What Do You Do as a Surgeon When Someone Takes All Your Theatre Time Away? (Orthopaedic Surgeon

What Do You Do as a Surgeon When Someone Takes All Your Theatre Time Away?

It was Wednesday, 18th March 2020, when Australia’s prime minister announced, that all elective surgery has to be suspended from 20th March 2020. And here I was, sitting in the busy physiotherapy practice of my good friend Darryl in Beenleigh, where I consult every other Wednesday. Not that I didn’t expect this announcement to happen amidst the evolving Covid-19 crisis but it still hit me: my line of work is 80% elective surgery and we had to cancel 4 weeks of booked surgeries.

I felt terribly sorry for all these patients who were awaiting a procedure and had made arrangements. And then it hit me again: what am I going to do? I understand panic doesn’t help in the best of times but I felt a bit uneasy. Thankfully my practice manager has a wonderfully positive attitude. Her words: “Don’t worry - we will be fine!” And right she was! I can say this now as I’m writing this at the end of May and elective surgery is about to resume. Firstly, she called all booked patients and informed them of the situation. Everyone was very understanding and we offered to see them, in case they needed an interim solution to get comfortable such as prescriptions or injections. Secondly, we implemented Telehealth. Commonwealth and Medicare were suddenly able to implement changes quickly and supported the widespread installation of systems. In a state as vast as Queensland with a huge part of its population living remotely, Telehealth had always been on the agenda but never really kicked off. In my practice we implemented all measures of social distancing, purchased hand sanitiser from the Brisbane Distillery and only came to

the rooms on regular clinic days. The rest of the week, phones were diverted and home office was practiced. Distancing in the practice will have to stay and I believe we will continue to have some days, where the phone will be diverted to home office. The occasional emergency case had to be categorised as defined by subspecialty societies. This then had to be presented to the representative of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee (MAC) and two peers had to support the case in order for the MAC chair to sign off on this. To ask for ‘permission’ to perform surgery in a consultant system is a huge change in paradigm. Certainly for Australian surgeons who have never experienced a more autocratic medical system as it is present in Germany. I believe overall the majority of surgeons adhered to those rules but there is always someone who tries to push boundaries. The hospital executive in these cases pointed out that Medicare would audit urgent cases and disobedience would be reported to AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency). In order to continue some professional education webinars were advertised by companies and societies. I have been a presenter on two occasions and whilst I was missing the direct interaction with the audience, I found the feedback rewarding. As a participant it allows everyone to pick and choose certain topics and also to enjoy the education in your home with a glass of red or similar. In my practice I employ a full time practice manager and a parttime casual receptionist. Obviously, our workload had been reduced and I could have sent the part-timer home to save on wages. However, we decided to keep her regular hours and look for something else to do. She has worked her way into video editing software and makes me record stories about orthopaedics which we use as educational content on our webpage. She has also boosted our social media presence and we are posting twice weekly. And now, that we have been allowed to resume 75% of our normal activity, we need everyone happy at the office in order to work through the backlog. I’d like to finish with a Benjamin Franklin quote that sums it up nicely: “Change is the only constant in life. Ones ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life!”

Written by Dr Med Joerg U. Rhau, Orthopaedic Surgeon

ABOUT DR MED JOERG U. RHAU (ORTHOPAEDIC SURGEON)

Dr Rhau completed medical school and orthopaedic training in his native Germany before heading for Melbourne for 12 months of specialist fellowship training.

He was then offered a consultant position with Queensland Health and also obtained Fellowship with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS). He now works full time in private practice and has a special interest in conditions of the shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand.

Greenslopes Shoulder & Limb Clinic Suite 4, 631 Logan Road Greenslopes, QLD 4120 Phone 07/ 3394 4370 Fax 07/ 3847 4107 Email: joerg@drrhau.com.au www.drRhau.com.au

Response to the SARS-CoV-2 Virus

B. Braun Australia and New Zealand is a family-owned global healthcare company with a vision to “protect and improve the health of people around the world”. When the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread across the globe it was a call-to-action for our entire organisation. As in any time of uncertainty, we had to act fast to minimise disruption to our services, our employees, our partners and patients.

