Abstract for: How to ramp-up a new product in demand shock: evidence from Ventilator Challenge UK

Currently, there is a greave uncertainty in ramp-up capabilities of modern supply networks. For many SME organizations the opportunities to increase capacity (i.e. capacity sharing) is constrained by the complexity of new collaborations (Kazantsev et al., 2018). Recent COVID-19 outbreak has provided an example how excellence in collaboration design and Industry 4.0 technologies (Kagermann et al 2013) allowed UK to cover the national need for ventilators in June 2020. The goal of Ventilator Challenge UK was to produce the lifesaving product and the goal of this paper is to capture the main lessons learned of ad-hoc supply chain operation dynamics and make it available for other supply networks facing ramp-ups.