November 13, 2023
Industrial cleaning is far different from general cleaning of your home or a small business shop. It precisely means cleaning the manufacturing facilities or industrial units that produce food textiles, chemicals, heavy-duty essentials like steel, cement, automobiles, and many more.
Industrial cleaning regularly is a prerequisite, regardless of the sector your business belongs to! It is essential to keep your plant or manufacturing unit safe for the employees and impressive to the clients. However, there’s no doubt that any industrial plant or manufacturing unit is huge and spacious, with multiple sections and lines of machinery that make cleaning a tough and comprehensive task!
If you are the owner of an industrial plant and have no idea how to start and conclude its cleaning, we are here to guide you through this blog. It explains the essential industrial cleaning tips and tricks you need to follow to ensure effective cleaning and the safety of your employees. Cleaning industrial facilities is challenging too, because of the expensive machinery and different site provisions they have. Moreover, facility owners have to undergo industrial cleaning, while complying with essential industrial cleaning regulations and safety standards.
This might have got you thinking cleaning your industrial factory unit is an overwhelming task! However, give away all your apprehensions and make cleaning your manufacturing unit easy with our industrial cleaning techniques and tips. Take a read.
Before learning the essential cleaning tips or how exactly to clean your industrial unit, you must know what is ‘industrial cleaning’.
Industrial cleaning specifically refers to the cleaning of different industrial facilities, including factories, warehouses, distribution centers, power plants, hospitals, and pharmaceutical plants. The cleaning procedure involves cleaning different sections, machinery, equipment, and potentially hazardous manufacturing unit areas.
Needless to say, industrial cleaning is a specialized cleaning service that is indispensable for factories or manufacturing units to ensure a safe and hygienic work environment for workers. Cleaning regularly is necessary to maintain compliance with the contamination regulations of the state and federal governments and promote the health and safety of workers. Moreover, following the best practices for industrial cleaning improves operational efficiency and productivity, which ultimately reflects in the quality of products.
Given the complex setting of an industrial unit, cleaning a manufacturing unit is not the task of your daily janitors so, you need to hire a professional cleaning agency. It has trained cleaners who specialize in cleaning the manufacturing facilities using appropriate cleaning supplies and techniques. Hiring experts is recommended because they know what it takes to ensure compliance with cleaning regulations and undertake the best cleaning strategies for industrial spaces.
Industrial cleaning practices involve trained personnel and specific cleaning techniques. But, firstly it needs the right cleaning materials and equipment.
Before you follow our industrial cleaning tips, ensure that you have gathered these essential materials for cleaning.
Industrial facilities are busy for most of the day with workers working in multiple shifts. Some industries are not even closed until it’s a holiday. In addition, there are different sections in an industrial unit, such as a warehouse, tanks, pipes or outlets, canteen, restrooms, parking, staircases, roofs, sidewalks, etc. All these make cleaning of industrial facilities quite challenging!
Further reading: Complete warehouse cleaning checklist.
As most industrial facilities are almost operative 24x7, the owners must assign the cleaning duties to responsible professionals. They follow the best practices and cleaning hacks for industrial environments ensuring no harm to the workers while tidying up every section. If you are an owner of an industrial unit, you should be aware of these effective industrial cleaning tips and ensure the hire cleaning partner follows this.
Cleaning an industrial facility is a large-scale task, considering the vast number of sections that need to be cleaned, including huge-sized plant machinery, special apparatus, tanks, pipes, storage units, stairs, etc. By this means, schedule your cleaning in advance and gather all the essentials we discussed earlier.
Preparation will help you save a lot of your time and also make it convenient for cleaning professionals. From basic cleaning supplies like mops, sweepers, buckets, and clothes, the cleaners require special equipment like scrubbers, pressure washers, and chemical cleaning agents.
While many professional cleaners will bring specific equipment with them, you have to arrange all other basic supplies. When all necessary cleaning essentials are ready at your industrial unit, it reduces the waiting time for the workers during cleaning. The professional cleaners can get everything cleaned in a breeze causing minimal disruptions in the operations!
Having your cleaning essentials stocked up is also a necessity to immediately respond to accidental spills, pipe leakage, tank overflow, and any such mishaps.
An irrefutable problem arising in every type of factory or manufacturing unit is mold growth in walls and ceilings. It usually takes place due to dark and damp conditions inside a factory. Industrial cleaning thereby includes identifying areas with molds and cleaning them.
