On the 6^th of March 2020, 40 nurses working with one of the leading private hospitals in Mumbai, tested positive for Corona Virus. One may perceive it ironic but, it is heart wrenching that people who are working day in and out to cure the COVID19 patients; the saviors, are themselves being subjected to the danger of catching the virus. On the brighter side, we have people working hard to combat the epidemic considering that so many doctors, nurses, supporting medical staff, paramilitary forces, sanitary workers, health workers on the survey to find COVID19 infected people across the country, need to be protected at any cost. A simple innovation– a Simple Face Shield by Mahindra Group in collaboration with many is now the most sought after equipment to protect all our frontline warriors who are putting out the fight of their lifetime.

The primary cause of the spread of COVID19 is face coming in contact with other surfaces, and thus the basic step for protection is getting challenged. With a face mask in place, a doctor or nurse needs to touch the mask repeatedly in order to adjust it which eventually fails the very purpose of the mask. This is where the Face Shield developed by Mahindra becomes significant. Dr. Pravina Gondalia, a Senior practicing Radiologist from Mumbai, informed that many of her Doctor colleagues including Radiologists and Gynecologists are flooded with requests from patients for scanning/ intervention but they were unable to assist the majority of them due to unavailability of PPE'S/ Face Shields. She was among the firsts to receive the Mahindra Face Shield and in response, her husband shared a tweet, “The face shield offers pretty good face protection, and is very practical, lightweight and comfortable even after almost 6 hours of usage”.

Dr Gondalia, our team is so happy to see you in this Shield. This one photo of yours is the highest reward for all the effort put in by them to make these shields. Please give us inputs for improvement. @GondaliaN @MahindraRise https://t.co/UDXXOdKXIa

— Pawan K Goenka (@GoenkaPk) April 4, 2020

It all started with an email

Peter Wilson, the Global Integration Manager of Power Train by Ford Motors, who is driving Face Shield development project at Ford’s worldwide locations, wrote to Mahindra Group about Face Shield. This came into the notice of Pawan Goenka, Managing Director of the group. It was the time when the Automotive Manufacturing Division was working on developing the Ventilators as well as face masks, which was in demand and a priority. Mr. Goenka forecasted the importance of developing the Face Shield, initiated the project with Vijay Kalra, Chief of Manufacturing Operations at Mahindra Automotive Division, directing Amar Patil, Head of Foundry & Central Maintenance at Mahindra Kandivali Plant to lead the project.

“We realized if the front runners are infected, the morale of the fight is gone. To start with, we decided to manufacture 10,000 Face Shields at our plant. The challenge was finding raw materials and components”, said Sunil Kulkarni, Vice President of Manufacturing Operations, Kandivali Plant. The chain of events after this decision resembles what Mahindra Rise stands for – Accepting No Limits, Alternative Thinking, and Driving Positive Change!

Procuring Raw Materials

After getting the design of the Face mask from Ford, the biggest hurdle in front of Mahindra’s Kandivali team was to find the raw material for the manufacturing of these face shields. The first breakthrough came when Sunil Kulkarni was able to find a similar-looking transparent PET material from a pile, which was used during the 90s.

Amar and his team decided to make some sample Face Shields by using overhead projector transparency. Considering the lockdown, getting transparency from stationary mart was again a challenging task. Amar Patil’s daughter, Tanaya Patil, an Architecture student, convinced a stationary shop owner to help. She took him on her scooter to his shop, collected about a 100 transparent sheet and handed them over to the Mahindra team. “We made a few sample models from these sheets and found them satisfactory. We showed it to Dr. Paresh Vanmali at Occupational Health Centre, and got our design approved”, said Amar Patil.

Now to start production, the team was looking for more transparent sheets of a specific grade. “We started tapping the source of transparent sheets from local vendors. Mumbai being under lockdown, we were able to find two vendors, one based in Pune and another in Nashik. With restrictions in Pune, we were able to source our first raw material through Harshal Deshpande of Selwell, Nashik”, said Amar Patil, who was in charge of the project. Contributing to the fight against COVID, Harshal did not charge for the transparent sheet supplied for the first 2500 units.

There were many limitations like dissuade commuters as well as material movement amid 21 days lockdown; we challenged them with great support from Vijay Nair and team. Some of our associates even walked 3-5 miles to reach the plant, found alternate roads to avoid police check post/ nakabandis

Amar Patil
Head of Foundry & Central Maintenance, Mahindra & Mahindra Kandivali Plant

To cut the procured sheets in the required size was the next challenge before the Kandivali team. Exploring several options, finally, they got Avinash Gupta of Angel CAD-CAM, a vendor from Turbhe, Mumbai, to get the sheets laser cut. Avinash had labour shortage issues at his end, and Shailesh Kulkarni from Mahindra operated the laser cutting machine. Other materials like foam and band that could be stitched were sourced by Ashish Deshmukh from the Supply Chain Management Team of Mahindra. The first lot of 2500 was finished within 24 hours and distributed to different locations through Mahindra CSR.

