Quality: The importance of meeting quality standards

For the uninitiated, building a commercial kitchen often brings many problems related to local regulations as well as practical operational features that don’t quite work. Getting the kitchen infrastructure right first time allows the area to function properly straight away and to last under the demanding working conditions that a busy commercial kitchen faces.

In this post, I'll outline just a few of the design and quality considerations you'll need to make when procuring a commercial kitchen.

Regulatory Compliance

Wherever in the world your kitchen is being built, it must comply with local regulations. Not to do so can bring substantial, unexpected cost and delays to programme. Whilst regulations will vary from the European Union, to the United States, to Russia and the Middle East, there are common areas that they all cover. If you are aware of these areas, then you can ensure that your supply chain is paying the right level of attention to this detail.

• Electrical Safety: Is the overall design of the kitchen, the individual components and the catering equipment certified to meet any international or local standards?
• Gas Safety: Has the correct supply quantity been worked out? Are the pipes correctly sized? Are the component parts of the supply properly certified and installed by a competent engineer?
• Food safety of construction materials: Are walls, floors and surfaces made of foodsafe materials?
• Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide testing: Around 20 people a year in the UK are killed by being in badly ventilated facilities, which can also cause illness. How will the kitchen be properly ventilated?
• Montreal Protocol: Is the refrigeration and cooling plant compliant with this international protocol?
• Lighting Levels: Is the space adequately lit to meet the local standards for a kitchen?
• HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points): Does the design of the kitchen allow HACCP management, or is it fundamentally flawed from the outset?
• CE Marked or GOST Certified: Is the catering equipment compliant with local standards?

Design and Build Quality

Regulations aside, kitchens are put under pressure by the use of water, the frequent use of cleaning chemicals, the heat of cooking processes and sometimes by unskilled or temporary users. Kitchens that are not designed and built to withstand these pressures simply do not last and will require replacement, or at least the cost and severe disruption of refurbishment, far sooner than the user might hope.

The build quality of the structure that the kitchen is housed in is also critical. Key features are adequate load-bearing for floors, correct wind or snow loads, heating and ventilation that are suited to local climatic conditions such as extremes of heat or cold, and dust. Like any specialist space, the internal design of a kitchen has many features that require close attention. These include fire safety, fire suppression, sufficient space between equipment, anti-slip floors, water resistant floor construction, services and sockets designed for easy cleaning and access, and infestation-proof construction of walls and doors to name but a few. Getting these things right makes a huge difference to the financial and operational success of a kitchen building project. 

PKL has 25 years of experience providing temporary and permanent infrastructure around the world. We sell and hire equipment, tented and modular kitchens that will meet local regulations and best practice in design and build quality. We get things right first time and aim to provide cost and programme certainty, giving peace of mind to clients who want to avoid unnecessary problems.

For more information on our international division, PKL Transworld, click here.
To find out more about UK kitchen hires, click here.

Speed: How PKL can save you time and money

“Time is money” – Benjamin Franklin

This is never more true than in the world of construction, where time on site drives up overhead costs, and delays can stall the generation of revenue. What can be even more frustrating is when this is a “back of house” or support function such as a kitchen and dining facility. 

Over the past 25 years, our PKL Transworld division has been involved in a large number of catering infrastructure projects around the world where previous experiences of delays have led clients to contact PKL for help. We’ve also worked with clients where concern over programme deadlines for rigger camps, refineries or construction worker camp kitchen and dining facilities has led to PKL being called in to get the job done.

Quite often, we are contacted after a client in a remote location has already tried to source their kitchen locally and has ended up with a significant cost and programme overrun. The savings hoped for by sourcing locally have not been realised and the whole process has become quite painful. We are focussed on providing cost and programme certainty for clients who want to focus on other core projects, knowing that the kitchen facilities will just sort themselves out. We can help clients spend their energy and money on more mission-critical areas.

There are several ways to reduce programme on site:

• Faster supply
• Concurrent activity
• Get it right first time
• Use a competent and experienced team

PKL is able to save time through having ex-rental stock available for immediate deployment; we have 900 units and about 10,000 items of catering equipment under management around the world. The design process is shortened by using tried and tested designs that can very easily be tweaked by our in-house design team.

