Coronavirus: General Motors to make 1.5 million masks a month for frontline workers

General Motors has cleared out 31,000 square feet at its shuttered Warren Transmission plant and is making face masks there for frontline workers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Like several other major carmaker, it is already producing ventilators for the treatment of patients at its Kokomo, Indiana plant and now masks at the old facility which are desperately needed.

It is making use of its existing supply chain to source materials including the metal nose pieces, elastic straps, and fabric filter material necessary for mask production, and it is depending mostly on its own engineering and design talent to get this done.

The efforts of over 30 engineers, designers, buyers, and manufacturing team members has been called upon to source the materials and equipment, plan out the manufacturing process and make the masks.

GM has also reached out to JR Automation and Esys Automation in Michigan for help designing and building the custom machinery required to produce masks to fight COVID-19 in record time.

It expects to deliver 20,000 masks by next week and estimates it will produce an estimated 1.5 million masks a month when it reaches full capacity.

“Our team began looking at ways we could quickly utilize our talents and resources to help in the shared fight against COVID-19,” said Peter Thom, GM vice president, Global Manufacturing Engineering. “Working around the clock, our team rallied with incredible passion and focus to come up with a plan to produce masks that will help protect the women and men on the front lines of this crisis.”

GM and the UAW will seek more than two dozen paid volunteers from Detroit-area plants to staff mask operations.