Reach out to Annette Baltzer Larsen for more information.
Competitiveness is constantly being sharpened - we have not yet seen the last efficiency improvement in cleaning procedures. The efficiency improvements must continuously ensure that a satisfactory cleaning result is consistently achieved by minimising pitfalls and optimising the key parameters. Overall cleaning becomes more efficient with automation when the cleaning staff/sanitation operator have the parts of the cleaning automated that consist of easier-to-clean surfaces. This gives the staff better time for the more hygienically critical hotspots.
When we talk about construction and design, the concept of hygienic design is also important for all cleaning procedures.
This article focuses on all the overlapping concepts, pitfalls and optimisations that exist in the different cleaning procedures in industry, in public premises and in the home. Only when we have accepted the overlaps in the concepts can we begin to talk constructively together, learn from each other and optimise cleaning procedures.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen that a more effective cleaning procedure (cleaning and disinfection) increases hygiene and reduces contamination by microorganisms and viruses. Improved hygiene thereby results in less contamination and fewer people becoming ill. If we look at production, this will result in products with lower contamination and, with high probability, a longer shelf life.
All cleaning - whether it is cleaning a large complete production unit in, for example, the food/pharma industry and large kitchens, the sauce pan in your own kitchen, the classroom, the school toilet or the waiting room - whether it is manual or automated cleaning, there are four important parameters for achieving optimal cleaning:
We all know places that are harder to reach with the brush, but there may also be places that are harder for the cleaning liquid to access in closed production equipment. In both cases, we are talking about insufficient hygienic design.
The above four parameters must fill the whole circle (cf. Figure 1).
In one cleaning procedure, the temperature and the concentration of the cleaning chemical may be higher, and the other parameters may then be lower, while a satisfactory cleaning result is still achieved.
This can typically be in a CIP (Cleaning In Place) or COP (Cleaning Out of Place), where staff do not have direct contact with the cleaning liquid. Where staff have direct contact (for example the open production equipment, the pot, the floor or the school toilet), a lower concentration of the cleaning chemical and a lower temperature are used. In the latter case, the time and the mechanical effect must be higher - and the circle will again be filled out.
In addition to the four cleaning parameters, the concept of hygienic design is also important - both in production equipment and production premises, but also in your own kitchen equipment or premises both at home and in the school and healthcare sectors.
Hygienic design is most often referred to in relation to production, but hygienic design, or the lack of it, is just as important to keep in mind when dealing with a school toilet, a large kitchen, a reception area or the waiting room at a hospital.
The consequence of insufficient cleaning is, of course, different for the different areas. Where for production equipment and premises it may mean a product recall, less effective cleaning of your own kitchen equipment may perhaps cause stomach upset in the family. If we look at less effective cleaning of premises, it may mean greater transmission of microorganisms and viruses.
Over the last year and a half during the pandemic, many in sectors other than the food and pharma industries have wanted premises and equipment that were a little easier to access, or where the materials could withstand, for example, alcohol disinfection. If we look at the efficiency of cleaning in these places, many can confirm that many more resources have been used to maintain hygiene in these premises. If hygienic design, and not 'just' design, had been considered in these premises, resource consumption for the same hygiene condition could have looked different.
So, in addition to the nature of surfaces, cracks and crevices, material selection is also part of hygienic design.
Before an automated cleaning solution is selected, it is important to describe which cleaning procedures exist in the company/on the site and to assess these in relation to how effective they are today. In other words: how is the cleaning carried out today, how good must the cleaning be, and are these requirements met?
After this, it is easier to identify which cleaning procedures are best suited to automation.
Automation of cleaning does not often mean that it becomes cheaper. But if the chosen cleaning solution is optimised for the specific cleaning task, better cleaning can be expected at the same cost. The 80/20 rule often applies, where 80 per cent of the cleaning tasks can be transferred to an automated cleaning solution. This means that the remaining 20 per cent of cleaning tasks can be carried out more effectively, because the cleaning staff now have the time to carry out effective cleaning in these more hygienically critical and difficult places.
