Looking back on 2021 - A year to take up new challenges!

2021 has been as eventful of a year as the previous one. At Umano Medical, we have learned to live with the new reality brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since March 2020, we have continued to be agile and to adapt to each challenge that has crossed our path and we have found innovative solutions to keep moving forward. Like almost everywhere on the planet, work from home, supply chain difficulties and labor shortages have led us to reinvent ourselves. Our team needed to continue to work together and push the limits despite the pandemic!

To paint a picture of this wonderful past year, we took a moment to meet several employees from different departments.

Solution mode

By Marie-Laure Caterino, Operations and Sales Planner

This year, we were faced with several challenges: supply chain problems, lack of manpower, and more. Each week brought its share of challenges. More than ever, the whole team has remained united. All departments worked together to find solutions to keep the pace so our assembly and shipping would not delay our orders. A great joint effort to meet the needs of our customers.

Team building activities!

By Samuel Soucy-Bouchard, Senior Mechanical Designer

The most memorable thing I thought of was our team building activity this fall. We were challenged to make marshmallow catapults as well as a tower made of spaghetti and marshmallows. We had to knock down the opposing team's tower by throwing marshmallows on it with the catapult we just built.

The atmosphere during the activity was relaxed and friendly. It created great team spirit while maintaining a certain competitiveness. It was fun to see the effectiveness of our catapults and test the resistance (or lack thereof) of our towers.

Despite the playfulness of the activity, we had to resort to certain concepts of material resistance and mechanical statics to ensure the strength of our structure. In the end, even though some won medals, no one lost, and it was a great team activity!

A growing team!

By Audrée Belleau, Human and Organizational Development Advisor

As the year 2021 draws to a close, the most striking (thing? Element?) for me is how much the Umano Medical family has grown. At this time last year, we were 280 employees at Umano Medical.

A year later, we are now 361 team members, meaning that 81 new colleagues joined us! It is quite exceptional to experience growth like this, given the current context of labor shortages and a pandemic.

The delivery of major projects!

By Jérôme Marcotte, R&D Director 

This fall, we celebrated the launch of our Pilot Drive powered drive system. This is a project in which the team has invested 3 years of research and development work to address all the demands of our customers. We wanted to create a product different from what is already on the market without compromising the functionality of our ook snow ALL bed. We are very proud to have taken the time to create a product that is different from the competition and to bring even more value to our customers.

Donations that make the difference

By Caroline Grimard, Product Manager

Over the past year, Umano Medical has donated several beds that will make a difference around the world. Thanks to partners such as Hope and Healing International and Collaboration Santé International, nearly 800 beds have been dispatched to several African countries and Haiti. These beds, developed remotely amid the pandemic, have made a real difference in the lives of these communities, and this is something that makes us all very proud!

Getting closer, thanks to the virtual innovations

By Joëlle Mathieu-Lessard, Marketing and Communication Manager

When you are a manufacturer of medical beds, you need to be able to go to the field, to hospitals! However, when the pandemic struck, the doors to these establishments closed.

From a marketing point of view, we must remain in contact with our representatives and hospital staff to continue to support and train them. The launch of our new website and our virtual showroom has allowed us to present our beds, even remotely!

In addition, with representatives all over the world, our team had to be creative to reduce the distance despite the sanitary measures. In our case, we held events in a virtual format like our annual Sales Meeting and our Sales Trainings! We have also added virtual demonstrations to our arsenal of tools to continue showcasing our products.

Despite all that has gotten in our way, 2021 is ending on a high note for the Umano Medical team. We look forward to the arrival of 2022 and new challenges so that we can continue to innovate one bed and one patient at a time.