The impact of COVID-19 in the innovation of PPE companies

• Autor(a) principal: Delgado, Mariana Ferreira
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/24948
• topic: Innovation; Personal protective equipment; Safety; COVID-19; Pandemia -- Pandemic; Empresa -- Company; Inovação; Equipamentos de proteção individual; Segurança -- Security

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the awareness surrounding Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has increased considerably. The term PPE has become more commonplace, as well as general knowledge about what it is and why it is used. The sector of safety was highly influenced with shortage of supplies. Companies had to adjust their internal processes and methods to respond to the new market necessities. At the same time, PPE is being affected by innovative products and processes. Companies became more competitive with research and product development, and this brings value to the final product. The objective of this research is to demonstrate how the employees of PPE companies got affected by the pandemic, while thinking of innovation. Also, it is aimed to analyze and confirm if COVID-19 affected the innovation processes in the companies. After analyzing the data collected through a questionnaire in two multinational PPE companies, the results reveal the workers of PPE companies are worried about COVID-19, and this fact influenced their initiatives regarding innovation at work during last year. Companies changed their innovation approach, and allowed the workers to get involved in more processes. The uncertainty created by COVID-19 affected the innovation departments of the companies, but in a positive way, by allowing the employees to participate and give their contribution. Innovation must be a continuous process, especially in PPE companies, which are commercializing products that provide health and safety for workers in many different areas.