[Goose]

I’ll defer to your expertise here. I can see that for a factory already tooled for ventilators, and experienced factory workers, changing designs would require time and effort and you may be better off cranking out more of what you’ve been cranking out. But I wonder, for a factory whose experience is making cars or vacuum cleaners, it strikes me that handing them a design stripped of all complexities will be easier to execute than the design that has all the bells and whistles.

BC

If the paperwork is already done, and it is correct, then a simpler product could be easier and cheaper to build. However, any new factory or builder, even a very good one, will have significant start-up time. They have to learn to interpret the drawings made by another company who has tons of corporate knowledge about the product. The new company/contract manufacturer does not. Some of the processes and terms are a complete mystery to them. They don't have the SOPs that the original manufacturer has, so when it says "install in accordance with SOP XXXX", the assembler has no idea what that means. They have to go look it up and figure out how to actually do it. The QA people have to be qualified to inspect and test the devices. They know how to inspect car doors. Ventilators are a whole different beast. Can they learn? Sure, but all this takes time.
Potentially more important, any robotics used by the original manufacturer will have to be re-programmed for the new, simpler configuration. The new builder would need to have robotics that are compatible with that programming. That can take a long time to sort out. So it is not so simple. Once up and running, all will be easy, but it will probably take a month best case and maybe significantly more.

[Goose]

I’ll defer to your expertise here. I can see that for a factory already tooled for ventilators, and experienced factory workers, changing designs would require time and effort and you may be better off cranking out more of what you’ve been cranking out. But I wonder, for a factory whose experience is making cars or vacuum cleaners, it strikes me that handing them a design stripped of all complexities will be easier to execute than the design that has all the bells and whistles.

BC

If the paperwork is already done, and it is correct, then a simpler product could be easier and cheaper to build. However, any new factory or builder, even a very good one, will have significant start-up time. They have to learn to interpret the drawings made by another company who has tons of corporate knowledge about the product. The new company/contract manufacturer does not. Some of the processes and terms are a complete mystery to them. They don't have the SOPs that the original manufacturer has, so when it says "install in accordance with SOP XXXX", the assembler has no idea what that means. They have to go look it up and figure out how to actually do it. The QA people have to be qualified to inspect and test the devices. They know how to inspect car doors. Ventilators are a whole different beast. Can they learn? Sure, but all this takes time.
Potentially more important, any robotics used by the original manufacturer will have to be re-programmed for the new, simpler configuration. The new builder would need to have robotics that are compatible with that programming. That can take a long time to sort out. So it is not so simple. Once up and running, all will be easy, but it will probably take a month best case and maybe significantly more.