South Africa's CSIR Produces 18,000 Ventilators in 3 Months Using Digital Manufacturing

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the South African government needed rapid production of ventilators. The project had stringent requirements for product design, usability, quality, and regulatory compliance under the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority and WHO guidelines. Intense parallelization of production was needed within an extremely short timeframe.

Siemens provided a Rapid Implementation Package enabling a 3-week development of a digital manufacturing foundation using Opcenter Execution Medical Device and Diagnostics. Siemens Teamcenter created a digital thread between virtual design and physical production, with digital twins of the production side. The solution used model-based systems engineering with NX, Simcenter, and quality control tracking across virtual and physical spaces.

The multidisciplinary team designed, developed, and produced 18,000 ventilators within 3 months. The digital manufacturing foundation was set up in just 3 weeks using Siemens' Rapid Implementation Package, enabling distributed production across multiple sites with full regulatory compliance.

• Digital manufacturing foundations can be deployed in weeks, not months, when urgency demands it
• Digital twins and digital threads enable complex multi-site distributed production
• Regulatory compliance in medical device manufacturing benefits enormously from digitalized quality tracking