Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RESERVIST (Repurposing manufacturing lines for providing medical and other products and services in case of spiking demand times)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-06-01 al 2023-05-31
The COVID-19 crisis has drastically affected various aspects of life worldwide, particularly healthcare and the global economy. A significant challenge that emerged in many EU countries was the shortage of personal protective equipment (also known as PPE), including masks and gowns, but also ventilators and disinfection liquids. Patients were also forced to occupy corridors, stadiums, or parking lots due to inadequate hospital capacity. The pandemic exposed the need for EU countries to relocate the production of key products, including medical and protective equipment, which are presently manufactured outside the EU due to cost considerations.
As such, Europe needs now an effective coordination and more collaboration between industries and countries to be able to tackle global health crises and improve preparedness for future emergency situations. This is where the RESERVIST project comes in. RESERVIST has one main objective: to prevent disastrous situations during future crisis by setting up ‘RESERVIST cells’ that can be activated within 48 hours to produce necessary products and services. During a spiking demand, ‘RESERVIST cells’ are activated. This activation triggers a change in production: manufacturing lines are repurposed or started up to produce the required emergency equipment and services.
Each ‘RESERVIST cell’ is pre-defined depending on different needs. Cells are composed of core companies for manufacturing and testing, an extended network for further capacities, a digital coordination platform, and a pool of experts from the consortium. The RESERVIST project offers various products, including protective textiles, various types of face masks, reusable medical gowns, biodegradable body bags, mechanical ventilators, disinfection equipment, emergency hospitals. It also offers services such as certification of medical products, situation awareness forecasting, and training. The benefits of the RESERVIST project are numerous. It provides better preparedness to handle crises, fast access to emergency goods, priority on product orders, easy ordering, fast delivery, fixed prices for emergency products, and is less expensive than paying for stock keeping.
As such, Europe needs now an effective coordination and more collaboration between industries and countries to be able to tackle global health crises and improve preparedness for future emergency situations. This is where the RESERVIST project comes in. RESERVIST has one main objective: to prevent disastrous situations during future crisis by setting up ‘RESERVIST cells’ that can be activated within 48 hours to produce necessary products and services. During a spiking demand, ‘RESERVIST cells’ are activated. This activation triggers a change in production: manufacturing lines are repurposed or started up to produce the required emergency equipment and services.
Each ‘RESERVIST cell’ is pre-defined depending on different needs. Cells are composed of core companies for manufacturing and testing, an extended network for further capacities, a digital coordination platform, and a pool of experts from the consortium. The RESERVIST project offers various products, including protective textiles, various types of face masks, reusable medical gowns, biodegradable body bags, mechanical ventilators, disinfection equipment, emergency hospitals. It also offers services such as certification of medical products, situation awareness forecasting, and training. The benefits of the RESERVIST project are numerous. It provides better preparedness to handle crises, fast access to emergency goods, priority on product orders, easy ordering, fast delivery, fixed prices for emergency products, and is less expensive than paying for stock keeping.
The project implementation was divided into 3 phases, namely the preparation phase, the demonstration phase, and the replication phase. In the preparation phase the RESERVIST network was established (WP1), a digital platform ((https://reservist.collab-cloud.eu/) was developed (WP2), emergency products (face masks, gowns, ventilators, disinfection equipment and emergency hospitals) were developed and tested, and it was investigated how manufacturing lines should be tweaked in order to make these products (WP3). The RESERVIST network is a cluster of companies and non-profit entities which ensure the setup of a resilient supply chain for medical and protective equipment manufacturing and testing. The final part of the preparation phase focused on the modification of the manufacturing lines for repurposing and product quality. The repurposing work performed in RESERVIST is very important for the RESERVIST concept because the production of RESERVIST products rely on the modification of existing manufacturing lines which are normally making other products in non-crisis situations. It was shown that these lines could be tweaked. A new test bench was also developed to quickly test the electrical and pneumatic parts of the ventilators to evaluate whether they work correctly. For the facemasks, correlation was found between the normally required BFE test for medical masks and the paraffin particle filtration test. In the demonstration phase, it was validated if facemasks and ventilators could indeed be manufactured within 48 hours even when there is stock problem of the raw materials. After the demonstration phase the roll out phase was initiated. This phase targeted the overall successful industrial embedding of the RESERVIST concept as well as creating blueprints and ideating for replicating the RESERVIST Network for future (emergency) scenarios. This resulted in 1) the development of a set of (non)binding contractual agreements for companies that are part of the RESERVIST network and guidelines to access the RESERVIST ecosystem, 2) training the companies on how to use the RDP, 3) audited implementation manuals to make sure that the knowledge on how to produce the products is not lost, 4) a blueprint for testing/certification which can be used by companies as a guideline to know what is the best way to get certification of certain products, 5) a book ‘Emerging RESERVIST Cultures from stories of resilience to network preparedness’ and finally 6) the execution of two activation scenarios of the RESERVIST cells. The results of the RESERVIST project were presented at several events and on social media . A project video and Open Resource Series of videos were created (YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Reservist_EU). On the project’s website (https://cov-reservist.eu) project results can be found as well as RESERVIST communication regarding RESERVIST-related activities. Some of the products (gowns, hospitals, disinfection equipment), are already commercially available. Others can be supplied on request when in sufficient amount. Also new testing methods for facemasks can be offered and a test bench for testing the electrical and pneumatic parts of the ventilators.
Progress beyond the state of the art is shown by the redesigning of the RESERVIST products: face masks with good bacterial filtration efficiency without a melt blown filter, biodegradable body bags, ventilators that are easier and faster to assemble, movable inflatable hospitals than can be adapted to the various medical needs and a disinfection equipment with a lower consumption of disinfecting liquid. Further, it is shown by the realization of the RESERVIST concept that repurposing existing European manufacturing lines to produce protective and medical equipment is feasible. Especially the concept of 'ready for preparedness' by being prepared for repurposing and by the creation of European capacity (instead of buying stocks from countries outside the EU) has the potential to make EU less vulnerable in times of crisis or during market disturbed situations. This concept could be used for other sectors as well to avoid shortage of other critical products.
Discussions with EU civil protections, hospitals and government revealed that there is interest in such a concept, that they follow the logic of the business model and see the many benefits of paying for preparedness rather than for stock. However, there is work needed to set up the necessary (legal) framework for financing such a concept. Indeed, the current procedures of governments for civil protection go mainly via tendering and the European, national and regional public entities we contacted do not see how they can support this initiative with the existing instruments. Ideally such a new framework can immediately set up at EU level.
So, RESERVIST contributed to create awareness of the need for preparedness at policy level and it is expected that the RESERVIST concepts and business model for ‘preparedness’ will be considered in the future as alternative of stock keeping of non-EU products for civil protection.
Discussions with EU civil protections, hospitals and government revealed that there is interest in such a concept, that they follow the logic of the business model and see the many benefits of paying for preparedness rather than for stock. However, there is work needed to set up the necessary (legal) framework for financing such a concept. Indeed, the current procedures of governments for civil protection go mainly via tendering and the European, national and regional public entities we contacted do not see how they can support this initiative with the existing instruments. Ideally such a new framework can immediately set up at EU level.
So, RESERVIST contributed to create awareness of the need for preparedness at policy level and it is expected that the RESERVIST concepts and business model for ‘preparedness’ will be considered in the future as alternative of stock keeping of non-EU products for civil protection.