CLEANING COMPLIANCE FOR FOOD MANUFACTURERS - WITHOUT THE PAPER TRAIL
Managing effective food plant cleaning is a complex skill. System8 is a new computer programme from the hygiene systems supplier Holchem. It lifts the burden of paperwork to create more time for hygiene managers to spend on-line leading, training and supervising their teams.
Managing effective food plant cleaning is a complex skill. System8 is a new computer programme from the hygiene systems supplier Holchem. It lifts the burden of paperwork to create more time for hygiene managers to spend on-line leading, training and supervising their teams.
System8 collates all scheduled daily and irregular tasks and has flexibility for unscheduled changes to the programme. It generates daily and weekly task sheets and produces an annual plan. Workload is correlated with the available manpower and skills of the workforce. Personnel, training or other deficiencies are easily identified so that appropriate action can be taken. Significantly, the system records the completion and signing off of each task. A complete audit trail of cleaning activities is easy to produce to meet customer, quality assurance, health and other compliance needs.
The Holchem program is built on a number of easy to use and integrated modules. A unit, for example, is devoted to creating cleaning instruction cards (CIC's) for each plant item or surface. The manager can call up a template and easily build the card using a series of pull down menus. The system has intelligence. Selecting a particular chemical will automatically generate safety information for whatever product is used. Additional information on protective clothing can be added by using the drag and drop menu.
The manager is able to build his annual plan by assigning tasks from the CIC cards, to the planner module. By the use of drag and drop he can then schedule repetition of cleaning at the appropriate frequency. This enables the annual plan to be built and fine tuned very quickly. Development work has been aided by a live trial at Cranswick Country Foods in Rossendale who produce ham joints for leading supermarkets.
Cranswick hygiene supervisor Gary Clegg explained, "System8 saves me time and allows me to control cleaning operations more effectively. Regular cleaning tasks are easy to deal with, but infrequent ones could throw a spanner in the works. Now that I have an annual plan, linked to detailed CIC's and my manpower and training matrix, crunch points are easy to identify. Tasks can be rescheduled to spread the load or additional resources allocated to meet a special need. Records for cleaning, training and compliance are no longer critical issues because all the information is in one place."
As a result of the trial Holchem have been able to build special features into the software. Comments can be added to the cleaning record and messaging is possible both internally and to/from Holchem. This enables any emerging problems to be quickly dealt with and information shared for maximum advantage. It is also possible to quickly produce reports for a variety of management purposes.
Holchem are now ready to roll out the system nationally. Various packages are available, including software only, software with workstation, and multi-user network options. All packages include full training and 24/7 technical support. With an entry level cost of under 4000 many users will achieve rapid pay back by efficiency saving.
More information: Steve Bagshaw, Holchem Laboratories Ltd, Tel. 01706 222288
Fax. 01706 221550 E-mail: info@holchem.co.uk Web: www.holchem.co.uk
For easy editing, a version of this text is on the web at www.ainsmag.co.uk/ho213/3213ho1a.htm
April 19, 2002
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