Innovation

The example I am choosing for my course-long project is Field Ready, a humanitarian aid organization that aims to save lives and alleviate human suffering. Their objective is to respond to disasters and humanitarian emergencies and work through the disaster recovery and reconstruction phases. Their goal is to develop, implement, and advance accelerating technologies for humanitarian purposes and dramatically improve logistical supply chains in the most difficult places on earth. Field Ready brings manufacturing to challenging locations using the latest technology, traditional machines, and appropriate tools.

Field Ready is formed by multiple organizations that combine efforts to prevent and address the causes and consequences of disasters. Its co-founder, Dara Dots, an industrial designer, created the organization to help alleviate the supply chain challenges people were facing after the devastation caused by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. During her deployment to Haiti, Dara found that nurses were using medical gloves to tie off the umbilical cords of newborn babies because they did not have access to umbilical clamps. Dara was very impacted by the fact that people were dying not because of their injuries but due to the lack of essential tools to address their medical needs.  

To address this need, Dara deployed a 3D printer and designed a locally manufactured and inexpensive plastic clamp for newborns in local hospitals. Field Ready is part of the "maker movement," which pilots new technologies to manufacture components of essential supplied in the field rapidly. Using 3D printing and a range of software, Field Ready works with volunteers to make lifesaving medical components like IV bag hooks, Oxygen splitters, injection molding, umbilical cord clamps, and other essential parts needed to save lives. Dara's quick thinking and idea proved to be the fastes, cheapest, and best solution for a need that was rapidaly taking the lives of those injured in the earthquake.  

The main motivation behind this innovative approach was the humanitarian aspect of saving lives. Field Ready adheres closely to the humanitarian principle of placing people at the center of their work. Their model comprises a five-step process: assess, design, make, share, and lead. Their approach provides an opportunity to create business models that can create substantial cost savings compared to conventional procurement of finished products via international supply chains. Analysis made on Field Ready has shown that items manufactured by Field Ready have shown 90% cost savings. This analysis has been used to inform strategies for developing the capacity of local businesses and NGOs to manufacture essential relief supplies when and where they are needed, proving that this innovative approach saves money, time, and lives.

 

 

Field Ready. (n.d.).  Humanitarian aid supplies made-in-the-field. Our Approach. https://www.fieldready.org/