Answering customers’ needs The real heroes in this crisis are the healthcare professionals, so our priority was to ensure that they had all the necessary supplies. We increased stock levels of critical products and worked closely with our regional and global manufacturing plants to coordinate increases in production capacity and reinforce our logistics solutions. In some instances, we had to fast-track the supply of critical lines to meet the increased demand. As the Covid-19 situation evolved, and as panic buying became apparent, we implemented a robust rationing system to ensure that supply to contracted customers would not be impacted.

B. Braun Australia and New Zealand also actively contributed to MTAA industry workgroup (ICU), government authorities and the AHK to coordinate supplies and help to ensure Australia would not run out of stock of critical product lines. At the end of March, we all witnessed the dramatic situation that was unfolding in Italy with hundreds of people dying daily and a shortage of pharmaceuticals. In response to this, we decided to divert a shipment of life-saving drugs that were manufactured for Australia and fast-track them to Italy. The Italian authorities agreed to accept Midazolam with Australian labels to help save Italian lives. Answering patients’ needs B. Braun Australia and New Zealand is also a global provider of renal care services and products, under the name B. Braun Australia and New Zealand Avitum. The company operates more than 380 renal care centres worldwide, with four centres in Australia and one in New Zealand. Our renal care nurses are at the frontline in the provision of life-sustaining treatment for our patients. These patients, due to multiple high-risk comorbidities, are more likely to have severe complications and higher mortality from COVID-19 than patients free from kidney disease. As the coronavirus pandemic started to emerge and cause major healthcare issues around the world, B. Braun Australia and New Zealand management and clinical teams in Australia, worked closely with our headquarters in Germany and global counterparts and immediately implemented the company Infection Prevention Pandemic Plan. This plan took a comprehensive approach to mitigate the infection risk, including increased security and entry restriction into our renal care centres; triage screening before entry into treatment areas; infection prevention education for patients and nurses; and influenza vaccinations for patients and nurses. We increased communication with local health departments to ensure alignment with Australian and New

Zealand best practice guidelines and developed a road map to be implemented if a patient or nurse presented with acute respiratory symptoms.

Answering employees’ needs Our employees are what makes this company great. We feel responsible for them and their safety. To ensure this we established a COVID-19 Committee that met daily to respond to new challenges and make and alter any business arrangements as required. This was to ensure all areas of the business were considered in all challenges, decisions and announcements.

Before the Australian Government’s directions had been introduced, we advised all our employees to work from home. We adapted to the new way of working very quickly, and it is fair to say that our IT team was busier than ever, ensuring all our devices and network connections were functioning correctly. However, for other areas, such as Customer Service, Supply Chain and Aesculap Technical Services, working from home wasn’t an option. We introduced shifts to minimise physical contact. Whilst this was a significant change to the workforce, transitions were smooth and the workforce remained positive. The mental health of our employees is not something we take lightly, and in times like this, we had to make sure that everyone felt supported. A ‘Tips and Tricks’ folder and weekly newsletter were developed for leaders to assist in how to support their staff through the change and what they could do to ease the anxiety of their teams who were working from home.

The destination: the transformation of work and workplace Within a very short period, we found ourselves in a new environment of working and communicating. Working from home shifted from a sporadic occurrence to the new norm in just a few days. Despite the local separation our teamwork and collaboration grew by living our common values and culture. Sharing expertise is an integral part of B. Braun Australia and New Zealand’s DNA. We had been delivering education and training to our customers in person, in hospital settings. The new reality forced us to rethink this approach, as our educators were not allowed to enter hospitals and clinics. With the use of technology, we conducted several live online trainings, and we increased the number of our instructional videos in a very short time. We have reached more people in the last 2 months with the training initiatives than we would usually reach in one year and this is continuing.

