GMS Innovation Pty Ltd,
A name born out of the need to provide a practical "muscle" solution to the everyday repetitive lifting and moving strains of the Funeral Industry. Providing the answer to the funeral directors catchcry, "Give Me Strength" is the core of our business, hence the acronym GMS.
Our company name, mission statement, recent awards and customer testimonials reflect our achievements & commitment in meeting the highest standards of service, innovation and quality.
Our mission statement ensures we are focused on "Taking Care of You, so that You can Take Care of Others"
GMS Innovation Pty Ltd is 100% Australian owned and operated. All our products are manufactured here in Australia.
Our recent Awards include:
- WINNER 2008 SA NEDA award for Business Innovation
- Finalist 2008 SA Business Champion Awards
- Finalist 2008 Australian National BEC business awards
Our customer's testimonies:
- "The ImageLifter™ trolleys have provided major benefits of safe manual handling, reliability and convenience in a variety of situations in our funeral homes. This frequently means that one staff member can safely do work which previously took two people, benefiting our company by saving time, cost, effort and risk of injury. Overall we are very satisfied with our purchases of the GMS ImageLifter™ trolleys. They have proven to be an excellent product providing solutions to some long standing funeral industry specific needs"
Raymond Weier, Shared Services Manager, Invocare WA
- "You are a champion for the funeral industry"
Walter J Carter M.A.I.E.
- "There has been an obvious reduction in the strain of lifting for anyone operating the machine and no accidents or injuries have occurred since its introduction in the workplace. The above factors are also related to staff morale. As hazards and risk behaviours are identified and addressed, so morale and enthusiasm climbs. The end results for staff and customer service alike are obvious…I wish you every success with the GMS ImageLifter™. It is innovative and dedicated to meeting some long standing, industry specific needs in the funeral industry"
Peter Edwards, Mortuary Manager A.I.E
- "The functionality and ease of use of the ImageLifter™ within my business of Funeral Director is outstanding"
- "The costing of the ImageLifter™ becomes insignificant when it is put up against the cost and time involved with back injuries sustained because of incorrect or unsupervised lifting techniques"
Kevin N Murphy, Director, William A Jarrett, The Murphy Family Funeral Directors.
Memberships and Associations
- Affiliate member AFDA
- Australian Funeral Directors Association.
- Corporate member ACCA ACCA
- Australasian Cemeteries & Crematoria Association.
- Corporate member FDANSW FDANSW
- Funeral Directors' Association of New South Wales.
- Chairperson B.O.N.D
- Business Owners Network Development.
History of GMS
Ms Von Karpinski – Managing Director
With 5 years history in the Funeral Industry as a Funeral Director & Manager, Von has also been involved in Occupational Health Safety and Welfare (OHS&W) management.
"This increasing trend in funerals of obese people that require oversized coffins, meant that we needed a superior aid for providing "lifting muscle" to the Funeral Industry."
I was very aware of the need to protect not only my staff, but my own body from muscle strain injuries caused by heavy or repetitive lifting. Providing a safe workplace especially for funeral and health care workers who perform daily recurring work under extreme pressure was very important to me. There is an increasing trend in funerals of obese people that require oversized coffins, and a mechanical means of "lifting muscle" was sorely absent in the Funeral Industry. I began thinking of a concept whereby we could improve our methods of moving and lifting bodies in and around the funeral home for preparation, coffining and viewing whilst at the same time reducing the amount of repetitive manual handling lifts.
Comprehensive research of the market found no effective scissor lift solution.
"There were trolleys to choose from, but inadequacies existed because they didn’t have the features I was looking for"
"There was a real need to produce a superior "lifting tool of the trade." A well engineered scissor lift trolley is used so frequently that it is a vital piece of funeral equipment for every Funeral Director, funeral staff and Mortuary worker."
The result is the ImageLifter™, the ultimate ‘Lifting Tool of the Trade’ for the Funeral, Mortuary, Crematorium and Allied Health industries.
"The innovative concept of Design Panels that attach quickly and easily to transform the funeral trolley to create a Bier for viewing came about when I was working as a funeral director/manager. I found that as we began to see more cases of obese bodies requiring oversize coffins we were struggling more than usual to safely lift them. The only solution for me at the time was to call in extra staff to assist with the lifting prior to and after the funeral service, which still proved to be extremely difficult. A plain bed sheet or material was pinned around a trolley and this was how the deceased was viewed for their funeral service. I felt the whole process was unnecessarily time consuming, stressful, adhoc and unprofessional. I was never really satisfied that this was how the deceased should be viewed for their funeral service."
"I began to think that there should be a better way for the deceased to have their family view them; I thought that although they were obese they still deserved to be displayed better than this."
Every Funeral Director understands the importance of customer satisfaction and aesthetics.
"I was passionate about finding that elusive solution that would provide not only a product for lifting the deceased, but that could also provide a beautiful personalised funeral service not only for obese persons but for all people" Ms Von Karpinski Managing Director GMS Innovation Pty Ltd.
The funeral director now has the means of providing not merely a superior scissor lift trolley for reducing possible manual handling injuries among staff, but also an elegant & transportable viewing platform to address the increasing funeral industry trend for ‘a more personalised funeral service’ and the inspiration for Memorialisation.
The benefits and value of professional Designer Panels that attach to the ImageLifter™ elegantly answers the increasing funeral industry trend for more personalised funerals.
For staff it offers a safe, reliable and systemised solution to presentations, with reduced manual handling and a consistency in high quality presentation. The panels can be quickly and easily fitted by one person in a few minutes, a significant reduction in time and labour demands.
I chose the name ImageLifter™ for the scissor lift trolley because the funeral director can place photos (Image) of the deceased onto the Designer Panels, which attach to the scissor lift trolley (Lifter). You then have a multifunctional lifting unit that also looks beautiful in the chapel, or anywhere suitable for a viewing of the deceased. It also reduces the number of times the coffin or casket needs to be transferred.
The quality, suitability and reliability of our funeral industry products are reflected in the superior quality of all aspects of our service.
We understand the special requirements of the Funeral & Allied Health industry and look forward to extending our service to you. Please don’t hesitate to call us on 08 8269 3339.
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