Artemis Bio-Solutions produces disinfectant cleaning products and equipment. They came to ToolKeepers for a durable tactical kit that equips field technicians with the products, tools, and knowledge they need to serve in disaster recovery and contamination clean-up situations.
Tackling tough chemical and biological contamination issues–and winning
Artemis Bio-Solutions products, developed by top scientists at Sandia National Laboratories, are staples in cleaning protocols at schools, hospitals, and other facilities and are widely used in residential and commercial restoration after floods and other disasters. In 2020, Artemis products played a key role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. In the state of Georgia, the governor ordered the National Guard to support the effort to prevent and control outbreaks in nursing homes using Artemis products.
This collaboration with the US National Guard in Georgia piqued the interest of Clay Hernandez, National Director of Technical Sales and Training at Artemis. Hernandez spent several years directing disaster recovery efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. When he was tapped by Artemis to lead their technical sales and training efforts, he drew on his experience to devise expansion product lines targeting the needs of the National Guard and other military branches.
Taking the cleaning show on the road
"The ToolKeepers team brought the knowledge and creativity I needed to move this project forward," –Clay Hernandez, Artemis National Director of Technical Sales and Training
Hernandez envisioned a kit of cleaning products, paired with simple and direct instructions for properly using, storing, and transporting the product. “The goal was to assemble everything someone would need to properly and safely use the products – even if they had minimal training.” says Hernandez.
After meeting ToolKeepers’ Clark Plummer, Director of Strategic Sales, and Matt Doty, Chief Operating Officer at a National Guard trade show and learning about Clark’s 16-years creating tool storage solutions and Doty’s military career, he was confident that he had found his ideal partners. Together, they went on to create a custom tactical case that securely stored liquid cleaning solutions and the equipment needed to administer them. Clearly labeled compartments for each item and a QR code that took a cellphone browser straight to need-to-know information for safe and effective use would change the cleaning game for remote technicians – especially those serving the military.
After a trip from the Artemis manufacturing facility near Chicago to the ToolKeepers plant in Iowa, designs for a durable case with labeled foam inserts were complete. "The ToolKeepers team brought the knowledge and creativity I needed to move this project forward," said Hernandez. From the initial designs, prototypes were assembled to fit perfectly into a 36”x18”x24” case sourced from SKB Cases. As an SKB Case distributor, ToolKeepers has access to the entire SKB product line and is knowledgable about which case would be best suited for this project. Clay shared, “I was comfortable giving Clark and Matt general direction, then letting them run with the details. They were clearly passionate about making my idea work and capable of delivering quality.”
Partnering to empower smart innovation
The first set of 10 beta kits were manufactured, assembled, and shipped from the ToolKeepers plant in Iowa to a military base in the US Virgin Islands where the kits are used to clean and disinfect mold in barracks before troops move in. Because the troops have immediate access to the right products and can be quickly trained to safely use them, there is no need to hire contractors to do the work – saving time and money, giving troops safer accommodations, and allowing them to promptly get to work on their core mission.
Commenting on the initial success of the program, Hernandez shared, "The program received encouraging praise from Southern Command leadership immediately after delivering the first beta kits. There’s now talk of delivering a few kits to every battalion so they can fix contamination issues quickly." The ToolKeepers team is proud of the part we’ve played in helping Clay deliver on his vision and we’re looking forward to our ongoing partnership with Artemis Bio-Solutions.
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