The COVID-19 pandemic caused severe ventilator shortages in many healthcare systems worldwide. The UK government reacted to this with a three-pronged approach of importing, up-scaling existing production and supporting new design projects. The latter two parts – labelled the UK Ventilator Challenge – included over 50 companies from various sectors including the automotive and aerospace industries. Nine multi-partner consortia and five single-company projects were initiated with varying approaches. This study explores lessons learned during the setup and management of these medical device designs and manufacturing consortia. A qualitative survey methodology was employed, and 32 semi-structured stakeholder interviews were conducted. The primary data was triangulated through the collection of 42 secondary data sources such as webinars and radio interviews. Transcription and a three-step data analysis process of thematic coding identified six lessons learned. The analysis of the data showed that a strong, appealing common goal can enable employee motivation and trust as well as align priorities across all companies involved. This facilitates the involvement and fruitful collaboration of companies with varying sizes and fields of expertise. Furthermore, selecting the most suitable employees with specialist knowledge for high-priority projects and empowering them to make decisions can have a positive effect on project performance. The findings from the study complement existing literature on new product development and crisis management processes. In addition, the results uncover potential long-term effects such as more openness for cross-sector collaborations, which can serve as interesting sources for further research.

中文翻译：

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医疗器械设计和制造联盟的快速建立和管理：英国 COVID-19 危机的经验

COVID-19 大流行导致全球许多医疗保健系统出现严重的呼吸机短缺。英国政府对此采取了进口、扩大现有生产规模和支持新设计项目的三管齐下的方法。后两部分——标记为英国呼吸机挑战赛——包括来自汽车和航空航天工业等各个领域的 50 多家公司。九个多伙伴联合体和五个单一公司项目以不同的方式启动。本研究探讨了在这些医疗器械设计和制造联盟的设置和管理过程中吸取的经验教训。采用了定性调查方法，并进行了 32 次半结构化的利益相关者访谈。主要数据是通过收集 42 个二级数据源（如网络研讨会和电台采访）进行三角测量的。转录和主题编码的三步数据分析过程确定了六个经验教训。对数据的分析表明，一个强有力的、有吸引力的共同目标可以激发员工的积极性和信任，并协调所有相关公司的优先事项。这促进了具有不同规模和专业领域的公司的参与和富有成效的合作。此外，为高优先级项目选择具有专业知识的最合适员工并授权他们做出决策可以对项目绩效产生积极影响。该研究的结果补充了有关新产品开发和危机管理流程的现有文献。此外，