Operations Management Discussion Post Replies

Definition: A process that creates a three-dimensional object by adding successive layers of material
Summary: This article I chose to for 3D printing reveals the personal protective equipment shortage during the pandemic. A lot of people are aware that protective equipment for health care workers was not available as needed for a pandemic, such as COVID-19. As word of this shortage became known to the public, social media users realized the need and started working to come up with models for 3D printing. Models for items such as, “Oxygen venturi valves, Hands free door handle attachments, Printable face masks, Mask adjuster, Ventilators, Test swabs, Valve for Scuba masks, Spirometry Sensors, Ventilator Splitter and Oxygen Filter Housings” were made up to help out during this pandemic (Vordos, 2020). 3D Printing has also been used in other various ways for the medical field, such as printing surgical tools and organ dummies (Vordos, 2020).
Discussion: In my opinion, it was fascinating to see people of different professions come together to help others during a time of need. Additionally, it is equally as interesting to see a 3D printing machine develop these tools that can help prevent COVID-19 from spreading to others. All over social media, there was posts of hospitals asking for masks because they were having to reuse the same ones. As large manufacturers were having trouble producing the quantities needed, it was nice to see people realize the need and help out. It seems as though 3D printing has allowed growing changes in the medical field. Additionally, I believe as people continue to learn more models to help advance the medical field, 3D printing will ultimately change the medical field even more. As I researched this term, I saw multiple different medical tools being produced by 3D printing. Technology in our world can often be an issue; however, in situations like this, it is really helpful.

The second post is:
Zoom Video Communications

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about unprecedented change to every person and every company globally. Unfortunately, the pandemic hurt many businesses, especially in the hospitality and travel industries. The pandemic was however a boom for some businesses that found themselves in a unique position to flourish during these conditions. One such company that flourished during the pandemic was Zoom Video Communications, or simply Zoom. Zoom is an example of a company that found itself with the need to increase capacity dramatically to align with customer demand.

Zoom was founded in 2011 by Eric S. Yuan (Zoom Video Communications, 2021). The platform was initially built for large enterprise users that had a need to communicate while working remotely. In December 2019 Zoom had approximately 10 million daily meeting participants. Daily users increased to 200 million by March of 2020 due to COVID-19 forcing schools and employers to perform their work remotely (Zoom Video Communications, 2020).

As could be expected, this rapid tremendous growth did not happen without some growing pains. Security vulnerabilities were quickly discovered and exploited, and activities such as “Zoom-bombing” became popular among school kids where the online classroom could be disrupted.

Zoom quickly responded to address the security and privacy issues that were discovered during the rapid growth period. Several updates and patches were made to the platform itself and all hands at the company were solely focused on finding and correcting the issues (Zoom Video Communications, 2020).

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