VIDEO: Creating a Safer Workplace with Ansell

Narrator:

Welcome to Creating a Safer Workplace by MSC Direct featuring the web series "Nothing Stops U.S. Manufacturing. Conversations with Safety Professionals in the Field." Here's your host Anthony Testa.

Anthony Testa:

Hi, I'm Anthony and welcome to the MSC series "Nothing Stops U.S. Manufacturing.” Joining me today is Scott Moore, Senior Manager Channel Development for Ansell. Ansell is a global leader in gloves, disposable gloves, chemical gloves, single-use gloves, coated gloves, any glove, you name it. Ansell's in it with the exception of leathers, right Scott?

Moore:

There you go.

Testa:

I know this stuff. Many times people don't really associate your hands with you know a tool that they use every day and then long-term effects that if you keep getting chemicals on your hands, you keep you're not protecting them, the damage that can actually do long term.

Moore:

Yeah.

Testa:

Talk to us a little bit about you know the why Ansell puts so much R & D into their products and the long-term effect if you do keep your hands exposed to the elements.

Moore:

If you are in manufacturing where you have repetitive processes with the hands, the types of strains and the types of muscle use and fatigue, day in, day out, 8-10 hours a day for many, many years, can cause something called carpal tunnel disorder and arthritis. What that does is it's not something that you really have to deal with in the now, it's something that you're going to have to deal with 10-20 years from now so it was important for us to start speaking to as a company in our technologies and R & D of how we can make the aging employee’s life better long after they've taken off an Ansell glove.

Testa:

Or even just using their hands right, so just unprotected hands, I mean that's the key here right, so that chemical it's just think about chemicals right, so what does that do to those hands if your hands are exposed?

Moore:

Yes, there is there's a huge and not to cut you off, there's a huge risk there of people that think, well this is not a carcinogen. Well no, it's not a carcinogen, but there are effects on the skin. I know I've walked into several facilities that were using isopropyl alcohol as a way to clean off anilox rolls for example in in the lithographic printing industry. Maybe a very easy way of cleansing off you know certain types of tools you're using, but if you're not well protected, constant repetitive use of something like isopropyl alcohol can be very damaging to your hands, can dry them out. That leads to dermatitis, that leads to infection, and again it can it has a very far-reaching effect on that employee.

Testa:

Right. So bottom line – protect those hands, protect those tools.

Moore:

Absolutely.

Testa:

What is the assessment that Ansell provides, what is that called and can you walk me through what that you know the output that a customer, an end user would get at the end of that assessment?

Moore:

Ansell Guardian is the method that we use. It is just as much of an assessment tool as it is the method in which we go to market. We look at all of the business that we are positioning or chasing after through the lens of Guardian and what Guardian is is a comprehensive side assessment where we're looking at risks, we're looking at ways that we can look at the primary cost drivers that are not unique. These are cost drivers that are across the board, throughout industry, cost performance, injury reduction, standardization, waste reduction, training, there's seven of them and we're looking at all of these areas and we're trying to decide upon and agree upon a method in which we can tackle it and how we can approach a suite of products that will speak to the primary risks, lowering your cost, lowering your risk for injury, but also standardizing so it's easier to procure.

Testa:

Talk to us a little bit about the proprietary type of yarns and knits and blends that Ansell has for cut along with some of the coatings that they have.

Moore:

I'll go full glove nerd on you here. The past few years we've really dedicated ourselves to finding in-house deniers and producing those in-house deniers that will help drive costs down. There's always been HPPE, there is of course brand names of HPPE that you can purchase like Dyneema, Diamond Dyneema.

Testa:

So for the layman, what does HPPE stand for?

Moore:

HPPE stands for high-performance polyethylene. Yeah, it's essentially like a fiberglass or a plastic material and you know if you want to use layman's terms, but it does have a you know an innate cut resistance to it and it can be built up and wound or knitted in a way that you can have increased or greater values of cut resistance, so it makes it very effective against that. Another one is having anti-microbial deniers in the way we knit our gloves. Some materials that you can manufacture with have an innate or natural anti-microbial value to it. What we're doing and what we're pursuing is that type of technology so that we can do our best efforts in every step of our manufacturing process to help lower that risk for not just Covid-19 but other pathogens that may pop up. Would it be a 100%, you know, fix? Absolutely not, but if we can do our due diligence to offering a new technology that could take that risk down, I think it would be very well received and appreciated within the greater industry.

Testa:

How about some of the coatings? I mean I know there was a glove that Ansell developed probably a year or two back that was really good with oil and making sure that, you know, specifically with MSC right, something that we invested heavy in, that was able to have a strong grip even in oily conditions I mean which is fantastic for our end users who are on the manufacturing floors. Talk to us a little bit about that one.

Moore:

Ansell grip technology is a type of coating and a method in which you put the coating on the glove that has we've seen tremendous results, and a lot of people think you know were you talking about it a 25% increase in grip. Doesn't sound like a lot on the surface, it's a lot when you think in terms of how well you're able to do your job. Could you do your job better if I gave you 25% more grip? Without question. We have been able to think in terms of coating in a very unique way of maybe we can add multiple levels of coating so we're able to use that Ansell grip technology over a straight nitrile which are gonna offer a barrier to lubricants, but also offer that great grip that you'd get with from just an Ansell grip technology.

Testa:

So we all have one of those stories where someone comes up to you at a trade show or in the grocery store, you know, who recognizes you and hey that's the answer and gives you that story that stays with you that's just like wow, it's what's that story what's that one that you have in the back your mind that's just like when somebody asks you this question you're like yep this is it?

Moore:

I have a friend that was, he came up to me at a trade show and he goes I want to show you something. I said okay, reaches inside of and he's one of these guys that you know he just came from the job site. It was actually an MSC event in Elkhart and he says I've got something to show you and he pulls out this glove. It was you almost couldn't tell you know what that glove was, it had been used so much that the coating was 75% gone. He said I work in such a high risk area for lacerations, I had cuts all over my hands but since I've been wearing your gloves, I've not received one cut. And the first thing we did is we got a new pair of gloves, one for being such a great spokesperson, but also you need to get new gloves every once in a while so you know we can keep you safe as possible. But that person coming up to you and saying, hey if for some reason I became handicapped or injured on the job, those types of injuries could lead to generational effects with my family for years even after I'm gone, so it's quite a satisfying thing to know that what I'm doing and what Ansell does and you know quite candidly what MSC does through partnering with us, is we're keeping people safe, we're helping those men and women come back to their families whole and allowing them to perform at 100% and we go with a lessened risk each time they go to work.

Testa:

Well Scott, I want to thank you today. This is a great interview. I appreciate it and I've known Scott a long time. For folks who don't know Scott, he is a glove geek by day but he is also a great father and he loves opera so and he's a great singer just so you know but Scott, thank you very much, I appreciate it.

Moore:

You’re gonna make my head blush. It's hard for a bald man to hide a blush.

Narrator:

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