However, when it comes to mold cleaning, never forget that remedial is the key. It is hard to stop mold growth after one-time cleaning because the mold spores grow under certain atmospheric conditions.
An industrial setting is always ripe for mold growth. Moisture or damp corners are common, which is the root of the mold problem! So, it is necessary to find remediation for molds instead of removing them every time.
Mold remediation is a step-by-step process and only professional cleaners can do that well! For mold remediation, they usually follow the given steps.
To clean your factory unit by applying the best industrial tips, make sure you have the best team of cleaners. Apart from specialized equipment, cleaning different sections or areas of a factory also needs expertise and robust cleaning techniques.
Professional cleaners have the required expertise to follow the best procedures and cleaning techniques that meet safety and hygiene standards.
Hiring the right team of cleaning professionals to clean your manufacturing unit meticulously and effectively ensures a safer work environment is again challenging! Here are a few tips to find the best professional cleaning company in NYC for industrial cleaning.
This goes without saying that industrial cleaning comprises a huge number of overwhelming tasks. It is hard for you as well as your professional cleaners keep in mind every single task and not skip out any task. Besides, there are maybe some areas, sections, or equipment of your factory the cleaners may not know about and miss cleaning them.
A great way to ensure thorough cleaning of your factory is to prepare a complete industrial cleaning checklist. Make sure to create an exhaustive checklist that will feature all tasks, simple to major ones, from wiping surfaces to cleaning water tanks. Include every nook and corner of your factory and also the different equipment and cleaning agents.
The checklist will also work as a guide for your assigned cleaners! It will give directions to them and make them aware of the particular cleaning tasks you prioritize for your industrial unit.
If making your industrial facility a safe and hygienic place is your top priority, do not just go for standard cleaning practices, which are for regular cleaning of shops and commercial places. With the help of your professional cleaning experts, curate a checklist for intensive cleaning.
Intensive or deep cleaning implies using special tools or equipment and cleaning the facility while considering industrial hygiene tips too. Industrial might take more time than standard cleaning, but that does not mean you can skip intensive cleaning or do it less often.
Intensive cleaning makes your industrial setting clean and also ensures everything is arranged and in place. It makes the common areas, including entrances, parking, and reception/office areas spotless and inviting.
We truly recommend intensive cleaning for your industry setting as it makes sure that the staff brings proper tools and uses deliberate cleaning strategies for industrial spaces.
Although you are hiring experts for intensive cleaning of your factory or industry space, make sure your regular janitors and workers are aware of the basic industrial cleaning tips.
Further reading: explore the best janitorial cleaning tips to enhance the effectiveness of the janitors.
Make sure every staff knows when and how to clean. Tell them, how to clean up small spills or organize their machinery and stuff after use. Hold meetings to discuss industrial hygiene tips and cleaning tasks for new and experienced staff. Even the factory managers should be present at those sessions to set a good example.
Industrial machinery and equipment are not simple stuff to clean. They have intricate build-up and several parts, inlets, outlets, nozzles, covering, etc. Thus, teach the workers handling them how to clean those particular machines.
Regular industrial cleaning also helps to maintain the machinery in top-notch condition and ensures smooth running. It prevents accidents that can hurt workers in your business.
This will result in absentees and medical bills. Workers suffering from serious health damage can also sue you. Therefore, it’s extremely important to teach everyone how to use and clean the machines safely.
If you are looking for industrial cleaning tips, the foremost essential aspect is to learn the difference between commercial and industrial cleaning. Commercial cleaning involves cleaning offices, business shops, retail outlets, multi-office buildings, clinics, gyms, schools, colleges, and so on.
Contrary to this, industrial cleaning refers to the cleaning of more complex facilities, including industrial plants, factories, and different types of manufacturing facilities. It also includes warehouses, distribution facilities, power generation plants, pharmaceutical manufacturing units, and large-scale hospitals.
This means industrial cleaning techniques and procedures are different from those of commercial cleaning. While there are many common cleaning tasks like sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, pressure washing, and disinfecting high-touch surfaces, a majority of tasks are specialized for industrial cleaning. It requires tasks of cleaning large machinery, manufacturing equipment, tanks, outlets or pipes, and even some hazardous substances.
Apart from the cleaning tasks, industrial cleaning varies in the aspect of timing and frequency of cleaning. Industry operation often takes place round-o-clock. This means you have to adjust the cleaning schedule accordingly, by negotiating with your hired professional cleaners. Likewise, if you own an industrial setting, make sure you’re cleaning more often or regularly to get rid of stubborn sticky dirt, greasy substances, hazardous substances, etc., to ensure the safety of the workers.
