COSHH & Safety – Coplan / KIT

The DNA of resilience

May 6, 2026/in Blog, COSHH & Safety, Tool Audits, Tool Calibration, Tool Standardisation/by Mark Pedrasa

Why the Greencore-Bakkavor era demands tool-level discipline

The landscape of UK convenience food shifted on its axis in January 2026. With the finalised acquisition of Bakkavor, Greencore has emerged as a homegrown manufacturing titan, generating £4.1 billion in revenue and employing 28,000 colleagues across 36 locations.

But for a business now responsible for delivering 1 billion sandwiches and 400 million chilled meals every year, the greatest strategic threat isn’t just market competition, it is “standardisation drift” or “tool creep” as we sometimes call it.

The “mega-scale” standardisation challenge

Resilience at this scale is impossible if every site has its own way of managing equipment. In a multi-site network, inconsistencies in tool selection or storage lead to fragmented processes and rising costs. As Greencore pursues “delivery excellence,” the fundamental requirement is a unified standard for the physical tools that power their 3,200 products.

Whether a site is in the UK or the US, the health and organisation of its physical assets are the “DNA” of its resilience.

Circular thinking: more than just a marketing story

This shift toward tool-level discipline is further accelerated by the UK Government’s 2026 Circular Economy Growth Plan. This mandate isn’t just about recycling; it’s a structural requirement for businesses to take greater responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products and assets.

In the factory, “circular thinking” means moving away from the “disposable tool” culture. By standardising high-quality tools and tracking them through 5S shadow boards, linked to their digital twins in software like KIT that prompts manufacturers to regularly inspect and calibrate their tools enables manufacturers to significantly extend the lifecycle of their equipment and eliminate the waste of frequent, unmanaged replacements.

The ROI of organisation

In a market defined by 5.7% food inflation and chronic labour shortages, tool loss is a “margin issue” that manufacturers can no longer ignore. Case studies show that simple organisation through shadow boards and foam inlays coupled with regular visual checks can save single facilities tens of thousands of pounds in replacement costs alone.

But the real value is in “shock absorption”. When a factory is organised, it can handle volatility, from sudden demand spikes to unexpected staff absences, without the constant firefighting caused by missing or uncalibrated equipment.

The “limbs” of the smart factory

As we move toward “autonomous, smart operations” where AI acts as the plant’s brain, your tools are the limbs. If those limbs are uncalibrated or unorganised, the most advanced AI in the world cannot guarantee safety or efficiency.

If your tools are not correctly looked after, then the robots and machinery they service and maintain or the products they build will suffer and the knock-on effects can be severe and costly.

With 35% of food safety non-conformances already linked to maintenance and calibration gaps, the message for 2026 is clear: Resilience isn’t built in the boardroom; it’s built at the tool level.

Streamlining equipment and chemical management: Traka’s success with KIT

March 19, 2025/in Case Study, COSHH & Safety/by coplan

Traka, a leader in intelligent management solutions for keys and equipment, faced the challenge of managing an expanding inventory of tools and hazardous chemicals.

Key Challenges and Solutions

KIT enabled Traka to overcome several operational challenges:

Chemical Management (COSHH): Traka leveraged KIT’s digital system to improve safety and reduce on-site chemical quantities by digitizing Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) and marking them with QR codes.
Calibration Management: Moving from spreadsheets to KIT automated Traka’s calibration schedules, reducing errors and enhancing accountability with automated email prompts and dynamic reporting.
Uncontrolled Purchases: By assigning unique identifiers to each item, KIT helped Traka prevent unauthorised equipment purchases, streamlining inventory control.

Traka Case Study

The importance of tool and equipment control

April 2, 2023/in Blog, COSHH & Safety/by coplan

Making your workshop more efficient, and your workforce accountable.

Safety

Engineering projects involve the use of various tools and equipment that can cause serious injuries or property damage if mishandled or misplaced. Proper tool control and management practices ensure that all tools are tracked, maintained, and used safely in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.

Efficiency

Tools and equipment play a vital role in the success of any engineering project. Proper tool control and management practices help engineers and technicians quickly locate and use the correct tool at the right time. This reduces the time needed to complete tasks and increases overall productivity. Cost-effectiveness: Loss, theft, or damage to expensive tools and equipment can significantly impact the budget and profitability of an engineering project. Proper tool control and management practices help ensure that all tools and equipment are accounted for, well-maintained, and properly stored when not in use. This reduces the risk of loss, theft, or damage and helps maintain project profitability.

Consistency

By ensuring that tools are managed and regularly reported on, organisations can ensure that tasks and operations are performed in the same manner each time. Using different standards of tools and equipment due to loss or misplacement increases the risk of variations to the agreed working practices and has potential knock-on effects to quality standards and consistency of output. Tool control and management solutions along with regular reporting, significantly reduce these risks.

Demonstrates standards

An investment in a suitable tool control and management solution establishes a standard that cannot be ignored by team members and colleagues. Visual Tool Control solutions whether it be foam inlays in drawers or visual shadow boards provide an instant benchmark for how an area should be presented and maintained. These solutions, coupled with regular reporting, make it instantly apparent when tools are not returned to locations or checked, and more importantly can represent a drop in standards.

Improves morale

One benefit of tool and equipment management and control is the improvement in morale as a result. Most people working in engineering and maintenance projects want to spend their time focussing on the task in-hand and by ensuring that tooling and equipment is available, in good working order and where it SHOULD be, are contributing factors in improving the morale within Engineering teams. Interestingly, to further this point, an investment in a system that allows users to quickly and efficiently report any issues with tooling and equipment and in-turn enable corrective actions to be carried out are by far and away one of the best ways to ensure that morale within teams is maintained.

Conclusion

Tool control and management are essential for the effective and safe operation of engineering projects. By implementing proper tool control and management practices, engineers and technicians can maximise productivity, reduce costs, and improve overall project outcomes.

KIT enables customers to build an inventory of all relevant equipment and tooling whilst also allowing the recording and reporting of lost and damaged items. The ability to also store data-sheets, calibration records and usage instructions means that all relevant information can be stored in one place, accessible by all from any internet-enabled device.