Best practices and resilience – Adherence to ISO 10,000 Grade 8 for Biopharma customer

The Challenge

The challenge faced by PCS Ireland in our contract is ensuring that we deliver specialised cleaning services for this pharmaceutical giant that adhere to ISO 10,000 Grade 8. This encompassed cleanroom cleaning, industrial cleaning of production floors, daily office cleaning and the stringent requirements of medical-grade cleaning. Additionally, our team had to remain flexible and adaptable enough to respond to the continuous growth in service provision, including new state-of-the-art facilities.

The Solution

Ensuring medical grade cleaning meant our team needed strict adherence to ISO 10,000 Grade 8 standards. This includes a full ‘Gown Up Operation’, with compliance paramount to the safety of our staff and the client. Our specialist cleaning services can be broken down into zones such as the Production Floor, Warehouse and storage, Laboratories, Office spaces and General spaces.

The industrial cleaning element is a unique specialist service, with the team cleaning the area between 4-5 times, using special cleaning agents at each stage of the service. A strict time limit is in place to ensure that there is no downtime in the customer’s operations.

Specialist lab cleaning has been developed with a dedicated lab cleaner installed specialising in the sterilisation of lab equipment, glasses and floor space.

Collaborative efforts with the customer have been essential in regard to the rollout of specialised training and the procurement of specialised cleaning equipment for a pharmaceutical environment. Our partnership approach and two-way communication have ensured project timelines, cleaning schedules, and training regimes are met.

Remaining flexible was crucial during the COVID-19 emergency response, ensuring no operational downtime and saw the implementation of emergency cleaning protocols and the use of a dedicated external PCS Cleaning team for 24/7 response.

The Outcome

A collaborative approach focusing on communication, support, and guidance. Our customer’s in-house training coupled with our cleaning and operational expertise ensured we were able to achieve the highest standards in medical-grade cleaning.

Our ability to adapt to emergency situations such as our COVID-19 response enabled us to onboard our customers’ new facilities with minimal impact on operations. The introduction of new systems like our mobile auditing software ensured full transparency of our service for the customer and the adoption of online training through our online learning platform allowed for quicker and more accessible training processes.

In summary, our partnership-focused, flexible, and innovative approach to cleaning services not only met but exceeded the high standards required in the pharmaceutical industry. Our commitment to continuous improvement and adaptability has resulted in a successful, ongoing collaboration.