Small campaigns
Many of our customers return to us regularly with 10 – 50 T assignments – 3 to 6 times per year. With these short campaigns we often see that the time required for setting up and cleaning down the required equipment is as much as the time required for processing. For such short campaigns the changeover costs (setting up and cleaning down) can be quite high. You as a customer however need to be 100% confident that the equipment used is completely clean and that the risk of contamination is excluded. Therefore the equipment requires a full and thorough clean down again and again after each individual product.
After a production-campaign the used system will be fully dismantled all individual parts will be cleaned down and checked carefully.
On the basis of confirmed written specifications the job is taken on and instructions on setting up for the job are passed on to our operators, who then will set up the system specifically for the product concerned. The complete set-up procedures are logged down and the progress is checked by an independent auditor. As soon as the actual processing starts a routine comes into action where there are regular checks on quality standards taking place as well as checking that the agreed specifications are met. Independent checks take place in order to ensure that the required throughputs are being achieved and improved upon, and that all other aspect are met on the agreed specifications.
At the end of every campaign all production sheets are archived in order to ensure that no information gets lost. Samples that have been taken are stored for a period of at least one year and additional samples are supplied to our customer together with the processed material. If required, waste materials will be returned to you for disposal. On the basis of a mass balance, the customer gets an insight in what product was produced, what loss of material occurred and what waste material as well as finished product is available. This way we can guarantee that the loss in raw material is within the limits that were agreed upon.
The cleaning procedure consists of a dry clean down whereby as much as possible dry product is recovered from the process, followed by a wet clean down whereby the system is thoroughly cleaned with the aid of power-washers (cold or hot water or even steam). As a consequence of our ISO 14000 certification we ensure that the amount of used water is limited to the absolute minimum without making any concessions to the cleanliness of the equipment.
The washing water is, then disposed of in a manner previously agreed with the customer.