General Motors has launched a rapid-response project to produce masks at scale and is offering manufacturing blueprints for face masks to 600 auto parts suppliers.

This comes amid a critical shortage of face masks across the USA for essential workers amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

General Motors (GM) expect to have 20,000 masks ready by mid-week and once its production lines are running at full speed will make 50,000 masks a day, and up to 1.5 million masks a month.

GM created a production line in one of its cleanrooms at its manufacturing plant in Warren, Michigan.

The project would have taken several months to plan and execute but it took one week due to help from GM’s global partners.

More than 30 engineers, designers, buyers and members of the manufacturing team were asked to help with product development, sourcing materials and equipment, and planning the production process.

“The first people we called were those who work with fabric vehicle components,” said Karsten Garbe, GM plant director of global pre-production operations.

“In a few days, the company’s seat belt and interior trim experts became experts in manufacturing face masks.”

This good news comes as GM announced its first quarter sales figures, with a decrease of about 7 per cent compared with a year ago. It delivered 618,335 vehicles with significant declines in March due to the outbreak of Covid-19.