Trace every bed frame, mattress and castor set from tube cut to ward delivery.

A hospital bed looks simple until you list its parts. There is steel tube, side rails, a mattress platform, actuators, a hand control, braked castors and a foam mattress. Each part has a supplier, and each supplier has a lot.

Hospital buyers order by tender, often in lots spread over several wards and several months. Manufacturers of ward and theatre furniture need to know which frames, coatings and fittings went to which drop, because a complaint from one ward concerns one set of beds.

A tender arrives with a schedule of items: fowler beds, semi-fowler beds, bedside lockers, overbed tables, instrument trolleys, examination couches and drip stands. Estimating prices each line from the tube weight, the coating, the fittings and the packing, and the figures are checked against the last similar tender before the quotation leaves. Once the order is confirmed, the planner releases cutting lists to the tube shop and welding jigs to the fabrication bay.

Frames go to pretreatment and powder coating, or to polishing if they are stainless. Assembly fits actuators, rails, castors and mattress platforms, and each fitted part is noted against the frame serial before the bed moves to final inspection. Nothing ships unchecked. Quality staff check weld finish, load tests on rails and platform, castor brake action and coating thickness. Finished beds are packed by ward and shipped with a delivery note per drop. Spare castors and hand controls follow later on request.