In hospitality and food manufacturing environments, cleanliness is a must. But so many production floor managers and hospitality staff find it difficult to set up a cleaning process that’s cost-effective, efficient, and actually gets the job done.
So, we’ve explored some of the top cleaning challenges for food manufacturing organisations, along with best practices and cleaning solutions to address them.
Food manufacturing cleaning challenges
Working in food manufacturing environments isn’t easy. Here are some of the challenges faced when trying to keep areas clean:
1. Ensuring health and safety standards are met
When you’re working with food, you need to prioritise cleanliness and food safety at all times. Unlike some environments where you can clean up at the start or end of the shift, your workspace needs to be clean and hygienic round the clock.
2. Different spaces that have different cleaning needs
Depending on your space, you might have large open floor areas, small spaces with tight corners - or a mixture of both! Plus, you might need to deal with a range of floor types from smooth coated flooring and concrete to tiles (with or without grout), bricks, stone, slate, and more. You’ll need to consider this when choosing cleaning equipment and machinery.
3. Cleaning needs to happen during operating hours
Most food manufacturing and hospitality environments deal with long opening hours, continuous production, and even 24/7 service. That usually involves cleaning with customers and/or staff in the area. This means they need to carefully consider how they can make the area safe and minimise slippage/fall risks.
4. Lots of people
Many food manufacturers operate at a large scale with hundreds of staff. That can come with extra challenges - they’ll need to identify who’s in charge of the cleaning, then ensure proper training, accountability, and machine care.
5. Time constraints
A lot of the time, the staff who are responsible for cleaning also have other responsibilities and demands on their time, like serving customers or working on the production line. They need to be able to work efficiently when cleaning so they can also keep on top of other areas.
6. Budget constraints
Most hospitality and food manufacturing organisations have lots of expenses - rent, wages, materials, ingredients, suppliers, and equipment. In some cases, it’s not an option to hire dedicated cleaning staff, or increase hours so existing staff can improve cleanliness.
Hospitality environment cleaning best practices and solutions
What’s the answer to the above challenges? Most of the time, it comes down to improving cleaning practices and using the best available tech.
1. The best cleaning technology
The best way to boost efficiency and effectiveness, and get a better clean done in the same amount of time (or less) is with better cleaning tech. For example, a food production factory might replace their existing mop and bucket setup for a walk-behind scrubber. That means they could potentially get a better job done in less time (meaning less wages to pay) with less chemicals and water (meaning improved safety).
2. Tracking technology
One way to improve accountability in large organisations is with smarter technology that tracks equipment operation, maintenance, and location. With Tennant’s IRIS Asset Manager, you can see how your machines are being used, where they’re located, and whether they’re being properly maintained.
3. Cleanliness tests
Another way to improve food manufacturing cleanliness is with regular ATP tests. ATP is a type of molecule that exists in or around living cells, which (if present) can be an indicator of unsanitary or contaminated surfaces. It’s a good idea to conduct regular cleaning audits to ensure all surfaces are being properly cleaned and identify areas to improve.
4. Safer methods
One of the biggest safety risks with regular cleaning (especially with staff/customers around) is slippery/wet floors. The best way to reduce this risk is to minimise slipping with methods that use less water and/or self-dry. Tennant’s scrubber-dryers use minimal water and come with built-in drying mechanisms. Plus, you can choose the battery-operated version to remove the risk of tripping over cords. Another benefit of reducing water usage in floor cleaning is you can avoid getting water or floor cleaning solution on surrounding equipment.
5. Good operational procedures
A lot of cleaning challenges can be solved by reviewing operational procedures, including cleaning schedules. Create a clear schedule that ensures everything is cleaned regularly and on time. Create a checklist to ensure that the most important cleaning processes happen continually throughout the day, as needed, to keep your operation lines safe and clean.
6. Better training
Help your people know what to do and how to do it for a safer, more effective clean. This goes with all your cleaning processes, but especially your cleaning equipment. Tennant’s IRIS Asset Manager comes with built-in training features to help onboard your team and guide them through the steps to use and maintain your equipment.
Get faster, better, more efficient cleans with Tennant
Want to improve cleanliness in your hospitality or food manufacturing environment? Choose Tennant. Our machines have reinvented cleaning processes for manufacturing and food environments around the world. Whatever your floor cleaning challenge, we have the machine to solve it.
The best part? Better cleaning processes don’t just mean increased savings and safety. With sparkling floors and flawlessly hygiene food production, you’ll find your staff and customers are happier, too.
