Access Key	Description
1	Home Page

News and events

News release

01 October 2010 - NR 39/10

Noise reduction invention is a cut above

An invention which is set to save a company over £100k a year by slashing noise levels has notched a prestigious health and safety award.

Leicester’s Bradgate Bakery’s eureka idea for a sandwich cutter that improved profits by protecting staff from excess noise, won the top prize at the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health’s (IOSH) National Food and Drink Health and Safety Awards this week.

Spearheaded by health, safety and environment manager, Neal Davis, the aim was to reduce noise levels in the factory for the company’s 1000-strong workforce. And through research, he found that one of the loudest offenders was a piece of machinery used to help cut two million sandwiches every week.

Engineer Brian Worth’s ingenious Dragons’ Den-style modification to Bradgate Bakery’s already existing 30 sandwich cutters involved switching the cumbersome metal bearings and shafts to plastic. And in the process, he found it saved time, money, and work-related incidents of ill-health.

Neal said: “The benefits have been fantastic – the machinery is more reliable, we are able to increase productivity because we don’t spend as much on maintenance, and we have fewer occupational health problems related to stress, tinnitus and headaches from the noise.

“We’ve reduced noise levels from 87 to 76 decibels so now none of the workforce is legally required to wear earplugs. That has also meant hygiene is even better than it already was.

“Initially, we didn’t really consider the difference it would make to the bottom line, but we have worked out that we are currently saving £10.5k each month from the reduced hearing protection, machine parts and numerous other hidden costs. It’s completely changed the atmosphere and has changed the way we work.”

IOSH Chair of the Food and Drink Group, Neil Catton, said: “This year the competition was really tough for the health and safety innovation award.

“They are about people sharing ideas and projects that have actually made a real difference and improvement to the way people work. And our winners have shown how changes to procedure, innovative alterations to machinery, or completely new systems can benefit others by reducing incidences of occupational ill-health, and wasted time and money.”

Sandfields Farms Ltd, based in Warwickshire near Stratford-upon-Avon was named a runner-up for a traffic management system it installed in its salad onion harvest field. Health and safety advisor, Sharon Savill and the team put the innovation into place to make sure people and machinery were kept separate and safe.

Keith James, site services co-ordinator at Burton-on-Trent’s Unilever developed a hazard spotting tracker system for safety representatives to record potential dangers. Using his system, they could discuss findings, log them for resolution and keep account of when issues were overcome properly.

The awards were part of IOSH’s annual Food and Drink Manufacturing Conference, held this year at Oxford’s Belfry Hotel on Tuesday and Wednesday (28 and 29 September). It was organised by the IOSH Food and Drink Group, with support from HSE’s Agriculture and Food Sector and the Food and Drink Manufacture Health and Safety Forum. Top prize was a trophy, certificate and £500, with two runners-up receiving a certificate and cheque each for £250.

- Ends -

Notes for editors:

IOSH is the Chartered body for health and safety professionals. With more than 40,000 members in 85 countries, we’re the world’s biggest professional health and safety organisation.

We set standards, and support, develop and connect our members with resources, guidance, events and training. We’re the voice of the profession, and campaign on issues that affect millions of working people.

IOSH was founded in 1945 and is a registered charity with international NGO status.