IMPACT is currently working with a new face mask company on manufacturing, testing & bringing to market custom-fit face masks.
To do this, IMPACT is developing an innovative online marketplace that will improve the manufacturing supply chain. One of the first companies to trial the new platform is Swansea-based company: MyMaskFit.
So what exactly is the new platform and what will it do?
This new online platform is effectively a quicker and more efficient supply chain process. It will seek to better connect manufacturers and suppliers through a streamlined product (and process) sourcing service. It is designed to optimise manufacturing supply chain networks with the aim of creating a new industry-wide business model as a template that can be replicated nationally and globally.
This digital supply chain marketplace (DSCM) will provide access to a more open and dynamic market, with increased opportunity for UK SMEs, and by making markets more efficient and flexible, should raise productivity and open new value chains through wider reach.
It also offers the unique benefits of:
- providing accurately priced parts,
- shrinking the supplier response times from weeks to hours,
- provide options with dynamic lead times and reassurance on quality, cost and certainty.
The initial focus of the project is on supporting Welsh manufacturing companies – like MyMaskFit.
Who are MyMaskFit and what do they do?
MyMaskFit have developed a custom-fit, reusable PPE face mask – which is designed to be both safer and more comfortable. The mask is created using a scanned image of their customer’s face via an app designed to capture facial detail and dimensions.
The company was co-founded by Paul Perera and school friend Gareth Smith. Gareth’s wife, Valerie Bednar (an intensive care nurse at Morriston Hospital in Swansea), had found it difficult to find a medical grade face mask to fit at the start of the pandemic. This led to the initial concept of a bespoke face mask.
Following Paul’s experience, as VP technology at GKN Aerospace where he had worked on the VentilatorChallengeUK project, he decided to apply this knowledge into the designing and supplying of these masks.
A challenge for many start-up companies, like MyMaskFit, is often creating a new supply chain and sourcing the many products and services required to bring regulated products to market. This is where the new DSCM platform and expertise at IMPACT can help overcome those early challenges.
At what stage is the project now?
Launched in November 2020, the project is part of a 6-month rapid-response project to the COVID-19 pandemic through Innovate UK funding. Following the successful development of the bespoke mask with the University of Birmingham and King’s College London, MyMaskFit joined forces with the DSCM research team to take the product to the next stage.
Initial testing of the face masks is due to take place in the coming weeks and a rapid scale-up of manufacturing operations is planned involving multiple manufacturing partners and industry experts – including WMG, University of Warwick, the Manufacturing Technology Centre and cloud collaboration tools from design and manufacturing software company Autodesk.
The platform is under development and is scheduled for its initial launch in March with the masks going into full production by the end of May.
BBC Interview
Watch the BBC interview with IMPACT Director, Professor Johann Sienz and Paul Perera following the launch of the project.
