Boeing’s Jared Tompkinson examines one of the tens of thousands of face shields that the company additively manufactured to provide immediate relief to healthcare workers facing critical PPE shortages.

Photo: Bob Ferguson, Boeing

In a matter of weeks the world’s largest aerospace company pivoted to fight a pandemic:

• Activating our additive manufacturing network to produce urgently needed face shields;
• Leveraging our transportation capabilities to transport millions of pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE);
• Empowering employees to help through donations and volunteerism;
• Donating supplies to frontline healthcare workers and local communities; and
• Collaborating with partners throughout industry to support communities around the globe.

A container of life-saving personal protective equipment being unloaded from a Boeing Dreamlifter following a COVID-19 response airlift mission.

Photo: Michael Wiser

Here’s how.

As the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading around the world, numerous companies, including Boeing, pivoted their operations to help in the effort against the COVID-19 pandemic. How that came about is a case study in collective action, innovative solutions-development and adapting business to deliver what customers and communities need.

This is a behind-the-scenes look at what we did at Boeing, how we evaluated opportunities, and the actions all of us at Boeing took to support communities fighting COVID-19.

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Getting started

As the reality of coronavirus outbreak became evident, Boeing’s immediate priority was ensuring the health and safety of our workforce, as well as the wellbeing of our suppliers, partners and customers.

At the same time, we recognized that we could help our communities in the fight against COVID-19.

Inquiries and information poured in: from employees, media, external stakeholders, partners and customers around the globe.

The compassion was inspiring, but we needed to focus and direct our energy so that we could apply Boeing’s unique expertise, capabilities and resources to help most effectively.

We quickly launched a “How Boeing Can Help” campaign on an internal problem-solving innovation platform so that individuals and teams throughout the company could raise ideas and opportunities, and collaborate toward solutions. For years we have used this platform for tapping into the creativity and expertise of teammates throughout Boeing in order to solve technical challenges, such as developing more aerodynamic surfaces for specific product use cases.

Now we dedicated it to capturing and distilling valuable employee knowledge and ideas into specific actions Boeing could take to fight COVID-19. Boeing employees were quick to stand up and help in the effort. Thousands of our employees from more than 100 locations in 13 countries shared ideas and information.

We consolidated and solidified our focus areas toward what was feasible and most in demand, beginning with the urgent need for PPE among local hospitals and healthcare providers. We assessed requests and opportunities to use our machining capabilities, ways to apply advanced technologies, and offers and asks from suppliers.

We sought to develop solutions at scale that could be delivered in multiple local executions and that would meet local requirements and needs. Ideas that required extensive engineering outside our core competencies—or medical-grade certifications—were best left to experts in those fields. We sought to fill gaps we could quickly add value on and those where Boeing might be especially needed. We analyzed real-time needs as the shortages and challenges evolved.

Boeing produced more than 40,000 face shields using its additive manufacturing capabilities.

Photo: Boeing

From Ideas to Action

Thanks to that outpouring of ideas and the concerted efforts of thousands of employees, Boeing has been able to provide relief assistance to communities around the world.

Here’s how we did it:

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As 2020 started, no one at Boeing had the job title “pandemic response coordinator.” We had emergency operations and continuity planning functions, and a health and medical staff, but not a “global disease outbreak” function. Boeing was like almost all other companies in the world—we had to figure it out in real time.

Today, coronavirus is a part of everyone’s job. How we work has changed. Change is hard in any context—this change has been harrowing and heartbreaking. But we are learning from the rapid response to this crisis as we continue to support communities at this time of great need and shape the future together.

About the author: Amy Bann, who supports Boeing’s sustainability, strategy and corporate development efforts, was one of the many team members who contributed to Boeing’s COVID-19 relief strategy.

Photo: Ruby Somera