Hi smart17
As far as definitions go:
Maintenance - the process of maintaining or preserving someone or something, or the state of being maintained.
Line clearance - procedure in manufacturing for ensuring equipment and work areas are free of products and materials from a previous process. Line clearance procedures help operators prepare for the next scheduled process and avoid mislabelling or cross-contamination of finished products.
If you look BRCGS Global Standard for Packaging Materials Issue 6
4.7 Maintenance
An effective maintenance programme shall be in operation for plant and equipment to prevent contamination and reduce the potential for breakdowns.
Interpretation Guideline
To ensure that all equipment is suitably maintained and does not pose a contamination risk to product, it must be controlled by a documented maintenance system.
4.7 Clearly refers to plant and equipment but the term maintenance could also apply to buildings/fabric/facilities etc.
Line clearance is made clear in 5.4 Process control
5.4.7 A documented clearance procedure shall be in place to ensure that at start-up the line is clear of all previous work and production documents.
5.4.9 The documented line clearance procedure shall include:
• the roles of persons involved in line clearance • areas where materials can become trapped
• validation of the line clearance
• sign-off for continuing production.
The line clearance procedure shall be fully implemented for each production run.
“First-off’ would refer to the first product off a production line.
Kind regards,
Tony
