One Friday in March, Todd Olson was suddenly pulled into a life-and-death project. General Motors asked Olson, CEO of Twin City Die Castings in Minneapolis: Could he help make tiny little pistons?

The giant car maker was committed to helping the country by producing ventilators, which were suddenly in short supply as the coronavirus spread like wildfire. And GM needed lots of pistons for the kind of ventilator it would produce. Most importantly, the pistons had to come together fast.

And that’s how this small company in Minneapolis company got drafted into a manufacturing effort unlike any since World War II.

Read the full article on NPR.