Reath - Digital Infrastructure for Reusable PPE

Reath wordmark
render of a tracked, reusable bottle of hand soap

Inspiration:

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of supply chains for crucial equipment. In four terribly long weeks, we have seen packaging supplies dwindle, making it harder to distribute what had been readily available products such as hand sanitiser. Then it became clear that crucial PPE — face shields, masks, gowns — was in even shorter supply. Last week in the UK, we heard the first murmurings that PPE may need to be reused. https://bit.ly/3cGc9E7

We want to apply our knowledge of traceable, responsible reuse, and repurpose our technology for this challenge.

What it does:

Reath's Track & Trace technology is for the safe reuse of everyday items in the circular economy. Our innovation lies in using Track & Trace software for an entirely new purpose: logging critical sanitation and use data of reusable PPE. The current Reath software tracks reusable assets through a closed loop system, keeping a ledger of where they’ve been; this digital ledger would enable roll-out of reusable PPE (or critical packaging- hand santiser) with the highest standard of traceability, control and accurate supply-chain management.

How we built it:

After launching a D2C cosmetics brand ourselves (from product sourcing to packaging & delivery) and conducting 100+ customer interviews, we built out user stories based on this deep understanding of this customer need. Our software is designed based on the critical need to track & trace reusable items for safety and compliance. The software prototype hub is hosted in Microsoft Azure and written in C#. We have a PWA which acts as a spoke to collect the input data.

Challenges we ran into:

Reusable anything is complex and regulation is set up to support linear systems. Reuse requires design and system change and customer behavior adaptation. To overcome this challenge, we focused on businesses that already had closed-loop channels in place. This ties into PPE well, as it is inherently closed-loop due to where it is used e.g. workplaces.