The new normal also challenged the idea that work should be performed in a specific location. Using technology, digitising some or all work, enabled us to do what we do best. It transformed our way of communicating with our colleagues, made us focus on creativity and problemsolving. After Covid-19 we feel even more obliged to support dynamic work locations to maintain our work-life balance.

We learned that we, as a company and as individuals, are resilient. We responded swiftly to the new “normal” and will come out of this stronger, better equipped, and with the peace of mind that again we protected and improved the health of people around the world.

Provided by B. Braun Australia and New Zealand

Innovating Supply Chains Amid a Global Pandemic

Covid-19 heavily affecting existing supply chains on a local and global basis

Ever since the global COVID-19 pandemic started at the beginning of 2020, it has heavily affected the global and local transport routes which form the base of today’s globalised economy. All over the world, borders closed, flights and shipments were cancelled, which led to massive shortages in space. Operations at air and seaports were experiencing limitations or even came to a halt, causing severe delays in existing supply chains. When faced with this adversity, the entire logistics industry had to find solutions to help their customers’ supply chains literally from one day to another.

“In my 25 years in the industry, I have never experienced a decline in air freight capacity as we have experienced in March, April and May”, shares Thomas Hansen, CEO of Röhlig Australia & New Zealand.

Finding new ways to keep customers’ businesses running To assist clients with bringing their products to the market, Röhlig had to innovate and come up with new products and consistently adjust, given the frequent change in the external environment. Being ‘smaller’ and therefore more agile, Röhlig was able to quickly react and adapt to new market demands and develop services that supported many customers during these times.

“The main challenge has been to find solutions that cater to various industries in Australia and abroad, driven by the speed of delivery and the cost of the solution.

Fortunately, Röhlig has a dedicated team who has been working on single and multiproduct solutions, then package this up in record time, to ensure product and schedule integrity that will allow our clients and their customers to rely on our service offerings as an integral part of their supply chain”, continues Thomas Hansen.

Unique services to support customers in Australia

When commercial airlines ceased operating scheduled flights from Europe to Australia and New Zealand, companies who rely on air freight in their supply chain were faced with disruptions as 90% of capacity was removed from the global market. Subsequently, Röhlig’s

longstanding service of consolidating shipments to Australia and New Zealand at the company’s European airfreight gateway in Frankfurt, Germany, was affected. As a solution, Röhlig launched its new Air-Sea Service from Europe to Australia and New Zealand in the middle of April. Under regular circumstances, this service would be useful for companies who could not await long transit times in sea freight, however air freight was too expensive. Now, under the challenging conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, combining two services made this product very attractive and competitive in the market. Röhlig received instant and positive feedback from Industries in Australia.

Another unique service that Röhlig Australia was able to leverage during the COVID-19 pandemic, was a freighter blocked space agreement ex Europe and the US. Thanks to this agreement, Röhlig did not rely on passenger aircraft and was able to satisfy customers’ demand for space while it was close to impossible to get in the market. Hence, Röhlig’s customers could benefit from almost uninterrupted deliveries despite the global situation.

Servicing New Zealand during its full lockdown

From March 26th New Zealand went into full lockdown, which made it almost impossible to move and deliver any cargo. Röhlig was able to continue servicing New Zealand customers and essential services via Australia offering trans-shipment solutions through Sydney. The cooperation between our international teams and support from all departments globally made it possible to keep the business running and not shut down completely. We also provided warehousing services to our customers who required unpacks and/or storage during the level-4 lockdown. Warehousing services continued In the field of contract logistics, Röhlig was able to keep its warehouses in Australia up and running. “Our warehouses remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic under the strictest health and safety guidelines, supporting our customers and fulfilling our agreements”, commented Mat Vermeulen, Chief Sales Officer, Röhlig Australia & New Zealand. “It was very encouraging to see our freight forwarding warehouse go above and beyond expectations during such a severe interruption to our operations.” Digitisation picks up speed: COVID-19 fosters innovation

Röhlig has a strong focus on digitisation and innovation, and it was this strong IT emphasis that became a big advantage during the Coronavirus situation. Within a very short timeframe, Röhlig’s in-house IT company made it possible to work from home for all employees around the globe. With this fast and smooth transition to home office work remotely, Röhlig was able to ensure continuous services for its customers and to stay in close contact without any interruptions.

