Widening Sentinel’s gaze

Showa has launched its Sentinel by Showa hand protection programme across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). It combines on-site assessments with structured glove trials to help large employers reduce hand injuries, improve protection, and identify cost-saving opportunities.

Already successfully operating in the US, Sentinel by Showa is a free-of-charge, two-stage process that begins with a site-wide survey carried out by the company’s representatives. This identifies risk factors and potential improvements in hand protection, with recommendations compiled into a report tailored to the needs of each end user.

Where required, this can be followed by the Sentinel Four-Week Trial Programme. This structured trial enables end users to evaluate recommended Showa gloves against their current products in terms of comfort, dexterity, durability, and suitability for specific tasks. The four-week process includes an initial meeting, sample distribution, evaluation, and feedback – ensuring active involvement from both employees and the end-user’s safety team throughout.

“Sentinel by Showa provides a practical framework for engaging with workers and safety teams to ensure the right gloves are used for the right applications,” says Tony Lynch, Showa’s vice president of EMEA and the US. “By understanding user needs on site, testing against actual job demands, and following through with data-backed recommendations, we can improve safety performance and reduce incidents while helping customers optimise their PPE spend; and it’s all for free.”

The programme also supports compliance with health and safety legislation. By conducting a structured hand protection assessment, Sentinel by Showa helps employers fulfil these obligations, document their process, and demonstrate that suitable PPE has been selected for each task.

The approach is specifically designed for large end-users in high-risk sectors such as manufacturing, construction, transportation, and energy, where at least 150 workers are using hand protection. Sentinel supports compliance with relevant health and safety regulations and can help employers reduce the number of non-fatal injuries to hands and wrists, which account for 25% of non-fatal workplace injuries.

The rollout follows a strong uptake of Sentinel in the US market, where customers have already seen measurable benefits. Wabtec Graham-White, a leading manufacturer of pneumatic and electro-pneumatic components, partnered with Showa to implement Sentinel across 12 departments. The result was a US$18,000 (R320,000) reduction in glove spend, a drop in hand injuries, and a more sustainable approach to PPE selection through the introduction of Showa’s biodegradable EBT hand protection solutions.