Medtronic plans to make ventilators together with Foxconn

It was during an interview with CNBC that Medtronic CEO, Omar Ishark, said that Foxconn’s Wisconsin plant would be used to make the ventilators, and this is on top of the ramping up of production currently taking place at Medtronic’s own manufacturing facility in Ireland. The company has been ramping up its own production since January when it had an output of about 150 ventilators per week. The current output is at about 300 a week and moving forward the company expects to be able to manufacture 400 ventilators per week by the end of April and 700 per week by the end of May, and ultimately 1000 a week by the end of June. Ishark did not specify any capacity that the cooperation with Foxconn might bring but that the companies are working hard to get everything up and running. “We’re doing everything we can, working 24-7 with Foxconn to bring this up to their factory in Wisconsin,” He said in the interview. On March 30, Medtronic also launched an open source initiative publicly sharing the design specifications for the Puritan Bennett 560 (PB 560) ventilator to enable participants across industries to evaluate options for rapid manufacturing.