New reporting tool for customers At the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the global Röhlig teams witnessed an increased demand from customers for information. Hence, they combined forces with the Röhlig IT experts, who developed a new digital tool, which was unique in the market by the time of the launch. The result was the Röhlig Global Situation Report, which provides Röhlig customers with realtime updates on conditions in air and sea freight, warehousing and land transport from around the world. Röhlig received feedback as an “Outstanding Report and Customer communication service ” from existing clients worldwide. Please take a look at the Röhlig Global Situation Report https://coronareport.rohlig.com/ Improving customer experience “During the COVID-19 slowdown, we were actually able to fast track some projects we were working on”, said Mat Vermeulen, Chief Sales Officer, Röhlig Australia & New Zealand. “Initially, we were going to introduce them by the end of 2020, however, the entire situation gave us the opportunity to focus more on them and speed up the development which ultimately helps us delivering a better customer experience”. As such, Röhlig implemented its new warehouse management system across all sites in Australia and New Zealand, a new transport management system in NZ, plus enhancements to our customer platform Röhlig Real Time. Ensuring the health and safety of Röhlig staff

"In the age of the coronavirus pandemic, our top priority is the safety of our employees worldwide”, emphasizes Thomas Hansen. As Röhlig is an owner-operated and family-driven company, it attaches utmost importance to the wellbeing of their staff members. “As the lockdown started, all worldwide Röhlig members were given access to our systems to work from home within a very short period of time." States Mr Hansen. Subsequently, supervisors and HR managers have remained in close contact with their employees to provide guidance to them under the challenging conditions of social distancing. And things are working out fine: just recently, all staff members were invited to assess their current working conditions in a global survey, which led to very positive results.

Written by Maria Astakhova, Röhlig Australia

ABOUT RÖHLIG LOGISTICS

Röhlig is an owner-operated logistics company that offers its customers services in the areas of sea freight, air freight, project logistics, and contract logistics. The family-owned company was founded in 1852 in Bremen, Germany. Today, it employs nearly 2,400 staff members in more than 30 countries. Röhlig has been a long time member of the AHK in Australia and operated with own subsidiary in Australia since 1973.

Servicing Australian Market for nearly 50 years Röhlig now has 6 offices in Australia and 3 in New Zealand with more than 250 employees across both countries.

www.rohlig.com

Q&A with Dr Jens Goennemann - Managing Director the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre

What is the largest misunderstanding about manufacturing?

The prevailing view that manufacturing is comprised solely of production, or assembly, is simply not true. Manufacturing consists of seven steps across an entire value chain, of which production is just one.

For example, making a vaccine involves all seven steps of the manufacturing value chain:

1. Research and development of an effective vaccine 2. Design of the vaccine 3. Logistics for sourcing ingredients 4. Manufacture of the vaccine 5. Distribution of the vaccine 6. Selling of the vaccine 7. Servicing of the vaccine through monitoring patients

© weyo / AdobeStock_220120304

In this example, health is the sector, and manufacturing is the enabling capability– as it is in every other sector – be it resources, food and agriculture, consumer goods, industrial applications and the list goes on.

Advanced manufacturing is not about the items you make, but how you make it and is an essential capability of a competitive economy.

How will Australia's Manufacturing Industry emerge from COVID-19? COVID-19 has increased the appreciation for a country to be able to make things. This presents the manufacturing industry with the opportunity to further ignite the country’s capabilities, add more value onshore, and become even more globally competitive.

While Australia has been fortunate to escape the significant challenges others have faced as a result of COVID-19, the circumstances have proven that an advanced manufacturing industry is best placed to respond to changing needs. Whether those changing needs are due to a health crisis or not, a broad, wellestablished manufacturing industry is well placed to capitalise on any opportunities.

