Siemens has been a long-standing partner of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa and have cooperated in various field of research, including manufacturing and mining. CSIR which is an entity of the South African Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) – in collaboration with a number of local partners including Siemens has completed work on a local ventilator to be rolled out nationwide to patients showing respiratory distress in the early phase of COVID-19 infection.
The ventilators will be provided to state hospitals who are in dire need due to the lack of unavailability of medical equipment. The initial requirement was for the design and manufacture of 10 000 ventilator devices and 20 000 patient circuits during July and August.
“We are proud to have been the technology partner on this project with CSIR to provide the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software support’’, explains Sabine Dall’Omo, chief executive officer for Siemens (Southern and Eastern Africa). “Using a digital product life cycle design methodology also ensures that the product can be manufactured in multiple factories in the industry and in large volumes. We are currently collaborating on a number of other initiatives simultaneously in response to help fight COVID-19. Beyond the company, we also consider it our duty to act responsibly and to do our part to help and contribute to society.”
More than R8 million has been made available by Siemens Digital Industries Software, which includes Teamcenter as well as Opcenter to manage the design and engineering process to ensure regulatory requirements traceability according to ISO13485. Siemens NX is employed for 3D Design of the device, fully integrated and managed by Siemens Teamcenter.
Ralf Leinen, senior vice president for Siemens Digital Industries (Southern and Eastern Africa) adds, “The corona pandemic has accelerated the pace of digitalization. Digital and automated solutions will help ensure that companies can respond more flexibly and faster to crisis situations and changing market demands. Globally, Digital Industries has opened the Siemens Additive Manufacturing Network for hospitals and health organizations and provided the Mendix development platform free of charge so customers can quickly and easily develop apps without a programmer.”
The software included components for systems engineering processes, computer aided design tools, manufacturing execution tools as well as quality management solutions that would ensure compliance to health product regulations for certification. Simera was a key deployment partner to facilitate the process of technology rollout to the wider National Ventilator Project consortium.
According to Martin Sanne, executive manager CSIR Future Production: Manufacturing, “The clinical requirement from the National Ventilator Project was for the rapid development and distributed production of a non-invasive pre-intubation ventilation solution that could be used for most hospitalised COVID-19 patients as part of government’s response plan to the pandemic.”
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