Apr 14, 2020

Philips joins forces with Flex and Jabil to speed the production of hospital ventilators

Philips has joined forces with manufacturing partners Flex and Jabil to further expand its hospital ventilator assembly lines and strengthen its global supply chain. Fully featured hospital ventilators to invasively treat COVID-19 patients with respiratory insufficiency in critical care environments - such as the Philips Trilogy EV300 and Philips Respironics V60 - are complex medical devices. They contain more than 650 advanced, high-reliability components such as precision sensors and high performance motor blowers, as well as numerous complex software algorithms and more than one million lines of code.

Philips’ critical care ventilators feature life support capability, invasive ventilation capabilities, back-up battery power, redundant safety controls, and compatibility with patient monitors and nurse alarms. Philips’ software algorithms have been clinically validated at research sites across the globe and can adapt therapy to lung compliance and airway resistance to meet the dynamic needs of the patient.

Such hospital ventilators are not typically produced in large volumes, and Philips’ production ramp up from 500 units per week in January 2020 to 4,000 units per week by the third quarter of 2020 is a truly herculean effort. It requires decades of expertise, strong manufacturing infrastructure, skilled workforce, strong global network of suppliers for 650+ components, significant investments and trusted partners such as Flex and Jabil. Both companies have expertise in medical device technologies, and possess a global industry footprint, as well as a global network of certified materials and component suppliers.

Our trusted partners Flex and Jabil will provide additional assembly lines, and equally important will help manage and support the supply of the components. Together we hope to produce as many critical care ventilators as possible to help healthcare providers across the globe treat the growing number of critical COVID-19 patients.

Sophie Bechu

Chief Operations Officer and member of the Executive Committee, Royal Philips

“Following the initial hospital ventilator production increase in late January, we decided to aggressively accelerate our hospital ventilator production as the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic began to shift from China to the west,” said Sophie Bechu, Chief Operations Officer and member of the Executive Committee, Royal Philips. “Our trusted partners Flex and Jabil will provide additional assembly lines, and equally important will help manage and support the supply of the components. Together we hope to produce as many critical care ventilators as possible to help healthcare providers across the globe treat the growing number of critical COVID-19 patients.”

“In these challenging times, we can help meet Philips’ pressing need for an almost instant increase in hospital ventilator production capacity,” said John Carlson, President of Flex Health Solutions. “Additionally, Flex has a very strong, global supply chain. We have extensive knowledge and deep relationships with key suppliers which enables us to be very successful in securing components for critical medical products.”

“As Philips is accelerating to address the unprecedented demand for hospital ventilators, it is crucial for their plans that we provide critical manufacturing and supply chain support,” said Steve Borges, CEO of Jabil Healthcare. “To this end, we are also working with multiple governments and governmental agencies in the regions in which we operate to safeguard and enhance our manufacturing operations and that of our suppliers.”

The assembly lines at Philip’s manufacturing site in western Pennsylvania (US) and at Flex focus on the production of the Philips Trilogy hospital ventilator, while the assembly lines at Philips’ site in California (US) and at Jabil focus on the production of the Philips Respironics V60 hospital ventilator.

Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ: FLEX) is the manufacturing partner of choice that helps a diverse customer base design and build products that improve the world. Through the collective strength of a global workforce across 30 countries and responsible, sustainable operations, Flex delivers technology innovation, supply chain, and manufacturing solutions to diverse industries and end markets.

Jabil (NYSE: JBL) is a manufacturing solutions provider that delivers comprehensive design, manufacturing, supply chain and product management services. Leveraging the power of over 200,000 people across 100 sites strategically located around the world, Jabil simplifies complexity and delivers value in a broad range of industries, enabling innovation, growth and customer success.