SITE AUDITS

Preparation of an In-Site installation requires an extensive data collection audit to ensure that we have all the relevant information and signals for In-Site to generate all the reports required for the Process Plant or CIP sets that will be monitored.

In addition to the data collection audit, we are also need to conduct audits, on site, regarding the actual items being cleaned, e.g. tanks, pipe lines, process plant and also information regarding the actual circuits.

It is not unusual for some sites not to have an accountability or audit trail of changes made to the operating system software. Often the site's process operators are able to access systems to make changes, usually to set-points (temperature/conductivity).

It is important that only authorised personnel are permitted access to software and any changes made must be recorded. The In-Site system automatically records date/time of changes made to configuration files (verification setup, etc.) and identifies the security key used to make the amendments.

Changes made to the Process Plant/CIP operating software that result in these changes not dove-tailing with the Verification Setup will possible cause a subsequent In-Site verification report to be classified as FAIL.

It is recommended that a site's operating procedures be reviewed from time to time to ensure that any changes are visible in terms of potential impact on other parameters. Sites may add items of plant, to an existing CIP system, (say a filler or tank - probably involving additional pipe runs), or change the designated CIP circuit used to clean an item of plant and simply adopt existing operating programs to conduct cleaning. What may be considered a minor change could impact on other plant also cleaned on the same circuit.

The analysis of In-Site data often identifies 'anomalies. By conducting a 'real world' audit of the CIP systems and items of plant cleaned by them usually clarifies these initial anomalies.

A CIP circuit used to clean several tanks, but not of equal capacity will show that the time taken to attemperate a 40,000 litre tank up to the required temperature (from cold pre-rinse to hot detergent wash) is completely different to the attemperation time required for a 100,000 litre tank.

We need to know if pipe runs maintain a consistent diameter or if pipes sizes increase/decrease somewhere along the circuit length.

Pipe lines that cannot be 'snaked' (cleaned in one pass) but need to broken down into sub-circuits could interfere with the effectiveness of rinse water/detergent interfaces. Such incidents as these usually cause significant wastage of resources (water, chemical, energy, etc.)

Whilst In-Site provides full information on how the systems operate, it cannot know what is happening in the 'real world'. It is important that CIP systems are periodically audited to ensure optimum performance and minimum waste, e.g. leaking valves.

These audits can be time prompted by the Service Log report generated by In-Site and can dove-tail with an electronic audit, say 6 monthly, to check that CIP systems are still operating to optimum standards.

The electronic audits also provide evidence that unauthorised modifications to software programs have not occurred.