NEWS & INSIGHTS

Health, safety and wellbeing is an essential part of responsible manufacturing. Within bath and shower tray production, effective risk management must account for a busy working environment, the use of different materials and machinery, changing production requirements and the interaction between different teams and their processes.

At Trojan, health, safety and wellbeing extends beyond just staying compliant with regulations. Our focus is on establishing a consistent culture in which our employees understand their responsibilities, have the confidence to raise concerns and are involved in identifying and implementing opportunities for improvement.

This approach is fundamental to supporting employee wellbeing, creating a better work environment and ensuring the consistent quality of every bathroom product we manufacture.

The scale and pace of manufacturing often present a range of health, safety and wellbeing considerations. Maintaining consistency is particularly important when processes or working conditions change regularly.

Effective communication therefore forms a central part of Trojan’s approach. Regular safety checks, specialised training and employee engagement are carried out to help ensure the reason for changes are understood and appropriate controls remain in place.

Employee involvement is an important part of this process. Our health, safety and wellbeing committee, which meets every 2 months – alongside dedicated working groups – provides our team members with a formal opportunity to participate in decisions around workplace safety and operational improvements that affect them

For example, the yard working group considers the interaction between drivers and pedestrians, while the bath and shower tray spraying working group reviews the effectiveness and consistency of controls and discusses improvements that can be made. These dedicated individual discussions allow for improvements to be made at a more granular level with employee engagement as the driver, rather than senior management teams making broad decisions which impact health, safety and wellbeing across the whole business, and all four of our production sites.

The handling and processing of materials requires appropriate, well-established procedures to be in place to ensure the critical safety of our production teams. Acrylic forms a fundamental part of Trojan’s manufacturing operation, as it is used in the vast majority of our products.

While acrylic is generally safe and non-toxic at room temperature, when cut, it can produce hazards such as fine dust, sharp edges and thermal fuming. This makes safe working practices an important consideration throughout each production stage.

Risk management at Trojan also goes beyond the basic requirements of a UK bath and shower tray manufacturer. Our processes are reviewed regularly, with employees involved in identifying potential concerns and considering how our safety controls can be strengthened across the entire shop floor.

This approach is particularly important when working conditions change. During periods of extreme heat as we have had this summer, for example, measures such as additional breaks, fans and extraction are considered to support team members and maintain safe working conditions.

At Trojan, we understand that our machinery must be managed carefully to ensure that operational efficiency does not come at the expense of safety.

To support this, we adopt a proactive approach rather than simply responding after an incident has occurred. Near-miss reporting plays an important role in this way of working, allowing potential issues to be identified and addressed before they result in an accident or incident.

We place considerable emphasis on developing the skills and capabilities of our People Managers to ensure everyone across the business has a solid understanding of how to keep themselves and each other safe. Monthly training in areas such as risk management, dynamic risk assessment and root cause analysis supports our managers in identifying hazards and responding appropriately when circumstances change. It also gives our people managers the opportunity to collaborate as a management team and implement consistent best practice across our sites.

Encouraging our employees to report near-misses and challenge potential risks also helps establish a stronger culture of shared responsibility.

Our strong health, safety and wellbeing culture not only protects our team, but also contributes to a more confident, efficient and consistent manufacturing operation.

When employees in any manufacturing firm feel supported and confident in raising concerns, they are more likely to participate in improvements and engage with changes to processes. This can lead to greater understanding, stronger working practices and improved efficiency.

At Trojan, this represents the broader development of health and safety over recent years. Our focus has moved from a predominantly compliance-led approach decades ago, towards one based on engagement, wellbeing, trust and continuous improvement, which drives who we are as a UK bath and shower tray manufacturer today.

The UK’s manufacturing workforce is becoming increasingly multigenerational with many experienced staff expected to retire over the next five to ten years. Creating safe, supportive and attractive working environments is therefore increasingly important for retaining experience and developing the next generation.

At Trojan, we recognise the importance of skills development and apprenticeships in supporting the future of manufacturing in our region. As a Yorkshire acrylic bath manufacturer, we work alongside other local businesses to strengthen the sector and develop the skills needed for the future.

Ultimately, effective health, safety and wellbeing is a shared responsibility. By giving our team members, the knowledge, confidence and opportunity to contribute and be a part of the decisions that affect them, we’ve created a safer and welcoming workplace that upholds the consistent standards and quality that our customers expect. For more than 50 years, we have combined our British manufacturing experience with a commitment to quality, reliability and continuous improvement.