How MAKE4COVID is addressing medical equipment shortage

Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, hospitals are experiencing shortages in medical supplies and the group MAKE4COVID is working to address the issue. Harris Kenny, Head of Fundraising at MAKE4COVID, joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss how they are using 3D printing technology to support their efforts.

Video Transcript

- Welcome back to "Yahoo Finance Live." Well, amid the shortage that we've been hearing from a lot of these hospitals for these critical medical supplies, one company is stepping up in an unusual way, 3D printing technology, being-- using that technology to, of course, help fill the need for some of these critical supplies.

Let's bring in Harris Kenny. He is Kenny Consulting Group principal and the organization behind MAKE4COVID. Great to have you on today. Let's start by talking about exactly what MADE4COVID is doing right now to help some of these critical supplies get to these hospitals.

HARRIS KENNY: Sure, thanks for having me. So MAKE4COVID is fitting in this rapid response need, where you have larger manufacturing organizations are turning the wheels of getting their production lines shifted and ramping up big orders, and then you've got volunteers on the other end who are making little one-off donations and things like that.

And MAKE4COVID is a co-op that's really operating in the middle. So we've delivered close to 6,500 pieces of PPE. We're scaling up to 10,000 units a week. And we're doing it with a distributed manufacturing base, by having a bunch of different small businesses and libraries and people at home contribute. So it's that scale plus the speed is what MAKE4COVID is doing that's really different.

- How closely are you working with some of the local governments? I know in places like LA, for example, the mayor there specifically reaching out to 3D printing companies that are based there to try and sort of, you know, streamline the process. Are you getting a lot of inquiries on that front?

HARRIS KENNY: Yes. So that is how MAKE4COVID got started. Governor Jared Polis here in Colorado basically put out an ask saying, look, we need help making PPE today. And so the organization was started in response to that. And it's the close relationship with the hospitals and local governments.

One quick example, the Civil Air Patrol, we've been partnering with them. And they helped with an airlift and flying PPE out to Gunnison, a couple hundred miles outside of Denver, because the town is shut down and the roads are shut down. So in close concert with rural hospitals and folks all over the state to get this equipment delivered. Those relationships are the thing that's been tough because everyone's busy right now.

- Hey, Harris, just a question about the actual manufacturing process of what you guys are doing because, you know, I remember, shoot, I guess it was 8, 9, 10 years ago, 3D printing, very buzzy technology about how it was going to change a lot of different things. But it seems like there's a lot of-- there have been a lot of stories now about, you know, where 3D printing fits into PPE and other kind of industrial goods. So where's that technology coming? How complicated it is it for you guys to get this stuff out the door? And what pieces of equipment exactly are you guys making?

HARRIS KENNY: Yes, so that's a really important point to make. So there's a couple of different ways that people are using digital fabrication, 3D printing laser cutters. The most basic, so if you imagine like walk-- a crawl, walk, run, the most basic thing is a face shield, which uses a 3D printed component, and then a PET transparent material.

And so those are printable. We've got standard operating procedures that are reviewed by physicians and approved to keep everything clean. You've got more industrial like metal 3D printing that's being used for replacement parts for ventilators and things like that. Our project right now is focused on where there's an immediate need, but we've got some longer-term engineering teams working on some of those more advanced potential ways to help.

- Hey, Harris, how did you get into this?

HARRIS KENNY: Well, it was-- it's a collection of a lot of different people. The organization has over 1,500 different volunteers now from across the state, and a lot of familiar names. A lot of small business owners, people from the maker community. And everybody's volunteering. And so it's really spidering out.

But the spark was definitely Governor Polis's call for saying, look, we need help right now. Because I think you're seeing with the multinationals and the international trade supply lines there's a lot of headlines and there's a lot of people butting heads, but at the end of the day, there's doctors who need equipment immediately, and they don't have time for these larger institutions to sort of figure out what they're doing.

- How much capacity do you have? I mean, if you look at all the 3D printers you've reached out to that you're working with, how quickly can they turn things around, and how significant of an output are we talking about?

HARRIS KENNY: Well, it's been happening-- growing quickly. We're trying to grow exponentially, and trying to grow faster than the virus is spreading. And we're going-- hopefully going to be hitting 10,000 units a week of these face shields that we're making. But we've also got some small and mid-sized manufacturers coming online.

There's a cut and sew apparel company in Denver that's looking at switching over to making fabric masks. And they can make 50,000 units a week. There's injection molding companies that are getting involved, and they can make tens of thousands of units in a single day. So we're seeing that we're getting more sophisticated as more people join in.

- You're certainly filling a big need, a growing need. Harris Kenny, great to have you on today. Harris Kenny joining us on MAKE4COVID.