INDUSTRY: Food & Beverage | SERVICES: Multi-discipline Engineering, Project Management
ABOUT THE CLIENT
EAD is the trusted partner of a Fortune 500 global food manufacturer known for supplying brand-name breakfast foods and snacks to households around the world. EAD supports the manufacturer’s continuous 24/7/365 operating schedule, executing projects valued at over $250MM.
PROBLEM TO SOLVE
Decreasing market demand prompted the slowdown and eventual termination of production of one of our client’s production lines. Since it was out of operation for 5 years, it had become the “boneyard” of our client’s facility. If another line needed a PLC card, it was stolen from this line. If a level transmitter or three-way sanitary valve was needed elsewhere, it was also stolen from this line. This “pick it from the boneyard” model worked until new product innovations were piloted from the corporate product development team. Demand suddenly skyrocketed, and so the manufacturer called in EAD to engineer a solution to bring their abandoned production line back to life. Leveraging our 20 years of on-site, embedded project expertise, the team at EAD was ready to bring our client’s line back up and running within their tight schedule of 120 days.
APPROACH & SOLUTION
EAD provided a full scope of engineering services (including mechanical, electrical, structural, and controls & automation) for our client. We began by reviewing our client’s original 40-year-old P&IDs, and quickly purchasing any missing parts and reassembling, managing the project from concept through commissioning. Our team worked 12 to 18 hour days, seven days a week to fast-track the schedule. Once the line was operational and making product, EAD designed line enhancements to increase throughput on the new product flavors and fillings. We also designed and built 2 additional line expansions to increase the capacity by 25%, or an additional 200 lbs. per minute of finished food.
RESULT & BENEFIT
EAD’s expertise in project management drove the success of the project. The manufacturer went on to produce 5 new products on the line. EAD planned and executed the project so efficiently that the food manufacturer was able to start making product 3 weeks ahead of schedule and generate over $30MM in additional sales.