How to maintain the proper level of hygiene and safety in the plant?

How to maintain proper hygiene and safety standards in a production plant

In manufacturing, hygiene and safety are not a one-time action—they are a repeatable standard: clear rules, easy access to supplies, control of high-risk areas and consistent execution. Below you’ll find practical guidelines on how to reduce health-related risks in the workplace without chaos or “firefighting”.

Key takeaways

✅ Risk increases most in shared zones: lockers, restrooms, canteens, shared workstations

✅ Simple actions deliver the biggest impact: hand hygiene, high-touch surface cleaning, smart workflow organization

✅ A standard must be easy to follow: dispensers, wipes, clear instructions, refill routines

 

Where does the highest risk usually come from?

In practice, it is often not the production process itself but the shared areas and high-touch points—places where many people touch the same objects or work close to each other. Typical examples include:

• traffic routes, entrances, handles, rails, buttons,
• restrooms and social areas,
• canteens and eating zones,
• shared stations (tools, devices, control panels).

 

Hand hygiene – a simple routine with a big effect

To maintain strong hygiene standards at work, frequent and correct hand washing and disinfection are key. It works best when the rule is simple and repeatable. Employees should wash hands for example:

1. at the start and end of a shift and breaks,
2. after using the restroom,
3. after leaving their work zone/station,
4. after handling waste,
5. before and after eating or drinking,
6. after removing protective gloves,
7. after sneezing, coughing or wiping the nose.

From an organizational perspective, accessibility matters most: hygiene products should be easy to find, refilled on time and placed in logical locations (zone entrances, restrooms, canteens and distribution points).

 

Restrooms and canteens – standards that “keep themselves”

In shared zones, solutions that reduce unnecessary contact and simplify hygiene typically work best:

• dispensers placed at entrances/exits and in common areas,
• wipes and single-use solutions where they make operational sense,
• hand-washing instructions placed visibly,
• a cleaning schedule with focus on high-touch points.

➡️ Hygiene – product categories
➡️ Hygiene dispensers – plant solutions

 

Surface cleaning – what should be cleaned most often?

Instead of trying to disinfect everything, focus on what actually gets touched frequently. Regular cleaning should include for example:

• handles, rails, buttons, control panels,
• taps, dispensers and restroom touchpoints,
• tables, shared tools and office equipment,
• handover points for materials/documents.

The best results usually come from combining: high-touch mapping + frequency aligned with shift work + clear ownership (who / when / how).

 

Work organization – limiting mixing and unnecessary movement

Safety also depends on organization: reducing unnecessary movement, clear zoning and minimizing “mixing” between shifts. In practice, this can be supported by:

• clear zone definitions and limited cross-zone movement,
• staggered breaks and rotation,
• buffer time between shifts to reduce crowding in lockers,
• simple rules on what to do when infection symptoms appear.

 

FAQ – hygiene and safety in production

Where should we start if we want quick improvements?

Start with shared areas and high-touch points: restrooms, canteens, lockers, handles, rails, control panels and shared tools.

What has more impact: hand hygiene or surface cleaning?

Both together. Hand hygiene reduces transfer, while surface cleaning reduces the risk of picking up contamination from the environment.

How do we make the standard last long-term?

Make it easy: dispensers in obvious locations, reliable refills, clear instructions and a simple schedule. If it’s easy for people, it becomes repeatable.