SPRING HILL, Tenn. (WTVF) — Workers at General Motors in Spring Hill have retooled part their plant to make medical equipment.
General Motors has stopped producing cars because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We reached out to the Maury County chamber and the hospital and said 'what do you need? How can we help you?'" said Joe Yuhasz.
Yuhasz manages production and material control at the Spring Hill facility. His job is to get every part to the plant on time and in the right quantity either from a local or global supplier.
During the pandemic, he's switched to curating materials for Maury Regional Medical Center.
"They gave us some specific things that they thought we needed to provide to them. And some we didn't know how the heck we were going to do it, but we found a way. We are using suppliers that we normally use for automobile parts," Yuhasz said.
So far, the team of about a dozen GM workers have gathered the supplies needed to make more than 1,100 tiebacks for masks, also known as "ear-savers." They've also made reusable face shields and respiratory boxes.
These items were requested by front-line healthcare workers.
"Sometimes we ran down the road thinking well maybe they could use this or that, but every time we stayed grounded and went to the medical community and asked them 'is this good for you or not?'" Yuhasz said.
The workers involved in this project find it very rewarding.
"It has been something that we have been able to take something that is bad and make it very good for a lot of people to focus on and provide something for a lot of very good people," Yuhasz said.
The entire project is self-funded.
