About Us
Origins
Over recent years there has been a steady increase in the import of hospital beds into South Africa. Medical distributors believed that local manufacturers had generally not kept up with the high standards of products supplied by International companies, particularly in terms of bed design, quality, functionality and safety features.
Hospi-Furn was started with the objective of reversing this trend. The intension was to locally manufacture hospital beds that can compete with the high-quality imported models and comply to the stringent International ISO standards.
Founder
In 2009, Steve Cliffe established Hospi-Furn in Boksburg, Gauteng. Steve is a qualified Engineer who first joined the hospital furniture industry 30 years ago.
Hospi-Furn manufactures a range of Hospital Beds and accessories as well as various other items of hospital furniture.
From the company’s inception, systems were put into place to ensure first-class product quality. This led to Hospi-Furn, in 2010, being accredited by TUV Rheinland GmbH for ISO 9001:2008. At the time, this was a notable milestone in the industry for South Africa.
Hospi-Furn's mission is to locally manufacture quality, durable and cost-effective products which meet International and domestic standards and specifications.
Modern Manufacturing
It has not been an easy path for Hospi-Furn to attain the required product consistency and quality. It was facilitated by making a substantial investment into computer-controlled machinery and robotic welders.
The installation of this ‘state of the art’ machinery has resulted in a significant increase in production output with the East Rand factory being capable of producing over 750 beds per month (2019).
This production capacity will enable Hospi-Furn to grow its market by expanding its sales into the export sector.
The Production Team
The Hospi-Furn team have been central in the growth of the company. Most of the factory staff have been employed at the company since 2010 and many have learned new skills since joining.
The team take great pride in the quality of the Hospi-Furn product range and have embraced the new technology in the manufacturing processes, realising that the resultant improvement in quality and productivity benefits all the workforce and the company in the long run.
Hospi-Furn is committed to employee skills development and empowers the team with external and internal training.
International Testing
Hospi-Furn has constructed its own test facility in the factory and its beds go through stringent testing as specified in the International Standard EN60601-2-52:2015. For example, the side rails are raised and lowered 30,000 times to check the locking mechanism. Load tests are also carried out to ensure the bed can withstand the specified safe working load.
All the other tests have been performed from the ISO standard and are used in conjunction with Hospi-Furn's ‘Risk Assessment’ to establish a basic safety benchmark.
With policies and procedures in place according to ISO 13485 Hospi-Furn is working toward having CE marking on its beds by the end of 2019.
Strategic Alliances
The Hospi-Furn motto; ‘Quality Through Strategic Alliances’ is the fundamental philosophy of the company. There is no concession when choosing suppliers for the safety critical components of its products.
Hospi-Furn will not compromise on dealing with long established companies who produce proven reliable parts with International guarantees.
However, as a proudly South African company, Hospi-Furn ensures that it supports local industry resulting in a greater than 90% local content for its bed range according to SATS 1286:2011.