While we prepare and ship the kitchen modules and units, we also advise clients on the services and foundations specifications so that a high level of concurrent activity can be achieved. Because they arrive with almost all mechanical and electrical work complete, PKL units require only a couple of weeks on site (in some cases just a few days) to complete and be ready for use. We can either supply a complete installation team or a project advisor to work with a local team to complete the installation. 

Thanks to our extensive experience in the world of international sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, we have a company culture of completing works to a demanding and immoveable deadline. Beyond that, we help with keeping the kitchen going by providing a spares pack, full operating and maintenance manuals, planned preventative maintenance and online and telephone technical support.

We do what we can to make the kitchen our problem, and not the client’s. If we can save our customers time, energy and money that they can then direct into their core business, then we feel like we have done a good job.
 

New animated rapid response examples from PKL

PKL has recently launched a new video walk through of our Rapid Response kitchens. The animation illustrates a 100-man ISO framed kitchen, which we are able to deliver around the world at short notice.

Suitable for temporary or permanent uses, PKL’s Rapid Response kitchen and dining facilities have been delivered around the world and have been used for camp facilities, in disaster relief areas or by military forces.

This video illustrates a 100 man facility, however, we can supply facilities of any size if required and regularly supply 500+ man facilities.

To view the video, please click here.

PKL is the UK’s leading supplier of temporary kitchens and catering equipment for hire with over 900 portable kitchens and 9,000 items of catering equipment available for rental. We also supply permanent modular kitchens via our KitchenPods and also construct large scale bespoke modular kitchen buildings.

Rapid Response Emergency Kitchens from PKL Group

 

Wherever permanent or temporary kitchen facilities are need FAST, PKL’s Rapid Response service is ready to deliver! Whether it’s for military use, disaster relief or a remote industrial project, our temporary kitchens can be delivered anywhere in the world with minimum delay.

Key features:

Field kitchen

Emergency kitchen

Camp kitchen

All specially designed for remote sites with rapid deployment, DROPS compatible and suitable for delivery by helicopter or fixed wing aircraft.

PKL has an unparalleled operational record in provision of field kitchen units to the world’s military, peacekeeping and rescue campaigns.

Our emergency kitchen units are robust, ISO rated container kitchen facilities, designed for durability and continuous operation. With options for on-board service such as electrical generators, water and wastewater storage, and water purification, our emergency kitchen facilities can operate even in areas with damaged or non-existent local services.

PKL Rapid Response provides a range of camp kitchen systems ranging from single camp kitchen modules to large open plan modular kitchens, for a spacious, efficient working environment. We can provide support areas for all our temporary kitchen units, scaling servery areas to your requirements and providing ablution blocks and laundry areas for more complete remote camps.

PKL’s purpose-designed, controlled-environment prefabrication facilities enable all mobile kitchen units to be built off-site and fully tested, with all systems optimised for the environment in which they’ll operate. Once complete they can be transported by land, sea or air anywhere in the world.

We have over 15 years of experience in successfully delivering rapid mobile kitchen units to remote international locations. Our teams have a clear and detailed understanding of the unique requirements of field kitchen, emergency kitchen or camp kitchen deployment, and are able to provide you with the most suitable options for your particular project.

For more information see http://www.pklmobilekitchens.co.uk/ or http://www.pkl.co.uk/

Rapid Response Portable Kitchens and Catering Equipment Used to Feed Army Troops

PKL supplied the MOD with commercial catering facilities, capable of supplying up to 35,000 military personnel in the Middle East.

The project was in response to an urgent kitchen enquiry and design and brief costs were supplied to the client within a matter of hours, while the first portable kitchen units were dispatched from the UK within 72 hours.

The facility comprised of seven military kitchens capable of feeding 5,000 men each. The complex was made up from Portable Kitchen units and commercial catering equipment and utilised PKL’s unique containerised canopy. This approach enabled the equipment and associated items to be mobilised ready for shipping very quickly.

The Portable Kitchens were transported by heavy-lift Antonov transport planes and installation of the first facility commenced within 12 hours of arrival.

This project best demonstrates PKL's unique rapid response capabilities previously exercised in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Within the UK we deal with emergency enquiries on a daily basis, and are able to supply Portable Kitchens and catering equipment for hire at very short notice. Typical emergencies we are asked to provide temporary catering facilities to cover include kitchen fires, kitchen flooding and unforeseen kitchen closure.