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After a disaster, your food processing plant must get up and running again as soon as possible. Making moves to clean up or sweep debris may be a tempting first response, but it could be deadly. Instead, you must assess for structural damage first. Continue Reading “Assessing Structural Damage: Your No. 1 Priority After Disaster Strikes”
Construction projects do not always run as planned, sometimes resulting in emergencies that require immediate reactions. From tornados and hurricanes to roof collapses, I know that emergency response is no easy task. With much to get done, crisis communications used to be the furthest thing from my mind when it came to these types of situations. However, managing the press is key to not only avoiding a public relations disaster, but to protecting your employees and business. Continue Reading “3 Keys to Handling Crisis Communications for Your Food Manufacturing Plant”
If your food processing or beverage plant houses an ammonia refrigeration system, an explosion is your worst nightmare. Because your facility is at risk for this type of emergency, it’s imperative to understand both the proactive and reactive measures you must take in the event of an explosion. Continue Reading “8 Ways to Prevent, Respond to Food Manufacturing Plant Explosions”
What if I told you that your facility could shorten its process safety management (PSM) audit from four days to four hours? This was a reality for a plant I audited recently—all thanks to its digital PSM program. Digital PSM programs are becoming more widely viewed as a best practice for facility owners, requiring less time and resources for auditing and documentation. In an era where we’re all short on time and resources, I’ve outlined below how a digital PSM program can save you both. Continue Reading “How a Digital PSM Program Can Save You Time”
Does your management team actually understand what’s involved in process safety management (PSM)? For many organizations, the answer is “no.” Management often doesn’t realize how much goes into completing each of the 14 PSM elements, telling their teams to simply “get it done.” However, there are ways to increase management’s PSM involvement. Continue Reading “How to Get Management More Involved in Your PSM Program”
A process hazard analysis (PHA) is just one of the 14 essential process safety management (PSM) elements, but it’s also one of the most important. A PHA is extremely detailed, designed to examine and address potential hazards associated with handling highly hazardous chemicals. Do you have all of your bases covered? Continue Reading “7 Items Your Process Hazard Analysis Must Address”
Don’t let your food processing plant’s process safety management (PSM) audit take you by surprise. Preparation is paramount, and self-auditing is key. Here are some tips for performing a self audit in your facility.
Continue Reading “Are You Self-Auditing for PSM Compliance? You Should Be”
Food and beverage processors are increasingly turning towards robotics for the technology’s slew of benefits including reduced costs, upped throughput and increased food and worker safety. Earlier this month, I contributed to the Food Engineering article, “The rise of robotic automation,” discussing the functionality for robots in the food processing industry. While robotics does boast various benefits to food manufacturing, it’s important to follow some best practices during your own implementation. Continue Reading “5 Best Practices for Using Robotics in Your Food Processing Plant”
Before selecting a site for your food processing plant, are you sure you’re accounting for all of the costs involved? In our last post, we outlined some key considerations for building a better greenfield budget. Here, I dive in deeper with the often forgotten soft costs, or fees that fall outside the realm of direct construction costs. These include pre-construction permits, impact fees and utility connection fees. To help you with your site due diligence, be sure to account for these soft costs commonly associated with new facility sites.
Continue Reading “Food Processing Plant Site Due Diligence: Soft Costs to Expect”
‘Tis the season to … piece together your capital budget for the new year. When estimating your numbers for food processing projects on the horizon, don’t just base your predictions on what you did the last time around. You shouldn’t be estimating costs based solely on square footage, either. However, there are ways to build a higher confidence level behind your budget and ensure its accuracy—it all lies within the data. Continue Reading “How to Build a Better Capital Budget for Your Food Processing Plant”
