Medtronic plc and Foxconn Industrial Internet, a business group within Foxconn Technology Group (Foxconn), announce that Foxconn has successfully completed Medtronic’s regulatory and quality requirements necessary to begin manufacturing Medtronic Puritan Bennett 560 (PB560) ventilators in the United States. Medtronic and Foxconn are currently ramping up plans to produce 10,000 PB560 ventilators over the next year at Foxconn’s Wisconn Valley Science and Technology Park in Mount Pleasant, Wis. Medtronic will market and sell the ventilators.
“No single company can meet the current demands for ventilators that are critical in the fight against COVID-19,” says Vafa Jamali, senior vice president and president of Medtronic’s respiratory, gastrointestinal and informatics business. “Joining together with Foxconn immediately increases our production capacity to meet the increased demand and creates a flexible manufacturing model for us. Together, we can increase ventilator supply and help more patients and clinicians than any one company can do alone.”
Foo-Ming Fu, CEO of Foxconn Industrial Internet Wisconsin, also spoke out about the partnership, commenting: “Foxconn is grateful to all front-line professionals who tirelessly work to serve others and is proud to partner with Medtronic to address this global pandemic. Foxconn’s manufacturing capabilities can bring to market life-saving medical equipment during these challenging times. Foxconn’s flexibility to quickly react to global markets makes opportunities with partners like this possible.
In fact, Fu says, since April, the company went from “zero ventilator manufacturing capabilities to a tested, qualified ventilator manufacturing cell.”