Sanitation Used in Production

Hello Everyone: I am curious to how others have dealt with Sanitation being used in Production when there is a staffing issue that day, therefore NOT being able to perform there functions. BTW: I am referencing a Production bakery which produces RTE food.

I understand there must be training, proper dress code followed, etc. for Sanitation to work in Production. 

I am mostly interested in how did you convince you colleagues that using Sanitation in Production is not helpful! In the event we are short-handed, etc., Sanitation employees are then the first ones who get sucked into Production work. Sanitation has a ton of responsibilities, task to complete, etc and can not maintain there workload properly when most of there staff is in Production.

Anyone else deal with a similar issue? 

Our plant is working through this issue, but still interested in others viewpoints. 

Thanks all. 

Does the work still get done, or are you having sanitation be skipped in order to fulfill production staffing needs?

I don't have a problem with cross-use of employees. Change smock, wash hands, and move to production tasks. No different than anyone else moving from a "dirty" to "clean" task.

Thanks for the response.

The most important items are getting done (food contact areas, etc.). The tasks that are maybe less risk, or is not as critical to food safety are the ones being missed due to lack of hours. And there is not time to "get caught back up". 

What we find is that pulling sanitation starts becoming excessive and then the areas in the facility that have had a lack of sanitation are now much more messing then is acceptable. Production taking employees typically happens every day, it can be 2-3 sanitation employees taken and it hurts sanitation productivity a lot. 

I was curious, if other plants had restrictions against this type of thing or not. And what might have been implemented as a result. 

I have never seen a company not do cross-using of employees. 

Now, if the situation is effecting sanitation because the people can't "get to it" you either need to add more people or allow for overtime.

Of course I should talk - I own the consulting business, but I also own a franchised store where I am today, so I am doing work on an SQF project today and then filling in for an employee to work the counter and hopefully have enough time to clean the toilet later today! :)

Hi Ryan,

I am mostly interested in how did you convince you colleagues that using Sanitation in Production is not helpful! In the event we are short-handed, etc

Not >> still ?

Perhaps you have heard of the generic Slogan -

Quality is Everybody's Business.

Quality AND food safety is most important. And keeping your facility clean has a lot to do with food safety. When your sanitation staff is all working production, you can not maintain anything properly. Understand this is not something that happens here and there, its very often. 

Production being short staffed is tough, but the proper coordination among production  employees is the key. Use sanitation only when you must, and move around employees from other production lines first, prior to grabbing a sanitation employee. My concern is using sanitation is becoming best practice. Then when our environmental sponges comes back high, or we are getting dinged due to lack of basic cleaning we are all asking ourselves.. why? 

I like to keep things structured. Sanitation has tasks to do throughout there shift. I staff it accordingly. I am more focused on preventing them from entering Production because its "easy". Lucky i have been able to control the chaos, but they has to be a better way. 

Hi Ryan,

Despite ISO, in this case i assumed Quality extended to Safety.

I sympathise that yr Top Management is unable to provide adequate Resources. It's a perennial moan unfortunately. More often from QA IMEX.

I can suggest another inspirational slogan -

"Clean as you Go".