Accurate Metal Fabricating has added a brand new product line – medical beds. In a matter of days, it has used the expertise it gained from years of custom sheet metal fabricating to retool itself into a critical supplier of rapid deployment medical beds to the Army Corps of Engineers and the City of Chicago. How they did so is yet another example of how a combination of ingenuity and determination in the face of adversity is helping to fuel our nation’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Taking Action
Accurate Metal Fabricating (“AMF”) and its parent company, Accurate Perforating Inc., wanted to help. AMF, located in Chicago’s 36th Ward on the near west side, has been in business continuously since 1939. Purchased by its current owners in 2006 and given its current name, AMF uses a combination of high-tech equipment and a skilled and dedicated workforce to perform precision sheet metal fabrication for customers in virtually every sector of the economy, ranging from retail to transportation, medical, and everything in between.
When plans were announced to create an alternative care facility (“ACF”) at McCormick Place, the team at Accurate started making phone calls. “We called almost everyone we knew who might have federal, state, or local connections. We had no idea what we could do to help, so we just kept asking repeatedly, what can we do?” Eventually, we hit upon the idea of providing beds to the Army Corps of Engineers for the ACF at McCormick Place. He found a phone number for the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and called it. An Office
The manager answered, and he pitched her on AMF’s offer to help. She responded favorably, and eventually, he worked his way up to the USACE’s Commanding General.
This started a fast-paced process in which, in the course of fewer than ten days, AMF developed a design for a “Rapid Deployment Emergency Medical Bed,” developed drawings, a manufacturing process and pricing; responded to multiple, last-minute changes in specifications, identified sources for components that needed to be outsourced (such as mattresses), assessed staffing requirements (including sources for any temporary workers who might be required); communicated with the Union who represents AMF’s workers to address any potential contractual issues; submitted a formal bid to the USACE and the City of Chicago; and continued to make and respond to design changes until and even after delivery of the first beds.
Engineering Comes To The Rescue
Although the design changed multiple times from conception to execution, the final version displayed an ingenious combination of features. “Previous designs the Corps had worked with were just a flat piece of steel with legs,” said a rep from Accurate. “But that didn’t work for COVID patients, many of whom have pneumonia and require the ability to lift their upper body. We also built an IV stand into the bed and added caster wheels. The end result was a highly functional medical bed that could be assembled in less than 5 minutes. It was hard to get to that final design, but the City and the Corps were pleased with it, and so were we.”
AMF was initially told that the Corps was looking at five different bids. On Friday, April 3, AMF learned that its bid had been accepted. But AMF was already gearing up for work. We had 25 employees here working overtime that weekend, and even before we had a signed contract, we were enormously impressed by the dedication our people showed. They saw we had a need and agreed to fill it, no questions asked. We couldn’t have done this without them.
Proud To Help
The Company is incredibly proud of the team effort involved in its fantastic feat of new product development. Everyone from our CFO to our Sales, Marketing, Engineering, and Operations teams played vital roles. Even the few parts and labor we outsourced went to domestic sources. This is truly a ‘Made in USA’ product, with most of the labor performed right here in the City of Chicago, with Union labor. I was also impressed by the attitude of our employees and their Union, the Plastic Workers’ Union Local 18. Everyone displayed a fantastic can-do attitude under challenging circumstances. But in the end, everyone from the top of the Company to the folks who cleaned and sanitized our facility came through for us. I couldn’t be more proud of everyone here.
Since getting the news that its bid had been accepted, AMF’s employees have been working nearly around the clock to manufacture, assemble, and deliver about 2000 beds to the McCormick Place ACF. The Company has also launched a new division, Accurate Medical Products, to help market its beds and other related medical products. It includes partition walls that can be quickly deployed to create more hospital or medical facility space. Meanwhile, AMF delivered its first batch of parts on Wednesday, April 8, barely a week after we started pitching AMF as a source. And just two days after that, on April 10, the first of nearly 2000 beds were assembled and installed at McCormick Place.
Doing Our Part
In just ten days, we went from being a custom metal fabricator with basically no experience making medical beds to fabricating and delivering nearly 20 semi-truckloads of beds and mattresses for the McCormick Place ACF to do our part responding to the COVID-19 crisis. We even finished the project a full day and a half ahead of schedule. And now we’re getting inquiries from all over the country for medical beds and partitions for hospital rooms and other pandemic-related products. It’s a pretty fantastic story.