Tredegar's Frontier Medical Group makes significant production changes for Repose, yielding waste savings in its core product.
Repose is a leading pressure area care product, designed to prevent pressure sores for at-risk patients by distributing weight evenly and relieving pressure on soft tissue. The product includes an air-inflated cushion that is inflated using a reusable Repose pump.
By changing from a dual colour blue and white design to a singlular colour of just blue, the company will make a total reduction of 4.7 tonnes of material when manufacturing 250,000 Repose pumps per year. The change will also result in a 25% reduction in scrap material and a 10% increased efficiency in the production process.
Matthew Bambery, Chief Operations Officer & Leader of Frontier Medical Group’s Sustainability Agenda, spoke with Green Economy Wales about who they are and their services, the details of their durable Repose pump and the specific benefits of manufacturing it from a singular colour and the importance of other manufacturers being committed to measuring the impact of the environment.
Commenting on the recent change, he said:
“We take our commitment to sustainability very seriously at Frontier Medical Group and we are looking at all of our processes to establish where we can make waste and energy savings, while still providing cutting-edge health enhancing products to a very high standard. Like many other healthcare companies and the NHS who are the world’s first health service to commit to reaching carbon zero status, we understand that by minimising our environmental impact, we are helping to improve health and wellbeing for everyone.
By making both the inner and outer cylinders from the same blue plastic material, there is a hugely positive impact in terms of reducing the materials used and the waste produced, but there is no effect on the functionality of the product.
The single colour repose pumps are now being rolled out and the Repose range of products includes cushions, mattress overlays, recliner chair overlays and leg and foot cushions.”
For more information on Frontier Medical Group, visit: www.frontier-group.co.uk