To survive this crisis we need to find answers quickly. We can no longer say ‘we can’t because…’ we need to say ‘we can if…’ . This simple shift in emphasis is having a transformative effect on overcoming the challenges posed by Covid-19. We’re forced to think of workarounds. We’re forced to break conventions.
A Beautiful Constraint’s critique of different case studies has indicated that there are six strategies which are most commonly adopted when seeking out ‘can if’ solutions’ See the visual below.
The Can If Map
I’m going to focus on ‘remove or substitute’ and explore how this is helping healthcare systems across the world.
This approach means reviewing existing elements such as materials, processes, people, costs, ways of working and seeing what could be removed. Sometimes these elements are substituted with alternatives.
One of the first stories I heard adopting this strategy was via an Italian friend. A hospital in Lombardy in northern Italy, one of the worst hit areas, realised they were running out of valves for their respirators. They sent out a distress call through their local newspaper, Giornale di Brescia.
FabLab, an Italian company that specializes in innovative manufacturing solutions, answered the call by partnering with a local startup called Isinnova which had a 3-D printer. Within 6 hours they had designed and manufactured over a 100 of these valves at a cost of less than €1 each. It was a life-saving intervention. They had substituted one form of manufacturing with another.
Life saving respirator valves, made using a 3-D printer
Many major brands are using their engineering and manufacturers skills to produce scarce products in demand by the health services around the world. Luxury brand owner LVMH were quick off the mark when they decided to use their perfume and cosmetics production lines to produce alcohol based hand sanitisers, which were delivered free of charge to health authorities in France. Since then, Louis Vuitton has begun producing non-medical masks approved by authorities at six of its workshops in France.
The beer and spirits industries quickly followed LVMH’s lead. AB Inbev, the world’s biggest beer company is now manufacturing 1 million bottles of hand sanitiser across the world, from its many production facilities.
The AB Inbev range of hand sanitisers
Medical equipment is now being manufactured by non-traditional businesses who have re-deployed their manufacturing skills and formed new alliances. The Ford Motor Company is making disposable respirator masks and medical face shields using 3D printing at its manufacturing centre in Redford, Michigan, in response to a nationwide call for more medical equipment.
A similar strategy has been adopted by Cadbury’s in their Bourneville factory in the West Midlands. Using their chocolate making skills and 3-D printing technology, they are now making and printing parts for protective visors to be used by NHS staff. The aim is to produce 10 000 units a week.
An inspirational example is the collaboration between the Mercedes Formula 1 team and the mechanical engineers of University College London. (My old university.) They developed a device that helps patients with Covid-19 to breathe more easily, reducing the need for ventilators. It was developed in record time and has been approved by authorities for mass production and use by the NHS.
The UCL - Mercedes breathing device
To summarise
Many brands and businesses have responded to the Covid-19 emergency by creating and manufacturing life-saving medical supplies for the very first time. In normal circumstances, they may have said ‘we can’t because…we’ve never done this before or we don’t have the expertise’. Instead, they responded by saying we ‘can-if’ we substitute our normal products with those needed by healthcare systems. Hand sanitiser instead of beer or perfume. Protective visors instead of chocolate. The demand for vital equipment continues and there is still not enough to go around. However, we should salute the ingenuity of these and similar businesses. We should all be proud of them.