This Award is to recognise the company or individual operating unit that can demonstrate world-class manufacturing performance or the most successful improvement to its manufacturing performance.
The Stepan UK submission demonstrated a site-wide commitment to manufacturing excellence and resource efficiency. From 2020–2024, performance improved annually, making it a business exemplar. Process improvements and training initiatives support best practice transfer across the organisation, extending impact beyond the Stalybridge site.
The Stalybridge site of chemical manufacturer Stepan used to be its most unreliable. But a transformational reliability improvement programme cut unplanned downtime by 85% with reactive work, (once 80% of the maintenance team’s workload), reduced to just 12%. Stepan Stalybridge has become the organisation’s most reliable site and an exemplar for the wider business.
Hynamics, the EDF Group’s hydrogen subsidiary, is committed to the production and distribution of low-carbon, renewable hydrogen to invent and build a more sustainable future. As a player in the decarbonization of industrial activities and long-distance mobility, Hynamics are making a major contribution to the energy transition by helping their customers reduce their carbon emissions.
Sponsored by Cogent Skills, this award is to recognise the employer who has done the most to contribute to the acquisition of skills by the company’s workforce through an active skills development work programme.
