Turnover to Production after Maintenance of Machine

Hi everyone! Thank you for the welcome. My company is involved in the manufacture of dry ingredients, we are just a small company and our application for FSSC is in progress. I would like to consult who should clean machines after preventive maintenance jobs, can Maint Dept delegate the cleaning to Production as part of their turnover procedure to Production? Their reason for assigning the cleaning to prodn is because Production optrs can better clean the machine as they are already used to cleaning it according to the Cleaning & Standards Procedure.

Dear Lilia Maria,

 

As the operators are already used to it, it will lead to better results. Important things to keep in mind when changing the procedure as you described are:

• The reparation which has been carried out. The production operator has to be aware of it, to pay extra attention to the repaired part, to avoid any undesired contamination
• The release of the cleaned machine after cleaning. The cleaner is normally not the releaser.  

I wish you good luck with the FSSC certification!

 

Kind regards,

 

Gerard Heerkens

Normally the operator will clean the affected areas on the equipment after maintenance has completed their repair or PM.  I would make sure maintenance has a check for any leftover parts or tools, and removes all trash / debris, etc. before they leave the area.

Dear Lilia Maria,

 

It does not matter who clean the machine after maintenance. IF production operators are better in it, they can do it. If specific cleaning team is the best option, you can arrange that.

However you should make sure that:

- the requirement for cleaning after maintenance is documented including the responsibility;

- people cleaning after maintenance are aware that maintenance is performed, so they can clean in another way (E.g. removing metal dust is different from removing fat and protein)

- machine should be formally released before used in production again. This should be preferable done by not the mechanican who did the maintenance and not the cleaner. This clearance to production should be documented.