues to have, a significant impact on our operations,” FCA CEO Mike Manley said. “With our experienced leadership team and dedicated employees, I have the utmost confidence in our ability to navigate through this crisis and emerge well positioned to grow and prosper on the other side.”

In North America, the company plans to slowly restart all facilities except the Jeep Cherokee Plant in Belvidere, Illinois, on May 18. The Illinois plant is scheduled to reopen June 1. FCA’s plants in China re-opened at the end of February, and one if its Italian plants restarted production in late April. Its Latin American plants are set to restart production next week.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) has been negotiating with FCA, Ford, and General Motors (GM) on plant re-openings since facilities shut down in mid-March, and the union has been pushing to keep plants closed until it is sure that workers will be safe. Southeast Michigan is one of the hardest-hit areas by COVID-19, and several autoworkers have died from the virus.

UAW President Rory Gamble said FCA’s decision to recall workers is personal for him because some of his relatives work in those facilities. The union has been pushing for automakers to make their factories so safe that executives would feel safe sending their families to work there. FCA has not spelled out its reopening strategies, but Ford and others have said they plan to ensure safety by testing all workers’ temperatures, having workers wear masks, and spacing out entrances and exits to avoid long lines of tightly-packed people.

“We all knew this day would come. Our UAW focus and role is and will continue to be, on health and safety protocols to protect our members,” Gamble said. “My own family will be among those reporting, and my responsibility to our UAW members and my family will be consistent. We must implement and follow these guidelines and self-reporting procedures we have worked out. And the UAW will fulfill its role to continue to actively monitor and aggressively respond regarding all issues impacting the health and safety of UAW members in whatever manner may be necessary as we return to the worksite.”

Ford and GM have not yet shared restart dates, but industry watchers believe they will reopen in about two weeks when FCA does.

If FCA hits its May 18 restart date (automakers announced more aggressive return-to-work targets early in the pandemic, only to cancel them as the disease spread), it will ramp up production slowly. Manly said the company will reduce jobs-per-hour because workers will be doing new things such as cleaning work stations more frequently or leaving departments in staggered groups to ensure people aren’t crowding exits.

The automaker held a webinar last month with its suppliers to inform them of its plans and policies. FCA officials said they evaluated the entire supply base to ensure that companies are protecting workers from COVID-19 outbreaks and that they’re ready to go back into production, and they said their supply base is ready to support FCA’s assembly plants.

About the author: Robert Schoenberger is the editor of Today's Motor Vehicles and Today's eMobility and a contributor to Today's Medical Developments and Aerospace Manufacturing and Design. He has written about the automotive industry for more than 20 years at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio; The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky; and The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi.

rschoenberger@gie.net

Midwest Engineered Systems (MWES) has partnered with GE Healthcare to help build ventilators faster for those in need. GE tapped the firm to help expand their production capacity after hearing of its successes in automating the manufacturing of precision valves for GE’s turbine engine division.

One area where MWES has been asked to help immediately is in mitigating component testing bottlenecks. The company is building eight calibration stations for the control valves necessary to run the ventilators. The new test machines duplicate and expand GE’s current capability in configuring the components, giving the firm far greater production capacity for lifesaving ventilators.

“We know there’s a lot at stake,” states Scott Woida, president of MWES, “The company is sparing no resource in accomplishing our goal of helping GE save lives.”

The MWES team has been working hard locating compatible parts and pushing vendors to get valuable components necessary for the building of these units as quickly as possible. At the same time, MWES has gone the extra mile in working to specify and replace obsolete components, modernizing the systems as they go to increase performance and reliability. Knowing that time is of the essence, Midwest has already begun delivering the equipment to GE.

In a further effort to increase production right now, MWES is streamlining one of GE’s manual ventilator production lines. By adding a variety of time-saving functions to the current line, the company believes it can help get badly needed ventilators into the field at a far quicker pace through increased process efficiency.

The current manual assembly line at GE is running round the clock to produce as many ventilator valves as it can. The updated manual assembly line, after MWES has completed its upgrades, will be able to double ventilator valve production while using less shifts.

© MWES | https://www.mwes.com

“We’ve already moved past the brainstorming and planning phases. We’re buying components, cutting parts and moving as fast as we can,” says Peter Gratschmayr, VP sales and marketing, “The goal is to have all these systems in place in less than a month. People need help now.”

Midwest Engineered Systems Inc. (MWES) is an innovator and leader in complex production systems integration for over 27 years. From small stand-alone systems to large-scale turn-key production lines, MWES custom designs, builds and services automation systems for our customers’ specialized needs. The company’s diverse industry base includes some of the largest manufacturing companies not only in the Midwest, but across the globe. MWES’s extensive industry experience, broad range of product knowledge, and customer-focused approach has made it a leading automation integration supplier with a solid reputation for quality, service, and value.