GPRO Global Sdn Bhd wins IoT Award for Healthcare Technology

The company designed and developed a system that streamlines processes of linen asset & laundry management services in the public healthcare sector.

IT solutions and technology provider GPRO Global Sdn Bhd took home the IoT - Healthcare Technology trophy at the recently concluded Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards, presented by Singapore Business Review.

Now on its second year, the awards events lauds businesses that take the leap and take the lead when it comes to engineering trailblazing projects, digital services, rebuilt schemes, and technological endeavors. Awardees were judged according to distinctiveness and innovation, success and influence, as well as vigor.

When GPRO Global saw the issues surrounding the practices and management of linen and laundry services in the public healthcare industry, they decided to develop the Linen Management and Control (LMC) system.

The system addresses key problems such as incomprehensible yearly linen replacement rate which can run up to 20% and is affecting budgeting and bottom lines, the absence of confidence in linen inventory in hospital wards, store and laundry plant leading to undersupply and oversupply troubles, the inability to determine the number of times a linen has been washed, the inability to monitor linen returns from laundry plants, the inability to count soiled linen which leads to inaccurate inventory, as well as the cumbersome day-to-day manual handling such as counting, segregating, packing, receiving and dispatching of linens.

GPRO LMC is perfectly engineered for operation efficiency enhancement for laundry services in the healthcare industry due to its functions that can continuously simplify business processes, improve management and optimisation of linen asset utilization as well as enforce accountability on personnel by creating a transparent and visible landscape. Incidences of linen go missing or stolen will be greatly reduced. LMC effectively creates visibility, transparency and therefore accountability across the whole linen supply chain.

The award-winning innovation is Cloud-based and it deploys RFID technology. It enables users to monitor the status of their laundry remotely. Real-time reports can be accessed via mobile devices such as smartphones. The LMC system provides detailed analytical reports to enable laundry operators to detect idle linen stocks and where about to ensure these stocks are put back in circulation. Enhanced laundry operation and level of linen utilisation can reduce the linen replacement quantity and therefore saving on capital expenditures.

GPRO has successfully implemented the LMC system in 50 public hospitals in Malaysia so far, involving tracking movement of more than 3 million pieces of linen. All hardware and software deployed in the projects are developed in-house by GPRO’s R & D team. GPRO is proud of this accomplishment and is looking to deploy the same to other public and private hospitals domestically and abroad.

Besides catering to the healthcare industry, GPRO LMC is also suited for the hospitality sector, such as hotels and resorts. GPRO has successfully completed a pilot project with a big hotel in Kuala Lumpur. This will pave the way for GPRO’s entry into the hospitality market.

Through the implementation of the LMC system, GPRO is bringing digitalisation into the healthcare sector in the area of linen and laundry management. This is but only the beginning of what GPRO plans to do for the healthcare sector in digital transformation. GPRO is expecting to introduce other innovative IoT solutions to the healthcare sector over the next few years. One such solution which has already been successfully pilot run is the trace-and-track of medical hazardous waste from sources of waste generation to designated disposal sites. This IoT solution ensures proper disposal of hazardous waste which otherwise may be diverted and illegally disposed of, leading to environmental and health related issues.

With the encouragement and inspiration from this Malaysia Technology Excellence Award, GPRO aspires to steer towards greater heights in bringing more innovative solutions to the three core industrial sectors GPRO is focusing on: healthcare, logistics and apparel, and, in spreading market reach beyond the current 17 countries. 

The Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards, presented by Singapore Business Review, was held via video conferencing throughout the month of September.

This year’s nominations were judged by a panel consisting of Justin Ong, Partner and FSI Financial and Regulatory Risk Leader at Deloitte Asia Pacific; Alvin SH Gan, Executive Director, Partner, Head of IT enabled Transformation (ITeT) at KPMG Malaysia; Hari Iyer, Executive Director, Advisory at BDO Kuala Lumpur; Michael Lim Jr, Managing Director at Crowe Growth Consulting Sdn Bhd; Jade Leong, Partner, Advisory at Ernst & Young Advisory Services Sdn Bhd.

If you would like to join the 2021 awards and be acclaimed for your company’s exceptional technological innovations, please email Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected]