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How TMC joined forces and researched new opportunities for fighting Covid-19

In the beginning of the Coronavirus, companies all over the world started initiatives to help in fighting this pandemic. Employeneur Antonio Garcia Rubio noticed that many of these projects lacked coordination. He figured that TMC could make a difference because of two factors: the various technical disciplines of the Employeneurs, and TMC’s large worldwide network of professionals and companies in the industry. This was the beginning of the first global project in which TMC offices worldwide participated.

"160 enthusiastic Employeneurs (which is over 15% of the total Employeneur population at TMC!) engaged in the program."

The official first big success is achieved! One of the project teams obtained lots of data about the use of mouth masks in the past months. This data is so valuable that one of our clients has asked Employeneuar Kristien Pas to help them as a Project Manager with the mass production of mouth masks. How did we get to this success? And what is next?

The first ‘global’ pizza session

On March 31st, Antonio organized the very first digital pizza session since physical meetings were not possible. Employeneurs from the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy and Canada participated. Antonio introduced his initiative and vision. All Employeneurs were invited to join this program.

After the successful digital pizza session, 160 enthusiastic Employeneurs (which is over 15% of the total Employeneur population at TMC!) engaged in the program. Everyone was divided into seven project teams: hands-free tools, immune tests, mouth masks, alternative protections, disinfection, respirators and data science. Next to these project teams, support teams have been developed to help with certifications, materials and networking & business.

Collaborations with various parties

The teams started working on problem discovery to find the real needs in the market as soon as possible in an efficient and structured way. Several project teams soon realized that external help was needed. Several partnerships have been set up to speed up the projects. One of the first companies that got involved is VDL, who has opened its doors for prototyping, testing and eventually (mass) production. The company BW Ventures helped converting ideas into an actual project. They organized a webinar on problem discovery for the project teams and they maintain in the program by providing a helicopter view. Additionally, TMC has set up collaborations with TU/e, TU Delft, VDL, MIT and Ecobrixs, hospitals in the Netherlands, hospitals in Uganda and Uganda’s ministry of Health. In order to keep making progress, TMC is still investigating more collaborations which could be beneficial for the projects.

The first breakthrough

The mouth masks team has had the first big breakthrough. They have collected a lot of exclusive data about mouth masks usage by doing many user interviews worldwide. One of TMC’s clients has hired an Employeneur who has helped in gaining this data to help them with the mass production of mouth masks. A great development and collaboration to be very proud of.

"The Covid19 project is far from finished as the project teams are making great progress."

Upcoming: how we combine Covid19 with environmental issues

The Covid19 project is far from finished as the other project teams are making great progress as well. As an example, the handsfree tools team is almost ready to go to market with the product they developed. Another great innovation which is being developed is the eighth project: the Uganda project. TMC is currently doing research by proving feasibility and functionality whether they can provide Uganda with a machine that recycles local garbage plastics and use these plastics to make medical certified mouth masks. In the next article we will zoom in on the Uganda project. We will see how TMC is hereby not only fighting the coronavirus, but is also actively helping to solve environmental issues, and contributes to the sustainable development goals. Next to that, we aim to help Uganda as a third world country and hopefully many more countries to follow.

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