“When I was told about developing of Face Shield from a plastic material, I was very skeptical”, recollected Vijay Nair, who heads the CSR Division of Mahindra & Mahindra Automotive Division. At that time, projects like Ventilator development as well as Face Mask were gaining momentum because of the high demand. “The response we got from Doctors, Police, and Health Workers after receiving the first lot was phenomenal, and the entire scenario changed”, added Mr. Nair. From one assembly line and one shift, 10k units to 2 Lac units, Mahindra team started planning for additional assembly lines, and starting facilities at Nashik, Chakan and other units.   

Ramping Up to the Next Level

With demands pouring from different quarters, one assembly line was not going to be enough. In scaling up the production, the biggest challenge was to ensure the timely availability of raw materials. Getting into action, Lalit Verma, Senior Vice President Component Development & Material Management (Auto & Farms Division) with his colleague Kishore Joshi from the CDMM team went into the action and scanned the market, exploring different avenues at the same time.  

“We were lucky to locate Rajendra Kotare of Ukay Metals, one of our auto components suppliers, who went the extra mile to set up a facility to supply us components including PET sheets, Foam, Elastic Band and Double Sided Tape”, said Mr. Verma. Mahindra team got all the approvals for Mr. Kotare, who got special permission to run the facility from where he procured the raw material in Pune. “Special tools were made for cutting the transparent sheets so that our initial target of 15,000 shields per day could be achieved”, added Mr. Verma.

Executive Canteen to Manufacturing Line

Considering that the shield will be used by medical practitioners, the manufacturing line for Face Shield had to be the best in class, ensuring all the hygiene precautions. It was not going to be anything less than a pharmaceutical manufacturing. Within 24 hours, one of their executive canteens was converted into best in class Face Shield manufacturing facility.

“Under the leadership of Sunil Kulkarni- our Plant Head and Pandurang Chauhan, Unit Head – Kandivali Plant, Saurabh Sinha, Manager of our Personal Brand Division, and all our associates and officers were highly supportive in getting this accomplished in very challenging situations”, told Amar Patil.

We knew the facility should be the cleanest in our factory with the highest hygiene conditions, similar to that of an ICU at hospitals. While fixing the canteen to suit the requirement, all our team working at the facility ensured right social distancing, facing backward position, and following all hygiene practices

Vijay Kalra
Chief of Manufacturing Operations, Mahindra & Mahindra Automotive Division

Serving is in our DNA

“Mahindra Kandivali plant has more than 6 decades of legacy, starting from Keshav Mahindra to Anand Mahindra. We are blessed with management who are always compassionate to our Associates”, commented Rajiv Sawhney, President of Mahindra Employees Union. “Mahindra is always a part of Disaster Management in the country, be it during Tsunami, Floods, Earthquake, etc.”, added Mr. Sawhney.

Rajiv recollected that during the Kargil war, Army needed Special Purpose Vehicles and Mahindra Associates along with the management assured that the work was done. “At that time there was a surcharge Government imposed during the time of second shift, so our team used to work during the third shift, which otherwise known as graveyard shift so that we can save money”, adds a proud Rajiv.

COVID19 is a national emergency and working for Face Shield, Face Mask or Ventilator is an opportunity to work for the nation. Our Union donated 50 Lakhs to Maharashtra CM Relief Fund, fighting against Corona.

Rajiv Sawhney
President, Mahindra Employees Federation

There are several hurdles one has to overcome to attend the factory at Mumbai, a Corona Hot Spot city. The concerned families, Police, not getting Fuel, and then the chance of getting infected, the list of problems goes on. But none of these could stop the brave hearts of Mahindra Associates to be a part of the movement. “There is a waiting list of people who want to come and work with us”, informed Mr. Sawhney.

Collaboration at its Best

Amar Patil told that with the support of Rajeev Sahaney, associates were identified to work on this project and now they are scaling up the production. “We have also ensured the safety of our own associates by observing all safety precautions which are very essential against COVID-19 outbreak”, added Mr. Patil. He further informed, “We produced 200 shields on day one, anticipating a total of 10,000 face shields. However, after seeing exponential demand we ramped up our capacity to 18 times within 5 days by adding multiple assembly lines at two locations and reached to 3800 shields per day”.

Amar informed that as per the feedback received, the face shields are best in class quality; they are working along with raw material suppliers on many technical parameters like optical clarity, durability and comfort to the user as well. “Associates working on this undaunted task have put their hearts and souls in delivering their best towards this noble cause and even the wards and spouses of employees working on this project are eagerly willing to join this noble cause”, concludes Mr. Patil.

There are several proud moments for Mahindra Team. Be it the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, Doctors at Indian Medical Association or Truck Drivers at JSPT, the whole country has been applauding for this innovation. Union and State Governments, Army, Para Military Forces, Hospitals, the whole country is looking towards these Face Shields which can protect them from getting infected.

This innovation is not about an individual or a company. It’s about the collaboration of several people from different languages, cultures, beliefs, coming together to fight against COVID19, the common enemy of mankind at this moment. For Mahindra, this is not a commercial venture; these Face Shields are not for sale. It’s manufactured under the CSR activity of Mahindra, and anyone requiring this product can reach out to Shipra Joshi of Mahindra at JOSHI.SHIPRA@mahindra.com