Dairy products contain moisture by definition, but shop floors cannot be allowed to remain wet. Tea leaf processing is affected by dust, and also produces its own dust. How should an FM service provider approach these segments? Here is the experience of FFS (formerly Forbes Facility Services) at dairy product processing facilities in Himachal Pradesh and Pune, and a tea processing plant in Hyderabad.
Dairy product manufacturing unit
Since the production plant operates round the clock, there is continuous material flow on the shop floor. This requires continuous cleaning with a steam scrubber. The production area of butter used to face a sticky shop floor, which needed to be kept clean continuously. To ensure this, FFS increased the frequency of steam cleaning, which has resolved the odour and cleaning issues.
The ice cream production shop floor used to always remain wet. FFS started keeping it dry with their scrubbing machine. Gangways and pathways needed dry scrubbing and the internal wet shop floor needed continuous scrubbing to keep it dry.
Machines like auto scrubbers, single disc machine, WD machine, steam scrubber and high-pressure foaming machine are used, complemented by manpower of 15 personnel.
Suggesting interventions
“The client has made changes based on suggestions given by us. Any left-out residual food material used to cause odour and bacterial spread. The client installed tiles on the shop floor and painted the walls; this was necessary to keep the production area neat and clean”, said Suresh Dumne, Western Region Operations Manager, FFS.
“We asked them to introduce a rack system for storing the material. Due to this, our cleaning team was able to clean the ground area, which was not accessible earlier due to the material stacked on the ground.”
The STP plant used to be at the entrance of the plant, causing odour across the plant. “After we came on board, the client relocated the STP plant and scrap yard to the back. We also asked them to move the scrap material continuously to avoid stagnation. Since this could have caused a severe impact on the overall food quality, the client agreed to our suggestions and responded positively.”
“We also advised our client to use the service lift for scrap movement instead of the gangway.”
Cleaning protocols
To maintain hygiene and avoid cross-contamination, “we have deployed an area-specific cleaning team for each area, which is expected to clean only the area assigned to them. We have also assigned area-specific cleaning machines, tools and equipment as per the colour codes defined.”
To maintain the global food safety standards defined by clients, “we have customised our cleaning processes to comply with the same. We only use the material defined by our client.”
Results
FFS started with the client’s plant in Himachal Pradesh; based on their satisfactory experience with FFS, they have also assigned their Pune plant to FFS for mechanised cleaning.
Tea processing facility
Segment challenges
Accumulation of dust is the biggest challenge being faced by the tea processing industry. Cleaning dust from the shop floor remains a major task for FM service providers. Floating dust as well as dust settled dust on the shop floor not only pose a health hazard to factory workers but also pose a challenge in retaining the quality of the end product.
During the rolling process, tea leaves fall to the floor and may become a source of bacterial growth. If proper cleaning is not done, these microorganisms may be carried over to the next day’s production process.
Cobwebs tend to grow in the nooks and crannies of the processing unit. They need to be regularly cleaned, else they may fall into the product, which will get rejected during final QC checks.
Pest control services cannot be carried out in the tea production area due to the risk of the pest control chemical masking or affecting the flavour of the product.
Enter FFS
The client asked us to maintain the plant as per industry standard. Their previous FM vendor worked with the approach of managing headcount, and also struggled to fulfil requirements for trained manpower. The lack of a well-defined daily work schedule with regular monitoring was the biggest drawback, leading to a disconnect from the expectations of the client for plant cleaning.
Since the plant cannot tolerate any type of moisture, using certain machines became a challenge.
Initially, the client’s team suggested a manpower count based on their earlier experience. During the finalisation of the contract, we approached them with a detailed survey of the plant operations and area with our standard practice of applying the 4 Ms – Method, Mechanisation, Material and Manpower – which enabled reduction of manpower count from 38 to 32 personnel.
4 M approach
Method: Daily area-wise work schedule was drawn with sign-off from the client, matching their expectations.
Mechanisation: Specific machines deployed for specific areas like high pressure foaming jets (for washroom and external areas), industrial vacuum cleaners (this is to vacuum the dust in production areas instead of sweeping), walk-behind scrubber drier (to ensure gangways stay neat and dry).
Material: Eco-friendly and green-certified chemicals usage with measured dilution for optimised and better cleaning.
Manpower: Paperless checklists and QR codes are used for tracking and live reporting with live photographs of tasks. Operations are controlled and monitored by assigning tasks and tracking turnaround time.