Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

To meet the exacting manufacturing standards of its parent, KeyMed has undertaken an Anglo-Japanese environmental engineering project and created a manufacturing facility with green credentials said to be unrivalled in Britain.

The result of a two-year collaboration between Japanese and UK engineers, the new Medical Device Manufacturing Centre at Olympus KeyMed’s Southend site employs a range of ground breaking, eco-friendly technologies to regulate the environment inside the building, used to construct delicate medical devices.

Group managing director, Michael Woodford said: “Two years ago, with the support of Japanese engineers, Olympus KeyMed embarked on a radical manufacturing improvement programme aimed at bringing its operations up to the highest possible standards.

“This project necessitated a comprehensive restructuring of our manufacturing organisation and approach, to support a pursuit of excellence in production, similar to the world famous Toyota Production System.”

KeyMed is building on a 20-year relationship with the Japanese firm and the investment into the new facility is a mark of the commitment KeyMed has made to remain the ‘pearl in Olympus’ crown.’

“We’ve been a subsidiary of Olympus for 20 years now and have always been keen to make sure that we can keep our manufacturing base here. In order to do that we have to be competitive in the world market on price, on quality, on delivery, and everything else,” said facilities manager at KeyMed, Mike Batty.

“This building, this investment, is just another stage in a constant improvement project going on all the time.”

KeyMed’s environmental affairs manager, Andrew Vaughan. added that Olympus was very keen on reducing the group’s environmental impact: “We had directions from the president in Japan that this had to be the case.

“The building calls on a plethora of eco-gadgetry and a number of energy-saving techniques to create an award-winning design, capable of cutting energy requirements by up to 40 per cent.

“The building is highly insulated to isolate the internal to external environment. We heat and cool the building using a geothermal heat pump; we have a rainwater harvesting tank buried in front of the building, which collects rainwater from the roof of the building for use in grey applications and have about 40 sq m of high-efficiency, evacuated-tube solar panels on the roof.”

The high initial investment made by the firm should bring pay-offs, both environmentally and financially.

“The geothermal heating, for example, cost around 3 per cent of the building cost, which while expensive compared to an ordinary heating and cooling system, stands to save the firm around 40 per cent per cent on energy costs at todays prices,” said Vaughan.

KeyMed’s engineering excellence is triggering a huge payback in healthcare.

Snow Fair, a charitable group working for Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT) – raising vital funds for children’s Services at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge – runs a bi-annual drive to raise funds for local causes.

This year it is collecting funds to buy one of KeyMed’s gastroscopes and associated equipment for the children’s ward at Addenbrooke’s. The hi-tech equipment enables medical staff to examine the stomach, small and large intestines, bowel, and related areas with a flexible video gastroscope specifically designed for children that enables immediate diagnosis.