The implementation of an efficient CMMS solution has become essential for companies in the food industry in order to comply with health and hygiene standards while increasing productivity.
Although CMMS seems to be essential today for any food processing company wishing to comply with the main standards in force while remaining competitive, choosing the right IT solution is almost as important. Indeed, equipment maintenance in the food industry is extremely specific compared to other production plants: health and safety issues, as well as strict compliance with standards and regulations play a major role. Some equipment must be handled with great care during maintenance operations to avoid contaminating production. Thus, the CMMS software deployed in a food industry company must meet strict standards: IFS (International Food Standard) audit, 21CFR11 standard, etc.
Mobility Work CMMS software ensures the best possible operating rate thanks to the monitoring of forecasted maintenance schedules and maintenance costs, covering all the needs of professionals in the food industry: meat, fish, fruit and vegetable processing and preservation, vegetable and animal oil and fat manufacturing, dairy production, grain processing, bakery, beverages, animal feed…
Discover the functionalities of the CMMS Mobility Work created for the food and beverage industry
21 CFR part 11, issued by the US FDA, describes very specifically the rules to be followed for the tracking, archiving and authentication of documents related to the maintenance of machines involved in the production of food to be marketed in the United States. It requires strict and advanced management of access and user rights, logging of connections and accesses, and the definition of hierarchical schemes to determine who is responsible for approving data on critical operations.
The rules set forth in this standard have important implications for maintenance management, making the use of an effective CMMS solution unavoidable. Mobility Work CMMS software, compatible with the 21CFR11 standard of the American FDA, has advanced functions allowing to manage electronic signatures, in particular through various levels of approval, and to have access to the recording of all the maintenance actions carried out. In addition, all intervention reports, machine modifications and revisions are searchable and traceable.
In addition to two-factor authentication and SSO or SAML login procedures, the Mobility Work CMMS solution provides a complete audit trail for Ultimate Plan Administrator users.
Mobility Work CMMS allows to trace the information concerning any action occurring on your network (account concerned, nature and time of the activity), and meets these requirements by keeping a trace of all the actions carried out on the documents related to maintenance for 10 years. In addition, in the event of an audit by an outside authority, the company can obtain, in just 72 hours, the audit trail of all its documents.
Most of the standards concerning hygiene in the food industry are developed by national or international organizations, and are of major importance because they allow factories to consistently produce safe food in compliance with the legislation to which they are subject.
Among these standards is the IFS Food certification (International Food Standard), which is the prerequisite for access to the French, German and Italian mass distribution. This is a common food safety standard, with a uniform evaluation system established to qualify and select suppliers. In particular, it allows retailers to ensure the safety of their food products and to monitor the quality level of suppliers of private label products, thus reducing their own auditing needs. This standard is often seen as an “entry ticket” to retailers for suppliers. It is an opportunity for suppliers to demonstrate their commitment to safety, quality, compliance and continuous improvement.
The IFS audit, which is a prerequisite for access to the retail market in France, Germany and Italy, applies not only to inventories but also to maintenance actions. Any food processing plant subject to this standard must therefore be able to present the history of all maintenance interventions carried out on its production tools.
In this context, the CMMS allows to present a traceability and a history, where a simple spreadsheet can be questioned by the auditor because it can be modified and therefore corrupted. It is therefore clearly preferable to use a CMMS tool to meet the IFS standard.
Let us also mention the ISO 22000 standard which concerns the management of food safety. It requires the entire food industry to use the HACCP method (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) to ensure food hygiene, consisting of 7 principles. Accepted by most government agencies, professional associations and food companies in the world, this method requires from manufacturers a rigorous monitoring and traceability of each action taken during the production process.
To ensure food safety, it is essential that equipment is designed and installed in such a way that maintenance operations are carried out efficiently. But it is also necessary to ensure that they are constantly in good condition and without negative effect on the safety of the food produced.
This requires a mandatory preventive maintenance plan, which should be applied as a minimum to all equipment critical to the safety, legality and quality of the products. This plan must be based on a risk assessment of each maintenance operation. For example, calibration and control of equipment that monitors food safety-related parameters, such as a pasteurizer thermometer or metal detector, are critical.
The maintenance plan should identify the tasks of each person involved and the processes and their frequency of application. It should also be regularly updated and documented to incorporate the knowledge and experience gained about the equipment in question. The general principle is to favor the preventive, which is plannable by definition, rather than the corrective, which is unpredictable and has potentially serious consequences in terms of food safety.
Free import of your data
Real-time reporting via the news feed
Audit trail
Document management
Checklists
SSO and SLA
Spare parts inventory management
Preventive maintenance management
Intervention planning
Dynamic analytics dashboards
Mobile version at no extra cost (iOS and Android)
Community of maintenance professionals from the food industry and many others
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