When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, there was an initial shortage in the personal protective equipment (PPE) desperately needed for medical caregivers as well as the general public to curb the spread of the disease. Manufacturing USA reports that with most of the world’s PPE production is in Asia, US manufacturers were not able to quickly adapt to the uptick in demand for PPE. The Manufacturing USA program had to identify “early workarounds” in PPE production, which lead to the Manufacturing x Digital Institute (MxD) to create instructions for manufacturers to make face shields. While manufacturers had to quickly adapt to meet the demand for PPE, they were forced to meet new legal compliance standards that would have significantly slowed the process if not for Manufacturing USA’s ability to guide its members through the transition. This allowed manufacturers to produce N95 masks much more quickly than they would have otherwise been able to. Many of the institutes are engaged in developing “next generation masks” and in establishing a pipeline necessary for manufacturing of such PPE. The work on reinventing the PPE supply chain demonstrates the value of the large-scale support for innovation that Manufacturing USA is providing to the U.S. manufacturing sector. The institute leveraged $133M in federal funds to attract $355M in state and private investment, worked with 1,900 member organizations to collaborate on over 560 major research and development projects.
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