As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts lives globally, 3M and its 96,000 employees continue to step up, applying our innovative thinking to develop solutions for a unique moment in world history.
3M responded early and rapidly to the pandemic, supplying critical products to dedicated frontline health care workers and first responders. By the end of 2020, we will produce 2 billion respirators globally – more than three times the amount we manufactured in 2019. As of October 2020, 3M distributed 1.4 billion respirators globally and is on track to deliver 2 billion by the end of the year.
Expanding manufacturing in the U.S.
As a leading manufacturer of N95 respirators in the U.S., we are expanding our domestic manufacturing capacity.
At 3M’s Aberdeen, South Dakota, plant, a new 120,000-square-foot expansion to the 330,000-square-foot facility has added more manufacturing lines and automated equipment. That will help 3M increase N95 production in the U.S. to 95 million per month by the end of the year. The expansion is expected to add 100 jobs at Aberdeen’s 3M facility – that’s on top of the 200 jobs added at the plant since the beginning of the pandemic.
But that’s not the only way 3M is helping. In addition to N95 respirators, 3M has ramped up production of other solutions used in the response to COVID-19, including hand sanitizers and disinfectants.