In-House Laundry Procedure

Objective

• To lay down a procedure for In-House laundry.

Scope

• This SOP is applicable for laundering different types of Protective Garments of employees engaged in the manufacture of drugs according to the nature of their duties of all departments in the formulation plant of Pharmaceuticals industries.

Responsibility

• Housekeeping personnel is responsible to follow the procedure mentioned in an SOP.
• HR Department is responsible for the implementation of the procedure mentioned in this SOP.

Accountability

• Head HR and QA shall be accountable for the compliance of this SOP.

Abbreviations and Definitions

• SOP       Standard Operating Procedure
• QA:       Quality Assurance
• GMP:     Good Manufacturing Practices

Procedure

• Different types of Protective Garments used in different manufacturing areas are –
• Uniforms are worn by the employees working in the Primary areas of different sections such as – QA, laboratory, Raw Material Store, Parentrals, Oral liquid, Tablet, Capsule, External Preparations.
• Uniforms are worn by the employees working in the secondary areas such as Parentrals, Oral liquid, Tablet, Capsule, External Preparations.
• One personnel from the Housekeeping is deputed for cleaning of Protective Garments of Primary Area and Secondary Area of all departments separately at a scheduled time interval twice a week or whenever required.
• Protective garments of employees working in aseptic areas cannot be dealt with other garments so these shall be cleaned separately in the washing room near the manufacturing area.
• Other protective garments shall be cleaned in the laundry room which is situated outside the manufacturing area in the factory premises.
• Protective garments of an aseptic section shall be cleaned each Wednesday and Saturday as per schedule.
• Primary Area garments shall be cleaned each Monday and Thursday as per schedule.
• Secondary Area garments shall be cleaned each Tuesday and Friday as per schedule.
• Collect the uncleaned Primary Area garments or Secondary Area garments to the designated area for washing.
• The washerman makes a count of the uncleaned garments of Primary Area or Secondary.
• The count shall be counter-checked by the designated person from the Housekeeping department.
• Note: Booty shall be cleaned separately as booty is more soiled and can cause difficulty in cleaning primary garments.
• 

Procedure for Washing of protective garments:

• Transfer the protective garments to the washing area for washing.
• Fill the washing machine with water.
• Add a half-packet or required qty. of detergent in it.
• Put the uncleaned garments in the washing machine.
• Switch “on” the washing machine.
• Set the Timer button on a minimum of ten minutes.
• Let the machine run for ten minutes.
• As soon as the ten minutes will complete the machine will stop automatically.
• Fill the two buckets with water.
• Remove the garments from the washing machine and keep them in the filled bucket.
• Start the water tap and keep another bucket under the tap.
• Rinse the cloth again and again to remove all the traces of detergent.
• Now fill a bucket of water again and add the required quantity of Blue to it.
• Rinse all the white color garments in the same bucket.
• Put all the washed clothes in the drier.
• Set the Timer button.
• Let the drier run.
• Remove the clean & dry garments from the drier when it stops.
• After drying the same, Iron all the garments.
• Pack one by one in the polybag.
• Transfer the clean protective garments from the washing Area to the respective department’s change room.

Forms and Records (Annexures)

• Cleaning Record of Protective Garments                      –                    Annexure – I

Distribution

• Master copy           –       Documentation Cell (QA)
• Controlled copies     –        Quality Assurance, Production, Quality Control, Store

History