It is important that staff do not feel replaced by an automated cleaning solution. Rather, it is an efficiency improvement where the physically demanding occupational tasks or the larger surfaces that are easier to clean can, for example, be handled by a robot solution. Meanwhile, the places that require the cleaning staff/sanitation operator to spend a little more time to complete the task with a sufficiently high level of hygiene still remain with the cleaning staff. The difference is simply that previously - before automation - there was often not sufficient and necessary time to achieve a sufficiently high level of hygiene in/at these hygienically critical places (for example nooks and crannies and cracks).
CIP is the automated cleaning solution for closed production equipment. That is, where there are pipes, tanks and pumps. Automation by means of CIP can be used for both large and small production plants, as the principle of this automation is the same.
Cleaning of the complete equipment often takes place without dismantling or opening the production equipment and is carried out with minimal - or no - manual operation other than pressing the start button.
The cleaning liquid with the correct temperature and concentration of cleaning agent circulates around the production equipment. The mechanical effect, which is an important part of cleaning, is created by the correct flow and pressure of the circulating cleaning liquid.
Hygienic design is important so that the cleaning liquid can more easily and more effectively reach all places and all corners of the production equipment.
COP is the automated cleaning solution for open or partially open equipment. In COP, the operator dismantles the specific production component to be cleaned and places it in a cleaning station, which may be a dishwasher. That is, we also talk about COP in a large kitchen, or a place where a trolley, used tableware or other items are washed in a 'washing station'.
The circulating cleaning liquid provides the mechanical effect in both CIP and COP cleaning. Therefore, the flow/pressure of the circulating liquid in COP cleaning is just as important as in CIP cleaning.
The hygienic design of both the washing station/dishwasher, what is placed in the dishwasher and the positioning in the dishwasher is important. If the cleaning liquid with the correct flow/pressure and temperature does not reach all places, this will reflect a less effective cleaning procedure.
Today, there are well-known robot solutions for use in or assistance with cleaning larger open surfaces. This may be the robot vacuum cleaner, the robot floor washer or robot disinfection. Common to all these robot solutions is that it is important to examine more closely where they can be used, whether they can be used in your company, and almost most importantly - where they are not as effective.
We know, for example, that the robot vacuum cleaner or robot floor washer is not necessarily as effective right into the corners, nor along the edge of skirting boards (cf. Figure 2). It can be a major problem for the robot's effectiveness if there are stairs or floor-to-ceiling windows.
For a robot solution for disinfection, it is important to know that the most commonly used method is UV lighting, where the UV light must physically hit the microorganism in order to have a disinfecting effect.
If the microorganism is located under soil, or if there are shaded sides, the effect of the disinfection will drop drastically. It may very well be effective on the open surfaces that have already been cleaned, and the cleaning staff/sanitation operator can then concentrate on the more critical places where the robot solution is not effective.
On a very practical level, it is also important to know whether the Wi-Fi coverage is sufficient, if this is necessary for the selected solution.
Automation is often accompanied by a digital development of the process. This means that for the cleaning procedure in question there may be digital collection of data - for example the four important cleaning parameters, which can be linked with other selected data for both the cleaning procedure and the cleaning quality. Such a link can provide a non-person-dependent assessment of the cleaning in question. With such assessments, it will also become easier to identify which cleaning procedures have both positive and negative results and to optimise these effectively.
The cleaning procedures become more uniform with high efficiency and fulfilment of the desired hygiene requirements.
If we look to the future, there will probably be a greater desire for non-person-dependent documentation of the effectiveness of cleaning. For example, sensors can register both resource consumption (water, cleaning chemical and time), and a chip can track the cleaning equipment to ensure that cleaning has taken place for a sufficiently long time in the selected and difficult-to-access places.
There is no getting away from the fact that with increased automation, the professional competences of cleaning staff/sanitation operators will become more important. Therefore, it will remain important to build the competences of staff so that they can, for example, identify the hygienically critical places.
Reach out to Annette Baltzer Larsen for more information.