Deep cleaning process QCO at a major milk processor

Over the past six months, a major milk processor had experienced an increase in the number of customer complaints regarding milk spoiling before use by date. Accelerated spoiling is caused by a higher than allowed coliform concentration in the final milk product

A problem solving workshop was conducted with the company’s production and quality teams which identified that the deep clean process was not addressing high coliform counts with counts on the Star Wheels, Conveyors, Chucks & Drums and Cap Chute exceeding 150 Cfu/ml post deep clean. High counts increase the clean time as the process can not start up until the counts are below 150 Cfu/ml

The challenge was to maintain or reduce the 4 hour clean time while increasing the effectiveness of the deep clean

Facilitated a QCO workshop with site production and quality employees

Measured two daily deep cleans using the QCO methodology (the tasks were measured at 1 minute intervals over the 4 hour duration to accurately represent the process) and developed a current state process gantt

Applied the QCO methodology to identify tasks that were ‘Value Add’, ‘Non Value Add’ and ‘Value Enable’, as well as the tasks that made up the critical path and those that could be externalised from the process

Developed an optimal process and cross referenced against the current cleaning procedure

Observing the process enabled us to clearly identify the cap applicator as being the source of coliform contamination – removal of the applicator from its fixed position was not a current procedural step, however it was recommended to be added to the procedure

The optimal state process reduced the deep cleaning process by 40mins, which equated to an additional 17,000 bottles processed per week (based on a current average rate of 5,100 bottles/hr)

Recommended that the unlocked 40min of clean time be spent removing and cleaning the cap applicator

Updated the cleaning procedure to align with the optimal deep clean process

The QCO process also identified opportunities to increase the effectiveness of the sanitisation process and process control optimisation to reduce the potential for product contamination