Industrial facility cleaning suggestions also include the use of special and strong cleaning agents. It’s because manufacturing processes, especially those of heavy-duty items like cement, steel, paints, automobiles, etc., make use of chemicals. It also results in the production of toxic wastes. Naturally, the environment of any industrial setting is consistently exposed to hazardous wastes, residues, and dust particles emitted from the process.
For this reason, cleaning floors and surfaces with a variety of soaps, disinfectants, and effective cleaning solutions for manufacturing facilities is necessary. Also, tanks and storage units of the facilities producing oil or chemicals can experience spills or leakages. The floors and surfaces of those manufacturing facilities also get grease, oil, layers of grime, coal tar, and chemicals while getting transferred. Therefore to clean such surfaces, you will need heavy-duty detergents, solvents, descalers, and even polishing agents.
Apart from specialized agents, do not forget to get essential safety gear like masks, gloves, and caps if your internal staff cleans them.
However, if you are hiring a professional cleaning company in NYC, you neither have to worry about getting the special cleaning agents nor the protective equipment. Also, being experts in the industry, they assure to make use of the best cleaning agents that are eco-friendly and don’t contaminate any area or space of the industrial facility.
By now, you know that industrial cleaning tips aren’t only about wiping off dust, spills, and visible stains from the surfaces or deep cleaning of machinery. Industry processes eliminate a lot of toxic substances or contaminants and hence, disinfecting the surfaces is compulsory. Also, manufacturing units dealing with food processing are breeding grounds for insects, mites, bugs, etc.
Proper disinfestation of the industrial setting is a necessity, and you need high-grade industrial disinfectants to ensure that your place is free of contaminants and pest infestations. This is the reason we recommend hiring a professional team!
A specialized cleaning agency will first clean the surfaces and every corner of your industrial setting with a soapy solution and detergent. Following that, they apply disinfectants, either sprayed or fogged ones, whichever is appropriate for completely germ-free surfaces.
An industrial facility must have an office setup that has different electronic devices and equipment for handling all back-office operations. Also, specific electronic devices are operated by technical staff to facilitate the automation processes.
Those electronic devices get dirt, dust, or food particles as they are constantly used by the employees. If kept unclean, those become hiding places for insects and germs. You must also remember that any electronics are moisture-resistant and need extra care to prevent water or liquid spills from seeping through them.
To protect the electronic equipment in their best state and increase their lifespan, clean them often using wipes and disinfectants. The safest way to clean the surfaces of all electronic devices is by disinfecting them with a dry fogger or dispenser. These devices produce a disinfecting fog that coats the surfaces of the electronics and cleanses them while making them free of germs.
Well, this is one of the essential tips for industrial cleaning that no cleaning staff should overlook while preparing their checklist. Needless to say, cleaning and sanitizing commonly touched surfaces has become a mandatory routine since the times of COVID pandemic.
Commonly touched surfaces include machinery switches, handles, doorknobs, lift switches, staircase railings, light switches, desks, chairs, and many more.
During every cleaning schedule, ensure that your cleaning staff is paying attention to cleaning the touch surfaces. It is necessary for preventing the spread of infections and health risks among your workers.
Some areas of your industrial setting have carpets and mats, like entrances, sidewalks, reception, and office areas. Carpets and mats accumulate a lot of dirt and dust due to consistent walking over by industrial workers, office employees, and visitors.
Keeping the carpets unclean will result in the growth of allergens. They might also give out bad odor as a result of mud, grime, and food particles trapped in them.
As a result, professional industrial cleaning advice or checklist always includes vacuuming the carpets and mats at short intervals. It keeps away dust and allergens from the surfaces of carpets and makes the air of the working space fresh and hygienic. Also, cleaning rugs using a vacuum machine and effective carpet cleaning tips ensures that your employees can work in a germ-free environment and stay away from respiratory problems.
One of the most important industrial cleaning tips is including the ‘5S’ in the cleaning checklist- Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain.
Sort means de-cluttering the industry workspace by identifying which items are essential and discarding any items into trash/recycle bins that are no longer in use. The second S, set in order denotes the smart organization of all items, including raw materials, intermediaries, and finished products to ensure they can be found easily when needed.
