How Cogent Technology responded to UK government ventilator calls
On the 14th March, with the UK about to be placed in lockdown, Cogent Technology was approached by UK government, as an ISO13485 Medical Device manufacturer, to support the UK Ventilator Challenge.
With a prediction of 30,000 ventilators required, Cogent Technology was contracted to rapidly manufacture over 13,500 units within a 12-week window.
The Eva Ventilator was designed and developed by the medical device designers at Team Consulting, working closely with engineering, planning, manufacturing and supply chain specialists at Cogent Technology.
Iain Ansell, head of surgical, at Team Consulting stated the main objective: “From the outset, EVA has been designed to meet government specifications. To allow the fastest possible delivery and to minimise supply chain risk, we based our design on an established ventilator made in the UK by Diamedica. The ventilator needed to be appropriate for mass manufacture and built from components which could be readily acquired, avoiding competition for materials and components commonly used in other ventilators. During that time, the specification continued to evolve (in response to clinicians’ feedback on their experiences treating COVID-19 patients) and throughout the six-week project, the EVA design was iterated to keep up with those changes.”
In order to support the production volume of ventilators within a tight schedule Cogent Technology has been able to acquire a lease on 79,000 sq. feet of manufacturing space at Landguard Point Enterprise Centre in Felixstowe – with keys handed over within a week the team at Cogent were able to ready the facility with a dedicated production line within five weeks.
Managing director Nigel Slator said: “I am immensely proud of the dedication that has been shown in rising to this challenge. Be under no illusion, developing a new product to manufacture normally takes 2-3 years minimum. The unified teamwork within Cogent Technology and close collaboration with our design partners has worked to bring the first production units off the line in weeks. It has been a personal privilege to be part of this joint venture. The effort extends outside of Cogent to our supply chain with firms such as PCML Group, Propak, GTK, Farnell, UPS and Brafe Engineering to name a few providing fantastic support.”
Lockdown has managed to stem the growth of COVID-19 across the world, and as the world learns more about the treatment of COVID-19 patients, the need for ventilators has changed. As of 28th April, the final regulatory submission and ramp up to full manufacture was put on hold by the UK Government.
Daniel Goddard, operations director for Cogent Technology said: “We cannot thank our team enough and are grateful to the families who stood behind them whilst they rose to this challenge, working seven days a week, night and day, to be able to produce EVA. Whilst EVA has been paused, she’s ready to be retriggered should the need arise. From the moment the design was released, we had everything in place and on time to commence manufacture.”