Cleaning the bakery production environment and machines
It is often not structurally planned, however very important!
I often visit medium-sized to large bakeries and to my surprise, structural cleaning stops are no longer being planned. Many bakeries do not come any further than removing the last residue from the previous product. But, why it is so important? I would like to share this with you.
Preservation of bakery machines
For a long lifespan of bakery machines, proper and timely cleaning is of key importance. The various ingredients that are being used can have a negative impact on the machines. Examples of these ingredients are; sugar and citric acid. If residues of these ingredients remain in and on the bakery equipment for a longer period of time, the machines will be affected. Machines will break down, get stuck and cause disturbances. A disturbance causes production stops and can have a negative impact on the delivery of the products. Stagnation of your production always costs money and furthermore the result of not, too little or not correct cleaning, is a shorter lifespan of your bakery machines. Take a divider as an example. If you do not clean this device regularly and in the right way, this will lead to wear and tear with the result that the volume will no longer be measured correctly and you will eventually use more raw materials.
Compressed air
Do not use compressed air when cleaning. Compressed air is often mentioned in manuals from older machines as the ideal solution for cleaning. The problem with compressed air is that flour dust is spread in the air and after a while airborne, the flour dust lands on the cleaned machines. There is also a high risk of inhaling this substance, which can cause pneumoconiosis, a severe affection on the lungs. Therefore, it is better to use a good vacuum cleaner to vacuum flour dust instead of spreading it.
Cleaning planning
My advice is; make a cleaning planning. Describe in this plan what, why, when and how cleaning needs to be done. Who does it and what the result should be. Take the manual of the machine as a guide. The supplier often describes recommendations of cleaning. It also states how to clean the machine. Follow these recommendations, because some cleaning methods destroy more than they do well for the machine.
Residual value
Good cleaning not only ensures higher production now but also leads to a higher residual value. At our sister company Dubet we work with a model for determining the residual value of installations. The level of wear and tear and the maintained condition are important parameters in calculation of the residual value.
Altogether cleaning is very important for the preservation of your machine park, optimal production and residual value!
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