Many starters do not know how cumbersome the process of
starting a factory is until they try to get registered or certified. It feels
huge to be asked to fulfill a lot of obligations and can be a burden on a new
person trying to find his feet in the industry world. During the process of
inspection by regulatory officials, many starters get discouraged from the rearrangement
they recommend for their factory. Let me use this opportunity to talk about the
requirement of a factory layout.
1. Your factory location should be far away from
residential area! You can not dedicate a room inside your flat for production
of a food material. If you have a double flat and you live in one, you must
create a clear demarcation between the two before you can use such facility as
your production unit. There must be clear restriction so that people do not
have straight access into your factory.
22. Create barriers against animals in range! Pets
and other animals must not get access into your facility. I have seen people
who allow their pet dogs or cats to follow them into their factory thinking it
doesn’t matter. It does matter and you should create barriers to ensure other
animals don’t get access to your factory. If you have your facility where there
is no fence, you want to ensure that you create barrier against animals such as
goats and fowls in range so that they don’t enter your factory premises and
contaminate what you have.
33. Arrange your factory in sequential order! The
arrangement of the factory activities but be in order of sequence. You must
have a good entrance to your raw material store without going to other parts of
the factory. The arrangement of equipment and processes must be in such a way
that there are no contaminations. There are three different models for this
arrangement that are common, if you are interested in the models, drop your
email below so I can send it to you. If the request is much, I may consider
uploading the models here.
44. There must be proper ventilation and lightning
in your factory premises as well as proper walk ways. Ensure you arrange in
such a way that personnel can pass around freely without any accident. Also ensure
you don’t leave semi finished products on the floor, provide pallets where the
products can be placed inside the final product store. In all you do, let the
factory be easy to navigate.
55. Signage must be on every door and entrance
within your factory. A proper description of each room must be at the entrance
of each department, for example, raw materials store, laboratory, as well as
production room must be labeled correctly. Instructions on what should be done
before entering each room should also be boldly written in front of the room,
for example, “change your shoes before entering”, “put on your top coat while
in this room” “out of bounds to non production staff”
66. Ensure safety! The requirement for safety is to
ensure you have necessary equipment to forestall emergency situations. The most
important ones are the fire extinguisher and first aid box. You should ensure
the first aid box is properly equipped and the fire extinguisher is recharged.
77. Have a functional cloak room and rest room. Every
food factory deserves a convenience and a place for the staff to drop their
personal belongings. A cloak room is important and it is where your staff will
change their clothes and drop their personal belongings there. It is also
important to provide functional toilets for these staff and ensure the toilet
is tidy. Ensure that soap and disinfectant is provided in the toilet and there
is adequate water supply.
88. There is something very important that is usually
ignored in food factories. There is a requirement for a point of sanitation at
the entrance of the production area. Note, the point of sanitation is not meant
for the factory entrance but for the production area. The point of sanitation
will have a place where hands can be washed and should ordinarily have adequate
water supply, disinfectants and soap. This point is important for ensuring
production personnel get sterilized before entering the production floor so
that they don’t bring in any contamination from outside.
If you need more assistance with
your factory location and arrangement, feel free to send a mail to
hephkejiconsult@outlook.com
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