GM CEO says making ventilators changed the company culture
ABC News
The CEO of General Motors says the automaker learned valuable lessons last year when it stepped in to boost emergency production of ventilators to treat severely ill COVID-19 patients
DETROIT -- The CEO of General Motors said Thursday that the automaker learned valuable lessons last year when it stepped in to boost emergency production of ventilators to treat severely ill COVID-19 patients.
The company was able to help a small West Coast ventilator maker start large-scale production in about a month. That gave GM the confidence that it could speed up other tasks, such as bringing electric and other vehicles to market faster, CEO Mary Barra said.
“Doing the ventilator project was kind of a game changer from a General Motors perspective, from a culture-change perspective," Barra said in a wide-ranging conversation with members of the Automotive Press Association of Detroit.
Barra said that in the past, the GM management team would have resisted when told they needed to help a company that builds 250 ventilators per month accelerate production to 30,000 in 150 days.
