Product category:
Plant Design and Construction
News Release from: APV | Subject: Plant redevelopment (Hazlewood)
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 18 November 2003
Redevelopment of chilled ready meals
production
The project scope included the provision of a state of the art sauce cook/cool process, capable of producing a wide range of pasta sauces and batch sizes, with minimum waste and maximum productivity
Hazlewood Chilled Meals (HCM), part of the Greencore group, is a specialist supplier of ready meals and has a particular strength in Italian and healthy meals In a market worth over GBP1 billion they claim to be at the cutting edge of ready meal development
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 10 Jan 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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The company is investing GBP19.5 million in their chilled ready meals facilities in a move to further strengthen their position in this important sector of the convenience foods market.
The majority of this investment is being focused on their Warrington site, which specialises in Italian ready meals and produces 36 million meals a year.
The Warrington site production facilities will be completely refurbished in a drive to create greater plant efficiency.
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HCM conducted an extensive vendor pre-qualification process with several potential suppliers for their new, large volume multi-product pasta sauce production investment.
The unique combination of technology, project experience, resources and capabilities in APV were recognised by HCM.
In particular, APV was in-step with HCM thinking and was able to assure them that it could deliver the required plant.
This assurance came from the APV demonstration of its ability to apply CIP, automation and software knowledge, gained from managing hundreds of projects in the hygienic process industries, and its understanding of the unique demands made by the chilled ready meals industry.
Additionally, HCM had a vision of the requirements from their previous experiences and sought a 'working together' approach from their partner.
The relationship should consider all the available options, with the underlying aim being the building of a truly world class food plant.
In short, APV was the partner that HCM considered could advance them the furthest without endangering their current product quality.
The Solution.
The scope of the project includes the provision of a state of the art sauce cook/cool process, capable of producing a wide range of pasta sauce products in varying batch sizes, with minimum waste and maximum productivity.
With the demands of modern supermarket requirements for flexibility, quality and reliability - all at the lowest possible cost - the design of the plant needed to ensure minimum "touch of hand" and maximum repeatability through the use of automation.
Considerations of plant requirements extended beyond today's needs for sauce production, the final design incorporating inherent flexibility, so that the investment could be adapted to future HCM manufacturing requirements.
Equipment Selection.
During the preliminary stages of vendor selection, HCM made use of the APV Innovation Centre in Silkeborg, Denmark, to conduct extensive product trials.
These were specifically commissioned to help develop conceptual requirements of the project and provided valuable product data that enabled the selection of process equipment.
An example of this was the evaluation of the best cooling method for the production of quality sauce.
HCM was able to run product trials and evaluate for themselves which methods produced quality chilled sauce to their specification.
As the APV heat exchanger portfolio includes equipment that can facilitate most cooling methods, it was able to provide HCM with an unbiased assessment of the equipment used.
Following these trials, HCM and APV invested time in additional field trials, this time at the Warrington site, which enabled further optimisation of the process and demonstration of its performance to Tesco.
Scraped surface heat exchangers proved to be most suitable for the provision of highest quality cooled particulate sauce to specification.
Control system quality, productivity, flexibility and consistency were all corner stone requirements in the selection processes for the HCM new investment.
To deliver on these, not only was the right equipment required but it also needed to be optimally controlled.
It was evident that the traditional paper based factory systems had to be replaced.
APV proposed and installed, a fully integrated process system, utilising software systems that enable process control, recipe batch management, CIP assurance and management of historical production data.
The use of business wide computer systems enables this information to be shared by everyone who needs it, and reduces day-to-day operational errors.
APV matched the HCM needs for a flexible, expandable plant, delivering product at maximum yield, lowest cost, repeatable quality and targeting maximum shelf life.
The Future and Beyond.
Delivering and successfully commissioning the project is only part of the requirement; a supplier's service and support capability is equally important.
APV offers the new plant at Warrington full parts and service support on a 24/7 basis with mechanical, electrical and software assistance available via telephone from its dedicated manned service centre.
Locally based engineers can be mobilised in the event of a site visit being required following remote investigation via modem facility.
The APV service centre is based in Crawley, Sussex, and provides co-ordination for all field based service engineers throughout the UK and Ireland.
The project for HCM is an example of the collaboration APV provides, working with customers to deliver world class food products.
All solutions offered by APV draw upon extensive process and automation know-how gained from providing hundreds of automated food plants.
This, linked with continuing investment in research, will enable APV to continue to provide quality engineered solutions for its customers both now and in the future.
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