Why CMMS for Food & Beverage Industry

QA Magazine, a fortnightly publication from GIE Media, is exclusive for subject matter experts in the food and beverage industry with a special focus on food safety, quality, and preventing issues before they occur. The magazines content revolves around  practical insights, analysis of processes in facilities,  current issues and trends, etc.
A survey carried  out by the magazine conveys 32 % of the food consumers had doubts on the food safety supply. Even those who expressed faith wanted to learn more about production and supply chain.

• Health and safety are the foremost concerns for the food and beverage industry. Compliance with the ever stringent standards laid down by the regulatory bodies is also very important for business sustenance. A CMMS simplifies compliance so that those in food industry do not feel the heat.
• Enforce and habitualize food hygiene & sanitation practices such as wearing chef hats, aprons, masks and gloves; disinfection of common points; protocols for storage and distribution of food, using a Food Packaging Industry Maintenance Software

Pain Points Unique to Food Industries

Common resistance to change by employees

Ignorance on operating gadgets like mobile and tabs.

Staff unaware of requirements

Expensive development and implementation

Unsuitable infrastructure for validating, verifying FSMS

Cost of education and training

Shifting blames avoiding responsibility

Ever changing regulatory standards

Lack of access to information needed

Unable to obtain Government support

Problems Faced by Food Industries

1. Equipment reliability: Equipment malfunction, human error, measurement error,  can affect throughput and profits, if devoid of regular maintenance.
2. Food waste management: Machine failure or malfunction causes increased food wastage besides affecting production, it also generates food waste.
3. Asset Management Decisions: Though absolutely necessary, management may be unable to allocate funds in advance for asset replacement if they can’t readily access asset history & maintenance data.
4. Food safety regulation management: Many food businesses feel it difficult to demonstrate compliance to FDA, USDA, & ISO 22000 with the necessary documents.
5. Maintenance operation: Spreadsheet based work order management is associated with limitations and highly inefficient when the volume of work is high.

Key Common Requirement for Food Safety Standards

How CMMS Can Help Food Industry?

With a CMMS suited for food and beverage industry,  preventive maintenance programs dramatically shorten equipment downtime and   maximize asset life.

Benefits Using InnoMaint CMMS

1. Lowered insurance premium
2. Reduced operating expenses
3. Enhanced trading prospects abroad
4. Improved employee morale
5. Improved corporate image
6. Compliance with regulatory requirements
7. Improved product quality
8. Streamlined internal procedures
9. Enhanced customer satisfaction

Benefits

1. A close fit for food industry

Our food safety management software can be used at various levels in the food supply chain. – Food manufacturing factories, food processing and preserving units, food delivery businesses, restaurants, etc.

2. Reduced Food wastage

Minimize food wastage to acceptable levels by automating routine checks in units of mass or volume during various stages of production and carry out remedial actions with the help of digital checklists.

3. Food safety audit

HACCP monitoring tasks and schedules help facilities processing meat and seafood reinforce hygiene and pest control norms. Internal audits can be done as a rehearsal for external audits at unbelievable speeds.

4. Monitoring Records

The parameters signaling hazards such as temperature, pressure, etc., can thoroughly be monitored. Concerned stakeholders receive instant mobile and in-app alerts to rectify the food quality.

5. Retrieve Documents When You Need Them

InnoMaint lets users store user manuals, troubleshooting guides, SOP, etc. for assets in a safe, secure, and highly reliable centralize cloud storage retrievable in a few clicks.

Ensure Food Quality Standards Using Innomaint’s Food Safety Management Software and Improve Overall Production

The agri-food industry(AFI) manifests everywhere and is an intrinsic part of our everyday lives. It is not to be confused with agro-industry, which transforms agricultural, fishing, or domestic animals and birds raised for profit into non-food products.

The AFI integrates all the industrial activities that process raw materials from the above sources in an industrial setting to produce edible foodstuffs. These activities include, but are not limited to:

• Preservation of fruit and vegetables
• Manufacture of bakery and confectionery products
• Manufacture and processing of dairy products
• Meat processing and preservation
• Processing of fish, crabs, and chicken
• Semi processing of foods to be supplied to hotels·
• Beverage manufacturing

Ever stricter laws for Food safety

The Food Processing & Manufacturing Industry is a sector associated with health and safety concerns. Governments have laid down stringent regulations and food safety standards (for slaughterhouses too) as humans are the end-users.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India(FSSAI) conducts many such surprise checks and revokes the licenses or slaps fine on the non-compliant eateries, canteens, etc. Central Government has been writing to State Food Commissioners to be vigilant and take prompt action on complaints. With the advent of social media, a WhatsApp message is sufficient to alert the food safety officials on deficiencies in the quality and hygiene of the food served.

