Food Processing - February 2008 - (Page 35)

Eric Carlson, senior vice president-food & beverage at Woodard & Curran, reviews a successful startup in a food plant: Turnkey project management provides owners with one point of responsibility. How to launch A NEW MANUFACTURING LINE Consulting engineers can be great allies in expanding or changing your process, but only you can impress on them the unique needs of your company and your plant. However, there also can be disadvantages to turnkey projects: • Little owner ﬂexibility to select equipment providers. • Provider may not have experienced designers and engineers who understand the unique problems of the owner’s manufacturing environment. • No opportunity to provide supplier competition for midstream changes. • Changes are more expensive due to fast-tracking. Original equipment manufacturers (OEM) can be poor executors of packaging processes, because their thinking is more machine-based than system- or process-based. For a turnkey integration project to be successful, team concepts such as commitment, communication and trust must be established early in the process so decisions can be made. The owner must be prepared to relinquish control of quality and details which will be handled by the turnkey supplier. Whoever the turnkey supplier is, the project leader should be a “devil’s advocate” to assure the manufacturing system truly meets all of the production and operational requirements. True turnkey integration specialists are a rare breed, but if they are part of the owner’s team, the results are consistent and proﬁtable. The skinny on design-bid-build The other school of project methodology is design-bid-build (DBB), which generally requires the owner to provide the major equipment and to work in conjunction with a design ﬁrm that provides detailed designs. The owner bids installation with the design ﬁrm’s assistance, and then hires the installation and commissioning services from vendors directly while the design ﬁrm provides oversight. Such project scopes as building expansions, innovative package design, the latest process and packaging equipment, major piping efforts and plantwide tie-in require special engineering understanding that is not usually the specialty of turnkey providers. FEBRUARY 2008 FOOD PROCESSING • 35 By Lloyd Snyder, P.E. THE PROFITS OF FOOD COMPANIES ARE HEAVILY inﬂuenced by the performance of their manufacturing lines. One common cause of low performance is poor equipment integration and commissioning. Poor project integration is commonly the result of picking the wrong project execution methodology. Consulting engineers work with food and beverage clients to design and to provide construction services for new production lines that meet requirements for performance, high utilization and high efﬁciency. While they may know the principles of engineering, they don’t know your process or the unique needs of your company and your plant. The following is about what you need to understand and the choices you need to make to help those consulting engineers work their best for you. When implementing new manufacturing line projects, the two ends of the execution spectrum are turnkey and design-bidbuild (DBB). Each of these methods has advantages and disadvantages. Consulting engineers can advise and implement projects that have a variety of execution strategies. But the selection of the strategy ultimately is up to you. Is turnkey right for you? Turnkey projects are those in which one vendor provides equipment, installation and commissioning services under one contract. This method replaces the need for in-house technical staff to manage capacity increases, plant upgrades and product changes. Advantages include: • Fastest method for completing a standard project by providing opportunities to optimize parallel activities. • Provides owner with one point of responsibility. • Vendor makes equipment decisions for inexperienced owners. • Useful if one manufacturer can supply equipment for the line. • Reduces administrative costs by combining the procurement process for equipment, line design, construction and commissioning. WWW.FOODPROCESSING.COM http://www.foodprocessing.com

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Food Processing - February 2008 Contents Editor’s Plate NewsBites Regulatory Issues The Trends Rollout Food Biz Kids Product Spotlight Ingredients From Where? Product Development RCA Show Review Plant Operations Packaging New Supplier Products Toops Scoops

Food Processing - February 2008

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