New plant supervisor is “The Big Cheese” after accelerating tank turnaround times by enhancing CIP
A cheese manufacturing company in Wisconsin had been using static spray balls to clean their mozzarella and provolone cooling baths and was frustrated with the slow, inefficient process. Each tank has to meet strict sanitation guidelines of the dairy industry and therefore needs to be cleaned 3-4 times a week. In an effort to increase turnaround times, the company hired a new production supervisor to help streamline their process. The new supervisor had experience with Alfa Laval’s 3-A SB SaniMidget rotary spray head from previous jobs and knew this was the product to optimize their CIP and in turn, increase production times.
He received approval to install SaniMidgets in two cooling baths. Using SaniMidgets allowed the company to clean with only three devices per bath instead of five. There was noticeable difference in tank cleaning times immediately. The company was able to shave off 15 minutes of cleaning time for each tank “and the amount of water and chemical usage we saved was a huge added benefit,” the production supervisor explained.
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Static sprayball
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Alfa Laval 3A SaniMidget
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# of devices
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5
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3
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Water usage per CIP cycle
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3,432 gallons
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277 gallons
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Total cost of cleaning per CIP cycle
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$732
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$59
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Total cost of cleaning per year
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$260,193
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$21,144
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Time spent cleaning per CIP cycle
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42 minutes
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28 minutes
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Time spent cleaning per year
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251 hours
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167 hours
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# of batches produced per year
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1,007
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10,353
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Results
- 95% reduction in water usage
- 92% reduction in total cost per clean
- 33.3% reduction in time spent cleaning
Because the rotary spray heads were so successful in achieving a faster, more efficient cleaning process, the company is now in the process of installing SaniMidgets three of their cookers as well. The company plans to install a total of 40 SaniMidgets in their plant.
