New Food Production Facility
Customer: Food customer, shelf stable products
Project Type: Multi-discipline EPCm contract involving all disciplines of engineering and automation services, including construction management
Technical Specs: Renovated an existing 200,000 square foot facility to meet food production requirements
Project Scope: The customer acquired a vacant warehouse to retrofit for food production. Matrix’s scope started with conceptual design of the new process layout and proceeded to complete detailed design and construction management.
Matrix designed new production areas, including frozen and open ingredient storage, ingredient prep areas, blending, package assembly, cooking, packaging, and finished goods storage. Office areas were completely remodeled, and new areas were created for mechanical equipment, boilers, HVAC, waste water, and maintenance.
Design for the retort cooking systems in the facility included equipment layout, utility system sizing and design, cooling water system design and integration into the plant control systems. Matrix’s broad range of experience in facilities and process design, including particular experience in the biotech and food industry was critical to the success of the project.
Engineering Challenges: The project was relatively fast track and needed to be completed to meet production schedules. Multiple bid packages were staged to ensure that the project progressed at an aggressive rate. Communication also was very important, with needs for information to be passed to/from the client, contractors, OEM vendors, shippers, riggers, component suppliers, local utilities, inspectors, and state and local plan reviewers.
Products and Technologies Used: There were multiple technologies and OEM equipment used including Allpax retorts, and Rockwell Automation ControlLogix PLCs and FTView HMI software.
Project Outcome: Project was completed ahead of the aggressive production schedules and the systems started up flawlessly. This facility helped the customer reduce its shipping costs and increase profits, while improving their ability to support their customers.