Are you in control? : Benefits of a transparent system
Are you in control of your CIP Systems and are they transparent enough to tell you the full story?
Over the years, I have seen many CIP Systems programmed in a variety of ways. And while the intention is always the same (to get stuff cleaned reliably and efficiently) the process is often difficult to follow. Such was the case for one of our customers, a major dairy manufacturer. Struggling to meet the demands of production and sanitation, they needed to modify their CIP systems to allow for better control over all aspects of the cleaning process as well as have flexibility for future process additions. The problem, however, was that their multiple CIP systems had been developed by many different programmers over the years. As a result, making a simple modification to the system had become a tedious and time-consuming endeavor. Tasked with developing a standard that could be applied to each system, our team determined that leveraging a time-tested Avanceon approach- creating pin charts, would be a quick and efficient solution, provide ease of use and give the customer the most visibility and flexibility in their cleaning process.
Once implemented on the initial pilot phases, the impact was immediate. The Sanitation Manager is now qualified and able to review and optimize each circuit cleaning sequence through a simple to use interface. Cleaning optimization takes minutes today where historically it would require the time and skill set of an engineer over the course of hours to implement. In addition, the manufacturing team can now analyze the historical data of each cleaning process and identify areas where further optimization measures will have the most impact to the operations and show steps to be taken to further reduce chemicals, water usage and overall costs. Recently, they found a way to save 10-15 minutes of rinsing per tank wash and at the same time achieve better results! Let that sink in. Saving time and water with more predictable results!
It starts with lowering the veil of complexity and opening transparency to the system. Once the people that touch the process daily know what the systems are doing, they can identify and fix the issues that have been plaguing the efficiency and effectiveness and sometimes discover things they were not even aware of.
Let us know if you have taken a similar approach to improving your operations be it CIP or other. We’d love to compare notes!
Image Source: Freepik