I was president of the IET for 2016-17, and have been asked by government to gather practical and innovative ideas from our Engineering communities. So, please enter any ideas you might have in this thread that might help address and mitigate the Covid-19 crisis. Ideas might include digital tracking / monitoring through therapy equipment and beyond. Even ideas outside your usual expertise domain will be welcome. Now’s the time for Engineering to show we can change the world!
If the PEIs and EC could facilitate links between suppliers of medical equipment who are unable to meet demand, and manufacturers with strong experience in safety critical / mission critical equipment who could subcontract supply them then that would be a great service.
This will be challenging for manufacturers of medical equipment who are not set up to manage third party manufacturing in terms of regulatory compliance, again the PEIs and EC could facilitate linking such manufacturers with appropriate training / consultancy organisations.
In the railway signalling industry I know of cases where we've used manufacturers of medical equipment as sub suppliers, on the basis that they have experience in the control of manufacture of life critical equipment. So it ought to be able to work the other way around given some determination to make it work. The challenge is helping the right people find each other.
If the PEIs and EC could facilitate links between suppliers of medical equipment who are unable to meet demand, and manufacturers with strong experience in safety critical / mission critical equipment who could subcontract supply them then that would be a great service.
This will be challenging for manufacturers of medical equipment who are not set up to manage third party manufacturing in terms of regulatory compliance, again the PEIs and EC could facilitate linking such manufacturers with appropriate training / consultancy organisations.
In the railway signalling industry I know of cases where we've used manufacturers of medical equipment as sub suppliers, on the basis that they have experience in the control of manufacture of life critical equipment. So it ought to be able to work the other way around given some determination to make it work. The challenge is helping the right people find each other.
