Client Spotlight: Midwest Engineered Systems is Partnering with GE to Build Ventilators

COVID-19 continues to impact our daily lives in many ways. Some of our clients have turned to creativity and innovation to keep their business moving and contribute to the community. We are inspired by our clients, now more than ever. We wanted to share some of their stories during this time with you. If you haven’t already, check out our stories on Kenco Label & Tag Co., LLC, Ad-Tech, and MobCraft.

Midwest Engineered Systems (MWES) has not sat idle during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company specializes in custom automation solutions for manufacturing, but has a new focus on the healthcare industry given the recent pandemic. In April 2020, MWES partnered with GE Healthcare in Madison, WI to increase their ventilator production capabilities. MWES had previously worked with another partner of GE to automate production of similar precision valves used on aircraft engines.

Because MWES specializes in manufacturing automation, they were tasked with solving the bottlenecks that were arising in component testing. MWES built eight calibration stations to test flow control valves that are needed to run the ventilators. The test machines have increased GE’s production capacity, helping them get more life-saving ventilators out the door quickly. GE Healthcare was then able to double their production of flow control valves with an additional production line. More production lines will be coming online in July 2020.

Midwest Engineered Systems has also played a role in finding compatible parts and reaching out to vendors to obtain components that are needed to quickly build ventilators. Concurrently, MWES is improving reliability and performance of the systems already in place, replacing obsolete components and modernizing processes wherever possible. MWES has also streamlined a manual ventilator production line at GE. All of these activities connect on a similar theme: MWES is doing anything and everything possible to streamline processes at GE to help get ventilators out to those who need them as quickly as humanly possible.