Chamber Member, Simple Design Works, is a product design consultancy that turns ideas and concepts into successful products. During the pandemic they saw much resilience and originality from companies who needed to adapt rapidly.
Many companies diversified to support the production of equipment in short supply so SDW got involved with a variety of design initiatives including:
- Housing units for foot-operated hands sanitizers.
- Re-designing flat packed transportable beds originally for hotels to be made for temporary hospitals.
- Producing a valve for cases where the infrastructure in hospitals weren’t sufficient to feed oxygen to additional multiple patients. SDW produced a prototype which was swiftly 3D printed and sent to all hospitals in the West Midlands.
- Designing door handle thermometer devices.
- Adapting existing manufacturing equipment to enable companies to diversify into making PPE equipment.
They even helped frontline staff directly by using their rapid 3D printers to print thousands of clips for facemasks used by NHS and care home staff.
As a result of this increased activity, the company recruited more staff on a permanent basis. One of whom was recruited entirely through zoom.