300 Macomb & Oakland County manufacturers make parts to save lives in Ukraine
April 19, 2022Apr. 18, 2022
Kim Russell
It is called Project Diamond and right now it is bringing hundreds of businesses in Oakland and Macomb Counties together to save lives in Ukraine.
The name is fitting because the goal is to use CARES Act Funding to create a valuable metro Detroit network that will sparkle and shine whenever we are faced with an emergency. It is also an acronym for Distributed, Independent Agile Manufacturing on Demand.
When Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said it needed parts to make tourniquets for those injured in war, Project Diamond saw it as a test to build its network and do good.
“If we can help, if we are in a position to help, then we should,” said Patricia Yulkowski, President and CEO of Total Door Systems in Waterford.
The commercial door manufacturer is one of 300 companies in Macomb and Oakland Counties that received a 3-D printer, in exchange for a promise that in an emergency, companies would make things like PPE.
“What we were looking at is, what is a great way to use this funding to do something that is strategic and meets a need? And when we say strategic, Automation Alley is the Industry 4.0 knowledge center and industry 4.0 is the digital disruption that is watching over manufacturing,” explained Pavan Muzumdar, the COO of Automation Alley.
Automation Alley is a World Economic Forum Advanced Manufacturing Hub that works to create relationships that prepare Michigan for the 4th Industrial Revolution. He says this project now has metro-Detroit companies building relationships, working together to manufacture a part needed for a tourniquet.
“It is amazing to see the collaboration that is emerging,” said Muzumdar.
“It is so great to see 300 manufacturers come together and do something incredible and it shows that when we work as a team and work together, we can accomplish much greater things than each of us individually can do,” said Yulkowski.
The goal is for each company taking part to make an average of 50 clips so 15,000 can be sent to Denmark to be assembled into tourniquets to be sent to war zones in Ukraine.