Redefining the Opportunities & Challenges around Medical Gloves Industry

With more and more people realizing the fact “better to care than to cure”, the healthcare structure around emerging nations is enhancing and advancing, and so is the awareness associated with medical facilities. This led to a higher number of hospital visits, medical tests and surgeries, and this augments the use of personnel protective equipment such as, safety glasses and shoes, earplugs or muffs, hard hats, respirators, or coveralls, vests, full body suits, particularly the protective medical gloves, in order to prevent direct skin contact. Additionally, the mountingconcern for health and safety standards among public, especially in this post pandemic era is further enhancing the demand for personal protective medical equipment.

The glove manufacturing industry has seen tremendous growth recently, spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic. A long-standing shortage of supply of disposable medical gloves has highlighted an urgent need to increase production capacity. This requires glove manufacturers to be quick in adopting best practices, in line with Industry 4.0, in order to optimize various aspects of the industry. Throughout this article we have discussed some opportunities and challenges related to this important chemical industry, from the perspective of control engineering. These insights can further point to some interesting directions of future work.

Availability of Wide-range of Medical Gloves:

Medical gloves are an everyday essential item for every healthcare professional working in healthcare ecosystem.  Gloves not only protect the wearer but they also create a safety zone for both healthcare providers and patients and make the industry safer and easier to operate in. All medical gloves are disposable, single-use items and they are available in a variety of different materials, such as Latex, Nitrile Rubber, Vinyl, and Neoprene. Some medical gloves come powdered with cornstarch which helps lubricate the glove and makes it easier to put it on the hand and take it off. But because even a natural compound such as cornstarch can cause problems with healing injuries on the hands, many healthcare professionals are turning to preferring unpowdered gloves and Nitrile has become particularly popular as it doesn’t cause any allergic reactions as compared to Latex. Then lastly comes the smooth medical gloves and the textured ones. While textured gloves make it easier to grip objects it is completely up to each individual to decide what kind of glove surface they feel works best in their industry.

Automation in Globe Manufacturing:

It is no secret that the production of gloves is a labour-intensive industry and entails a high number of semi-skilled and skilled workers for tasks such as compounding, dipping, washing, post-processing, quality checking, packing, and maintenance.  In recent times the demand for industrial nitrile gloves has skyrocketed owing to the global pandemic, particularly in such industries where safety is of utmost importancesuch as janitorial cleaning, chemical handling, oil and lubricant exposure, and food processing. As industrial glove manufacturing is a complex process, implementing automation systems has greatly assisted the glove manufacturers in tracking, monitoring, and controlling production processes which further boosts the efficiency and accuracy, thereby fosters a smooth operation.

Growth Potential:

A report by International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates about 340 million people globally meet with occupational accidents annually.Another report from the Bureau of Labour Statistics revels, in the National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries shows that fatal injuries were reduced from 5,333 cases in 2019 to 4,764 cases, a 10.7 percent reduction in occupational injuries. As per the presented data, many businesses prioritize improving employee safety, particularly hand protection.Therefore, it shows that the increased awareness of occupational safety, especially in construction, hygiene, utilities, and manufacturing leads to the growth of using personal protective equipment (PPE), especially industrial gloves.

"A long-standing shortage of supply of disposable medical gloves has highlighted an urgent need to increase production capacity"

Spawning Challenges around Global Gloves Industries

Currently the glove market is ventured by a bunch of new players and this has created intense competition in the market and has also created difficulties for manufacturers to differentiate themselves from their fellow competitors in the market as a result the manufacturers around the globe nowadays comes up with unique features in their gloves. However, in recent years with the growing concern about environmental sustainability communities have raised concerns about the environmental impact of gloves as they are not biodegradable and some may even pollute the environment. Hence, posing a biggest challenge for manufacturers to find a green alternative by using greener chemical agents, biodegradable additives, or using recycled materials to produce sustainable, disposable and environment friendly industrial gloves.