Glanbia improves safety of cleaning procedures at NI cheese plant

Magheralin, UK – Glanbia Cheese has changed the isolation and lockout tagout procedures at its mozzarella manufacturing operation in Magheralin, Northern Ireland. The move to ensure that dangerous equipment could be properly shut down during cleaning processes followed the identification of potential safety issues at the site.

At the cheese manufacturing operation, which has several hundred employees, the entire plant has to be cleaned thoroughly daily; a job that can take over three hours to complete. This includes pumping caustic water backwards and forwards through the entire plant then flushing with boiling and cold water to remove all traces of the caustic water and remaining debris.

The process causes water to bubble out, with overflowing water landing on the floor and steam filling the room. This creates a series of hazards to those working in the environment during the cleaning process that must be managed.

Although the process is mostly automated, each auger – the corkscrew-like device that pushes the cheese through the machinery – must be manually broken down before cleaning. If not effectively managed and without the correct procedures, this presents a life-threatening hazard for the four to five people working on each machine during the cleaning process.

Glanbia directors and management teams, threfore, decided to take a closer look at the site’s isolation procedures to ensure the employees and contractors were safe. The company also wanted to improve control of the procedures, and ensure that the workforce was adequately trained.

“It was evident we needed to improve our procedures to not only keep our staff safe at work, but to help streamline processes, reduce the risk of mistakes and improve control of the manufacturing site,” said Gavin Rowan, health and safety manager at Glanbia Cheese.

The company engaged Scafftag to survey all production equipment and pipelines: identifying and recording all energy sources therein, photographing each one and subsequently creating visual ‘lockout tagout’ procedures for each to ultimately help create safe isolation and re-energisation procedures for the site.

Scafftag recommended physical isolation devices to allow for the safe shut down of each piece of equipment during the cleaning process. This included proceedures placards recommending the order of use, how to use it and how to safely shut down the machinery – explaining to the workers what they can and cannot do to maintain a safe working environment.

The resulting ‘lockout tagout’ and isolation system has enabled workers at Glanbia Cheese to safely isolate equipment, said Scafftag. And, the supplier added, the use of its specialist tags and safety equipment, ensure that there is no risk of re-activation whilst an employee is working on the equipment.

Scafftag also incorporated Lockout Pro software into the lockout and isolation solution package. This, it said, has given Glanbia Cheese the tools to create and implement an OSHA-compliant energy control lockout programme.

Currently, Scafftag is following up the installation of the new ‘lockout tagout’ procedures at the plant with training and further improvements to continue increasing the safety of the staff working at this large processing site.

The NI company has also engaged Scafftag to look at its requirements for pipe identification as part of this ongoing improvement to prevent accidents and provide a better working environment.