The third S, shine implies thorough and deep cleaning of the surfaces, machinery, doors, furnishings, etc., to ensure that the industry setting is sparkling clean and spotless. According to the fourth S, you need to ‘standardize’ your industrial cleaning techniques or methods. This stage involves documenting the cleaning procedures or creating a checklist. While your cleaning staff need to follow them while cleaning, you also should ensure that every one of the management and staff agrees to those standard cleaning methods.
Lastly, make sure to sustain your cleaning standards and repeat them during every cleaning schedule. If necessary, train your staff or instruct the cleaning professionals about the importance of 5S to ensure you have a tidy industrial facility.
Storing chemicals properly is an extremely serious matter of safety for manufacturing facilities or plants that produce heavy-duty materials, paints, plastic, etc. Aside from being a matter of safety, it is also an essential condition by the US laws and regulations of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA).
Under these, it is essential to take care of all the hazardous liquids and chemicals, including riskier combustible liquids while storing or transferring the chemicals or hazardous substances. You must keep them in a special chemical storage cabinet or safety tanks.
Another important aspect to take care of while handling all the chemicals and hazardous elements is labeling. You need to label all your storage containers to avoid mishandling them while moving or mistaking them with any other liquid substance.
Labeling is essential also because mixing a chemical element with a cleaning agent may cause explosive or unintended consequences in the industry facility, risking the lives of the workers.
Last but not least, include cleaning of the air ducts or HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) system of the manufacturing facility. It is indeed challenging given the enormous amount of fumes and air particulate matter that every manufacturing unit releases.
However, not taking care of the air duct system by regularly cleaning and vacuuming will clog the ducts of the ventilation system and release impure air. While this can be damaging to the workers in the facility, professionals advise factory owners to include HVAC cleaning among the best practices for industrial cleaning!
While the entire HVAC system is a complex structure and is not within the normal reach of the staff, the only solution is to hire an expert cleaning agency with a team to take care of the duct cleaning efficiently.
In today’s ever-changing landscape of industrial operations, industry facility cleaning has become a major concern for various businesses. It's essential to manage and maintain a clean environment. Effective measures need to be taken to ensure the standards of hygiene, safety, and cleanliness within the facility.
It has become necessary for businesses to create an industrial cleaning checklist for the proper implementation of cleaning measures. The checklist includes everything, starting from waste management and equipment cleaning to ventilation cleaning and employee training. It has proven its worth in managing a healthy and efficient work environment for industrial employees.
When creating a cleaning checklist, one has to keep in mind the sector of the industry and its unique features. Here, we have curated a general daily, weekly, and monthly checklist for industrial cleaning. Let’s explore.
Commercial cleaning refers to the deep cleaning of commercial areas, while industrial cleaning refers to the cleaning of areas with large-scale equipment and machinery. The major difference between the cleaning areas is the setting.
Industrial cleaning services take place in industrial plants and manufacturing facility premises. This requires a specialized type of cleaning as it involves working around heavy machinery and equipment.
It is especially suitable for settings like factories, warehouses, distribution centers, power plants, etc. Professional industrial cleaning advice is to deep clean the entire area and focus on its disinfection and sanitization, assuring quality cleanliness.
This kind of cleaning also requires scheduling. Industrial plants generally run their operations around the clock. Shutting down its operations midway might be a costly affair. Hence, the industrial cleaning services are planned to accommodate the factory schedule ensuring no interference with the production process.
Commercial cleaning, on the other hand, takes place in areas like grocery stores, retail stores, offices, spas, banks, etc. It is not as large scale as its industrial counterparts. Deep cleaning, disinfection, and pressure washing are also a part of commercial cleaning services.
Further reading: explore the benefits of commercial cleaning services.
However, the treatment of the two settings is entirely different; hence it requires different and specialized focus. The commercial areas remain closed for a certain time, ensuring the cleaning services can be accommodated without affecting the working hours.
With a professional cleaning partner by your side, you can easily experience the specialized services for industrial cleaning. Meeting the industry standards and ensuring a safe and clean workspace, specialized cleaning is efficient for you.
Industrial cleaning is an essential component for different sectors. It adheres to ensure meeting the cleaning standards, work safety, and efficient operations within the industrial area. However, cleaning the industrial setting comes with lots of challenges and hurdles.
Only an efficient and professional industrial cleaning service can tailor the solutions, according to the particular need. The industries demand a high level of adaptability, expertise, and innovative strategies from professional cleaners to meet the challenges.
Let us give you a brief idea about the major industrial cleaning challenges that we, as professional cleaners, have faced earlier.
