Nothing shadowy about these benefits

May 2020

5 Benefits Shadow Boards will bring to your operation…

If, like most food and beverage companies in NZ, you are somewhere along the journey of implementing a lean manufacturing or continuous improvement culture, then you should seriously consider the benefits that a good Shadow Board System will bring you.

You probably first saw a Shadow Board of some description in your Grandpa’s tool shed, so the concept has been around for a long time, but although materials and designs have improved massively since then, the basic idea has remained the same: – That is that it is used to store and organise items in a very visual way, so that it is quick and easy to find them when you need them.

  1. Organisational Excellence – Widely used to help achieve 5S and HACCP goals in industry and food production.
  2. Reduce Non-Compliance – Over 60% of non-compliance issues are attributed to housekeeping standards and the care of manufacturing and hygiene utensils.
  3. Reduce Costs – Reduce the costs of replacing missing and damaged tools and the potential of a foreign-matter incident.
  4. Reduce Downtime – Eliminate time spent looking for items that aren’t where they should be.
  5. Promote your Company Message – Display your quality standards and brand message in a highly visible way – to staff, auditors, customers and more. For the majority of the worlds population, the fastest form of communication is visual.

Here at Hygiene Technologies, we’ve been working on developing our Fibreclean Shadow Board range for many months, and will be launching them over the next 1-2 months, which is exciting, as there has been very positive feedback from the initial concepts we have shown customers, and a strong demand from all sectors of the industry – not just from the production and quality departments, but also the engineering and warehousing areas.

When we set out to design our range, we first asked those in the industry what were the downfalls of the Shadow Boards already available on the market, and what improvements or features would they really like to see.

Out of this research, our range is evolving to now include 4 different styles of mounting the board to the wall (or trolley) and 3 different systems for holding your tools or items to the board, and 1 promise that covers all the different options.

That 1 Promise is:  The Fibreclean colour-coded hygiene Shadow Boards will deliver UNBEATABLE PERFORMANCE in these three areas……

Very Durable – The graphics are direct printed onto extremely durable composite board (that has zero moisture absorption) then coated in an anti-scuff laminate. This has been tested to withstand the cleaning chemicals and wash-down pressures commonly used in the food industry.  In the easiest to clean style, all hooks and metal components are made of heavy duty stainless steel.

Completely Customisable – The size and orientation of the board, the colours of the background and the shadows, your logo and message, the utensils and tools you hang on there, and even where on the board you want to hang everything. All this is completely and easily customisable.  No “one-size-fits-all” here, what you want is what you get!

Easy to Clean – With the easiest-to-clean style, which is recommended for high hygiene areas, there are no hidden or hard-to-access areas where moisture, bacteria or food residue can accumulate, and the utensil hooks can be easily removed for cleaning. A lot of thought has gone in to ensuring the back of the board can also be easily and completely accessed for cleaning, as this has been an area of concern with other makes of Shadow Boards on the market.

To get your ideas running, here is a list of just some of the types of items that can be stored on a Fibreclean Shadow Board –

  1. Cleaning Tools
  2. Production Utensils
  3. Intrusion and Maintenance Tools
  4. Workshop Tools
  5. Quality-Checking Equipment
  6. Machine Change-Over Parts
  7. Personal Protective Equipment
  8. Dispensers and small items that would normally mount directly to the wall, but are then hard to clean behind