The slightest carelessness can turn out to be dangerous for the health of the consumer. Brands cannot afford to compromise their responsibility and reputation in the long term.

How CMMS scores over traditional approaches

Relying 100 % on paper-based approaches is not wise due to traceability, scalability & active monitoring issues. The industrial leaders have realized this as they increasingly adopt a CMMS solution to connect people, processes, tools, spares, sensors in a unified digital pipeline. Such connectivity ensures no service request or Planned Preventive Maintenance Task falls through the cracks and is followed up effectively till completion. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points(HACCP) are monitored at regular intervals via automation. Corrective action can be triggered automatically via mobile.

The sector is increasingly reliant on computerized maintenance management solutions(CMMS) to render stability and safety to its production lines, optimize production and distribution chains and step up food safety. CMMS plays a key role in running a food manufacturing plant successfully.

Clarity in Communication

With a CMMS, you receive alerts on nearing renewal dates for certifications. It helps food processing and manufacturing facilities to gain the confidence of customers. Periodical checking of equipment becomes easy and routine.

You can describe a problem statement clearly with multimedia illustrations which reduce the time taken for routing breakdown requests into the system. The technicians can also run the asset through its complete operational cycle and update it in the same ticket as proof for the fix provided. CMMS system covers all communication gaps, eliminates language proficiency issues, and simplifies the interpretation of work instructions. It permits the reuse of the knowledge of seniors for minimal downtime.

Reduced Food Wastage

Define the acceptable levels for Food wastage by routine checks in terms of volume or mass during production and implement corrective actions in the form of easy checklists. In general, experts believe that a food manufacturing facility is careful and diligent in production if wastage is less than 10% of gross production.

With a Food industry CMMS, you can

• Standardize food hygiene and sanitation practices
• Describe the protocols for delivery of the food
• Store monitoring records and registers & accesses 24×7
• Manage multiple food processing and manufacturing facilities
• Conduct a hazard analysis and critical control point((HACCP) check
• Trigger corrective actions automatically
• Record every operation for quicker & easier audits

Comply with Food Safety Regulations

With InnoMaint Food Safety Management Software, you can easily meet the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the ISO 22000 family of International Standards, etc. Conducting inspections and audits is much easier. You can easily establish asset hierarchies and attach safety manuals, standard operating procedures, and important records related to equipment and assets. You can access any data(with proper authorization) needed in a few clicks from the centralized cloud storage.

Maximize Equipment Reliability

Food manufacturers can maximize equipment reliability with routine PPM and predictive maintenance. Any hurdle in the process can have a telling impact on production and profit margins. The CMMS also has provisions to keep unnecessary service expenditure under control by providing a workflow for predictive maintenance performing maintenance based on usage and conditions. Thus you can operate your machinery in peak operating conditions. You can check this live via Overall Equipment Effectiveness Monitoring – i.e., the availability, quality and performance at any time using the Internet of Things – the concept advocated by modern Industrial Revolution 4.0 standards for a glorious future.

Make Smarter Asset Management Decisions

With complete access to service history available instantly upon a mobile scan of a QR code pasted on assets, provide best fixes and arrive at sound decisions on moving the asset across production lines and disposal. You can do this with deep visibility into asset movements within the facility(precise asset tracking) and move management without any disturbance to ongoing maintenance schedules.

Imagine this with conventional excel sheet-based approaches. Everything would have become chaos, wouldn’t it? How about the reliability and accuracy of manual reports? With a CMMS, You need not rely on any individual for data collection, reliability of data, and collating them to understand the maintenance progress. Hence turn to trustworthy reports and Dashboard metrics accepted worldwide.

Subject matter experts in Food Processing & Manufacturing Industry would very well be aware of the significance of performance metrics and comprehensive reports in planning for a meeting.  Hence utilize the services of a CMMS/EAM solution in your favor. Best allocate budgets and plan training needs based on the dynamic data available using IoT integration.

Kickstart the digital revolution

It is glad to note that the agri-food industry is now open-minded to adopt new-age techniques and technologies to address present-day maintenance challenges.

Build an ecosystem of connected Factories and groom your industry for the inevitable digitization of maintenance operations characterized by mass production and automation. It will reduce human intervention for burden-free maintenance management.

InnoMaint has offered proven solutions to several food manufacturing facilities with an unparalleled user experience. Try InnoMaint for free. Discover its capabilities in organizing maintenance for a quicker Return on Investment(ROI).

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com