What sectors will see increases in Australian Manufacturing following COVID-19?

Australia has already identified key areas of national competitiveness that offer comparative growth opportunities, and manufacturing is one of them. These areas of priority also extend to mining, agriculture, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, med- and bio-tech, defence, energy, and the emerging space sector. We also need to look at waste and how we recycle it better.

Manufacturing as a capability adds tremendous value to all of these sectors. It is about balancing the focus between new sectors and building upon the alreadyidentified sectors of comparative strength. The more value Australian manufacturing can add to each sector, the stronger and more globally competitive our economy will be. I also believe that imported items such as face masks can and should be manufactured in-country. In pre-COVID-19 times, the mining and construction industry used 10-20 million P2-masks per month. Given such baseload, I like to think that there is a business case for making those masks here. However, it is important that such endeavours are economically viable and not a case for subsidies.

How has AMGC assisted its members before and during the crisis? AMGC commenced working to transform Australia’s manufacturing industry four years before the pandemic, encouraging manufacturers to shift their mindset to; become more resilient, collaborate, make superior goods, become more flexible and compete on value, not cost. Our long-term approach is evidenced by a portfolio of projects. To-date, AMGC has facilitated 70 projects with a total cofunding investment of $47 million. These projects are expected to create 2,100 new jobs and deliver up to $900 million in additional revenues – all are great examples of manufacturing best practice and represent a significant return on investment.

Throughout COVID-19, AMGC managed over 2,500 submissions from manufacturers and others, via the COVID-19 Manufacturer

Response Register, who stepped up to help respond to the crisis, focusing on areas of critical need including ventilators, hospital beds, and PPE. The dedication and reaction of manufacturers, many AMGC members, to the crisis underlined the strength, agility and collaborative nature of our industry. In fact, it took COVID-19 to remind us of the essential nature of collaboration.

For example, four Australian manufacturers teamed up with a medical technology company, Stryker, to map a local supply chain, adapt designs, create prototypes, and begin production of emergency hospital beds within hours – it was collaboration at its best.

How has COVID-19 changed the needs of your members? Some members reported disruptions to their normal operations, due largely to global lockdowns which impacted material and component supply. In some instances, manufacturers were able to source new supplies, however at a much higher price. The COVID-19 Manufacturer Response Register also facilitated domestic alternatives, with some of those suppliers establishing an ongoing relationship.

Many of our members experienced increased uptake of their offerings in response to the crisis, with several of their clients looking to onshore work. We would like to think this is a nice problem to have and highlighted the broad capabilities that do already exist onshore. Is this the end of globalised supply chains?

With a domestic market of 25 million people, Australia will always need to be a player in the global economy. It is unthinkable that Australia, as a trading nation, would ever be disconnected from global markets.

© metamorworks/ AdobeStock_164023618

While COVID-19 exposed gaps in our manufacturing industry, complete selfsufficiency is not viable. There are many things that Australia cannot and should not make. Instead, we must focus on our areas of comparative and competitive advantage, and compete on value—not on cost—within these areas.

Australia must have a broad, vibrant, competitive manufacturing industry that can pivot and respond to any type of crisis. And concerning supply chains – don’t rely on one supplier, but two and in different countries of origin.

The Mittelstand model promotes the collaboration between manufacturing and research partners. Is this spirit prensented in Australian Manufacturing? The overall funding for research and development in Australia is sufficient, but it is ineffectively allocated—there is too little focus on commercialisation and already identified areas of national strength.

