Situation

A global cosmetics manufacturer needed to increase plant throughput without expanding the number of lines. At the same time, the plant manager was tasked to decrease costs associated with cleaning of manufacturing equipment.

The manual washroom was particularly resource-intensive: for cleaning make-up, water-in-oil face creams, and mascara, the established process involved 9 operators standing and manually scrubbing small parts (fillers and pucks) in the sink, requiring 8 hours to return them to acceptable cleaning standards, all while consuming nearly 1922 gallons of water per cleaning. An in-house powdered laundry detergent, provided at no cost, was used.

Solution

The plant manager at the facility had previous experience in working with Ecolab’s technical team to resolve cleaning issues and requested a site survey. The team focused on maximizing process time reduction.

A new COP tank was introduced and validated with Ecolab’s assistance. Afterthe tank installation, a detergent thatcould allow further reduction of cleaningtime, water and energy was tested.Coupon studies were performed withEcolab’s Maxi Plonge, a non-corrosivepH product, specifically developed toeffectively remove cosmetic soils.

Upon implementation, cleaning studies were conducted onsite regarding the process and to verify the projected savings. It was discovered that the Maxi Plonge detergent dissolved the cosmetics completely. A 3% solution was proposed but was further optimized to a 2% solution in order to reduce the level of foam in the tank and avoid potential overflows. Ecolab team members remained onsite to provide support throughout the various tests and validation efforts.

Results

Using these solutions, the plant was able to optimize their process for cleaning small parts. The previous SOPs created the desired result, but required more time, energy and water. After instituting Ecolab’s recommended process and product, the following client supplied results were achieved. It is estimated that water and wastewater were reduced by 79%. Cleaning time was reduced by 63% as each cleaning cycle only required 180 minutes compared to the previous cycle time of 480 minutes. This directly impacts labors expenses as well, as $130,000 per year will be saved having only 4 operators required per day for cleaning, down from the 9 needed previously.