One very imperative aspect of workplace safety is keeping your manufacturing plant in a clean and sanitary condition. It takes an active effort on the part of both managers and employees alike to consistently implement practices that will keep the facility in tip-top condition. Here are five of our best practices for keeping your facility clean.
Have a Regular Cleaning Schedule
First and foremost, you absolutely have to have a periodic cleaning schedule. This will need to include everything from daily cleaning of restrooms to periodic equipment maintenance. Having it set into an established schedule will ensure that it gets done on a consistent basis. When you leave cleaning to whenever you have time, you’re going to find that your facility becomes unsanitary when you get extremely busy with orders.
Create a Cleanliness Culture
Another necessary component of a clean manufacturing plant is having a culture of cleanliness. Your employees need to know that cleanliness is an important aspect of how your business is to be run. Provide them with strict protocol as far as why it’s important to clean out their individual workspace and other necessary cleaning tasks. The more cleanliness becomes ingrained in the culture of your manufacturing plant, the cleaner it’s going to be.
Invest in Easy-to-Clean Products
One of the biggest reasons that manufacturing plants struggle to stay sanitary is that they invest in products that are hard to clean, whether that’s machinery or in the building’s makeup itself. You want to do the complete opposite and invest in products that are very easy for your employees to clean so that they’ll be more likely to do so on a regular basis. Find the best machinery that’s easy to take apart and clean, and ensure all surfaces, such as stainless steel countertops or acid brick flooring, are installed throughout.
Have Great Cleaning Products Available
Another hitch that tends to restrict cleaning is a lapse in having the proper equipment there to do so. It’s necessary for you to invest in the right cleaning equipment and make sure that they’re in stock so that your employees always have what they need to keep your facility clean. This can include everything from basic tools for regular cleaning to more in-depth cleaning materials to clean up the occasional spill.
Limit Travel Between Work Stations
Another aspect of operation that can cause more dirt to accumulate at your facility is having employees move from station to station. When you can supply each workstation with the necessary materials for an employee to do their job, it will minimize the amount of travel that happens between workstations. When you’re able to minimize this travel, you’re able to drastically reduce the amount of dust and debris that gets carried from workstation to workstation.
Keeping your manufacturing facility in a sanitary condition can seem like an overwhelming task. But when you start to implement these practices, you can really start to make an impact on the condition of your plant.