AMGC’s projects commercialise innovation and demonstrate how to enhance Australia’s competitiveness. AMGC projects encourage deeper collaboration between industry and research partners for greater commercial outcomes, as well as increased connections into global supply chains, development of advanced skills, and knowledge sharing. In every project, research collaboration is a key ingredient and must involve a research partner. Our frank mandate to research partners is to solve an industry problem, not for us to solve their funding problem. Australian industry needs much greater commercialisation of applied research. To our delight, we do hear the term “Fraunhofer Society” more often. ABOUT JENS GOENNEMANN

Dr Jens Goennemann has been Managing Director of the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) since 2016. He brings extensive experience from overseeing large manufacturing operations in Australia and Europe. AMGC is an industry-led, not-for-profit organisation established through the Australian Government’s Industry Growth Centres Initiative.

AMGC’s vision is to transform Australian manufacturing to become an internationally competitive, dynamic and thriving industry with advanced capabilities and skills at its core.

Through the delivery of its worldleading research, Manufacturing Academy, workshops, and groundbreaking projects, AMGC aims to develop a highly skilled and resilient local manufacturing industry that delivers high-value products – via the integration of innovative technology – to domestic and international markets.

Has COVID-19 changed perceptions about the need and value of Manufacturing? The ability of Australian manufacturers to get the job done — including complex manufacturing, such as building ventilators onshore — has impressed the public. It reinforces the value that the industry provides unseen every day. It has also been rewarding for AMGC to see the years of research and effort around advanced manufacturing come to life during COVID-19. It is important to use this momentum positively and further reinforce the industry and scale-up. Australian manufacturing consists of 45,000 companies, 95% of which employ less than 20 people. Compared with Germany and their Mittelstand, which employs near 50% of the workforce, Australia has a way to go. That said, Australia already has the fundamentals in place. Manufacturing capability exists. We just need to build on it. To that extent, we are now looking at models to raise capital from the market so that our manufacturing superstars can scale up.

Provided by Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC)

Pivoting Examples

How member companies of the German-Australian Chamber successfully adapted their business operations during the COVID-19 pandemic

2M Language Services' COVID-19 Response

Social distancing rules forced the cancellation of all onsite events world-wide. This also meant the cancellation of simultaneous conference, bilateral business, court and most healthcare interpreting.

2M Language Services was quick to respond with remote solutions such as 2M’s innovative RSI (Remote Simultaneous Interpreting) platform for virtual conferences and 2M Lingo for VRI (Video Remote Interpreting) for courts and hospitals. Language access to crucial information has been restored in healthcare including telehealth as well as in corporate sectors and international trade and collaboration.

The VRI platform 2M Lingo allows a nurse, judge or mining engineer to select the language and call a certified interpreter with specific subject matter expertise from their phone, tablet or computer who will then appear via 3 way video link to interpret between the 2 speakers. The 2M RSI platform allows up to 3000 users to log on via video or audio link, choose their language channels and listen to the source or the simultaneous interpreting of their preferred language.

Take BHP’s CEO Mike Henry, for example. He now conducts his Town Hall Meetings via the RSI platform and a typical scenario includes 3 BHP speakers located in remote locations, one 2M interpreter in Buenos Aires, another 2M interpreter in Brisbane and 2000+ BHP attendees spread across Australia, US and Latin America. Through remote simultaneous interpreting, the

2M Team enables seamless multilingual support week after week for BHP virtual Townhall Meetings.

2M had been investing heavily into video remote interpreting technologies and system connectors for the past years which is now paying off. Furthermore, COVID-19 forced shutdown has seen a sharp increase in eCommerce, online courses and other digital services. The demand to localise content to reach out to international markets has skyrocketed. 2M’s smart integrated workflows automate the content flow between the client CMS and 2M’s data-secure translation management platform helping many organisations with their business continuity and ongoing export sales of their products and services. Virtual meetings and events are here to stay post COVID-19. There are many advantages including extensive savings in travel expenses and increased domestic and international reach.

