INDUSTRY: Food & Beverage | SERVICES: Safety Consulting – Lock-out / Tag-out | Mechanical / Process Engineering | Controls & Automation
ABOUT THE CLIENT
Our client is a household name and one of the largest food companies in North America. They are known for their ready-to-eat snacks and high work safety standards. Since 2001, EAD has supported their 24/7/365 operation with on-the-call, remote, and embedded engineering, project management, construction management, and safety consulting services.
PROBLEM TO SOLVE
Our client wanted to expand their cereal manufacturing capacity without spending a significant amount of money on a building expansion. Therefore, rather than expand the facility, they opted to remove a packaging system for a product that was no longer in production and implement a new bagger packing line in its place. They also wanted to ensure the packaging line met their high corporate safety standards in alignment with existing facility production equipment.
APPROACH & SOLUTION
Drawing from our expertise in both engineering design and manufacturing safety, EAD worked to develop a design and complementary safety solution to meet our client’s need. After a thorough analysis of their systems and specifications, EAD designed a new single bagger packaging line that fit in the space where the old packaging system was removed.
Through careful and innovative engineering that took into account our client’s existing equipment and product requirements, we were able to design the new bagger system so that it did not impact any existing packaging lines. The new line included a new food handling system and surge bin, scale, bagger, bag conveyors, cartoner, carton conveyors, X-Ray, and case packer system. We ensured that the design met all OSHA standards as well as the additional, more stringent standards set by our client. EAD developed and printed laminated lock-out / tag-out (LOTO) charts with procedures for ensuring the safety of each piece of equipment. Our on-site engineering team then installed the LOTO charts in the designated locations within the facility.
RESULT & BENEFIT
EAD’s packaging line design increased the efficiency of our client’s existing manufacturing process, increasing the number of packages they could deliver to 70-80 per minute. Our client did not need to invest in a facility expansion, since the newly designed packaging line fit perfectly within the space where the prior machine was removed. Finally, EAD successfully ensured that the new packaging line and all of the manufacturer’s other facility equipment met appropriate LOTO and safety requirements.