Industrial facilities require continuous production ensuring to contribute to the economy. The major challenge that the professional cleaners experience here is to complete their work without interrupting the smooth flow of production.
Industrial cleaning ensures quality industry regulations and environmental standards within the premises. The cleaners address the dirt, grime, and contaminants to enhance environmental safety. Slippery surfaces and critical equipment structures are frequent scenes in the industrial premise.
Industrial equipment tends to leave behind stubborn residues. It builds over time and proves to be very hard to remove without specialized solutions. Hence, the professional cleaning company finds it difficult to ensure a spotless finish.
Industrial facilities have dust and debris over time, especially in hard-to-reach areas. The cleaners need to effectively clean the most inaccessible areas. High-level places in industrial facilities often get overlooked and create issues for the cleaners.
The challenge here for the cleaner is to comply with the environmental regulations. The best cleaners follow excellent measures and practices keeping the environmental regulations and best practices.
Factories, warehouses, and manufacturing plants are massive in size. It requires the cleaners to use their infrastructure and put in practice effective solutions to clean the surfaces with efficiency within a competitive timeframe.
One of the major challenges faced by cleaners is dealing with toxic and hazardous materials. These substances pose significant risks to their health and safety. Hence, effective safety measures are to be taken during the industrial cleaning process.
Industrial cleaning comprises uniquely different and challenging tasks, which are hard for the general cleaning staff or daily janitors to do. Any industrial facility operates 24x7 and is a hub of activities, which include everything from manufacturing and storage to testing and distribution.
Industrial cleaning involves thorough cleaning of large-scale spaces and heavy machinery or equipment, tankers, storage plants, etc. Cleaning all these is an intensive job as the cleaners need to deal with dirt, grease, and tough residues everywhere. Specialized cleaning equipment and strong agents are required to deep clean and disinfect them, ensuring a safe and hygienic work environment. Besides, following our expert industrial cleaning tips is always recommended to make your industry setting top-notch clean and spotless.
If you own a factory or manufacturing unit and are never satisfied with general cleaning, get in touch with Sterling Cleaning Services in NYC for professional and comprehensive cleaning! We are a team of expert cleaners specializing in all types of commercial cleaning, including industry cleaning. Our trained cleaners are aware of the hygiene and safety tips for maintaining cleanliness in industrial settings and follow them dedicatedly every time they clean a facility. So, when it comes to cleaning your industrial facility, trust our team without hesitation!
An industrial cleaner is an expert who is an expert at cleaning large spaces, specialized machinery, and other hazardous sections. They handle all the dirty work in factories, warehouses, power plants, manufacturing units, and other industrial settings, using high-grade equipment and cleaning essentials. They make everything in the factory clean quickly and efficiently, to ensure that the work environment is safe and hygienic for the employees.
Needless to say, industrial cleaning is not the same thing as cleaning your business shop or restaurant with a bucket and mop. It involves the cleaning of heavy machinery, grease, hazardous residues, and various industrial wastes. While it is a tremendously tough job, a professional industrial cleaner has the right expertise to clean a manufacturing unit using the right equipment.
Since industrial cleaning involves handling some of the tackiest wastes including grease, pungent solutions, etc., it needs special cleaning solutions, such as degreasers, industrial-strength detergents, disinfectants, and solvents. These help in removing the stubborn dirt and mess out of floors and equipment of the manufacturing plants.
These are specialized cleaning agents for industry cleaning because they have the property to break down stubborn grease, grime, and miscellaneous industrial residues.
Also, glass panes, window sills, tables, and other metal surfaces need different cleaners whereas floors need floor strippers. While safety is the top priority for industry workers, it goes the same for industrial cleaners too, who have to tackle the dirt. Therefore, protective gear, such as masks, gloves, etc., is the additional cleaning essentials required for industrial cleaning.
For industrial cleaning, cleaners use several chemicals are utilized, each effective for specific tasks, equipment, or surfaces. Some of the common ones are degreasers, acids and alkalis, disinfectants, solvents, descalers, and polishing agents.
Cleaning of any manufacturing facility, warehouse, storage, or distribution center is an example of industrial cleaning. The facility can belong to any sector, like food, retail, heavy-duty materials (steel, cement, asbestos, etc.), chemical, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical.
Please reach us at any time to set up an appointment to review your commercial cleaning requirements. Sterling will provide an on-site review of your janitorial needs, then create a custom proposal that fits both your specifications and budget
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