The need for content and software localization equally will continue as increased eCommerce and digital services accelerated by COVID-19 will remain. Yet again we see that technology is the most single economic driver of the future. And what has made the company resilient is not only the ability to pivot and adapt in times of crisis but to be at the forefront of technology. Technology with human in the loop futureproofs the business model beyond COVID-19. Provided by 2M Language Services Tea C. Dietterich, CEO, 2M Language Services

More information: Thomas Lespes Muñoz www.2m.com.au

Speed3’s COVID-19 Response

In response to COVID-19, our business focus shifted from sales into manufacturing to looking at how our technology could assist in fighting the pandemic. We knew that copper had antimicrobial properties and that is a material we already specialised in printing, however, we didn't yet know what effect, if any, it had on SARSCoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. So our first action was to seek testing to see what effect our ACTIVAT3D copper material had on the virus. The challenge early on was finding a lab who had access to the virus and had the time and resources to test our copper. We ended up working with the Australian NATA accredited clinical trial speciality laboratory, 360Biolabs, who tested the effect of ACTIVAT3D copper on live SARS-CoV-2. The results were positive and showed that 96% of the virus is killed in two hours and 99.2% of the virus is killed in 5 hours.

BigRep’s COVID-19 Response

In the wake of COVID-19’s spread, BigRep, the German-based global leader in largeformat additive manufacturing (AM) technology and solutions, acted quickly to help its customers and communities.

Being in a unique position to design and manufacture solutions for the health crisis facing our city, Berlin, we pivoted many of our staff from their normal business goals to instead create solutions for our local community and those of our partners. The first solution from this effort was protective face shields that we released as a free download on our website. We have produced many of these face shields ourselves on BigRep‘s large-format 3D printer AM systems and distributed them throughout the German capital, as have many of our partners. You can find and download the design to create yourself here: https://bigrep.com/posts/covid19-response/

The next challenge was to modify the algorithms that control our 3D metal printer’s robotics to enable the coating of existing metal parts. While our printers are capable of printing entire parts in ACTIVAT3D copper, for the rapid and affordable deployment of copper products the ability to pivot to coating fixtures with

Since that first design we have also helped to produce 3D printed connectors for the German Red Cross (designed by a third party) to convert full-faced diving masks into improvised ventilators. We continue to work towards more solutions that might help stop the spread of COVID-19 here and abroad.

Our successful change management was only possible because we took quick action to protect the health and safety of our staff – adjusting operations by implementing effective health practices and social distancing in the workplace. Pre-emptively, we mandated any employee whose job does not require direct interaction with our products to work from home. Following the unique German “Kurzarbeit” approach (short-time work), and in collaboration with our employees, we successfully implemented a reduced working program antiviral copper made the process far more efficient.

3D coating door handles and push plates was the obvious first application for this technology considering multiple studies have attributed super spreading events to contaminated touch surfaces. The team developed a process that allows our printers to coat a standard stainless steel or brass door handle or push plate in just 5 minutes. There has been global interest in this technology and product coated in ACTIVAT3D copper. As our business is the design and delivery of 3D metal printers, our next step is to partner with large door handle manufacturers who can scale the production and distribution of these products.

By rapidly pivoting our business and following a lean manufacturing process we have been fortunate to retain all our staff through these challenging times.

Provided by SPEED3

to retain our staff amid the decrease in demand. Measures were similarly taken by companies across industries in Germany.

More recently, we have seen an increase in industrial manufacturers with disrupt-ed supply chains amid the social dis-tancing regulations. Our innovation consultancy, NOWLAB, are working with these new prospects to create additive manufacturing solutions that effectively replace their disrupted workflows. We have been in the fortunate position at BigRep to help both our local and industrial communities in their efforts to get through this crisis. Though we, like most businesses, had to reassess our goals, we believe that recent events have served to demonstrate the incredible possibilities of industrial 3D printing as a groundbreaking, cost-effective and highly flexible technology for industrial manufacturing. With it, we have been able to rapidly respond to unforeseen production challenges and quickly create solutions for unexpected problems. It shows how additive manufacturing can be leveraged for efficient, in-house supply chains with sustainable technology. We believe the future looks bright as industrial manufacturers are increasingly realizing that the future of production lies in localized processes with additive manufacturing solutions.

Provided by BigRep