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Dairy plant optimization reveals multiple approaches

Dairy producers come in many sizes, but tighter enterprise integration to plant assets is one way to optimize the “milk standardization” process.

Fonterra Dairy’s Dennington facility moved from a batch to a predictive control approach and reduced protein giveaway by 49%.
Fonterra Dairy’s Dennington facility moved from a batch to a predictive control approach and reduced protein giveaway by 49%.

Sizable CapEx plant spending on equipment and advanced automation in the dairy industry is well underway. Industry leaders like Chobani have caught the attention of consumers, and the dairy industry itself has been in the spotlight due to its aggressive monitoring and optimization effort across the enterprises (see related story on Chobani reveals its secret for better production data visibility).

Furious innovation — and investment — is producing dividends as plants target different processes within dairy processing facilities. Dairy producers are currently identifying better efficiencies for the "standardization process" of fats, proteins, solids non-fat and total solids. Milk standardization takes those components, such as fat, that have previously been separated from a product, and then are added back into that product in precise or standardized quantities.

Plant strategies for better milk standardization efficiencies can include newer inline equipment connected to the entire process, such as the separator, valves and other equipment. Moving to an inline approach allows producers to shift away from inflexible, batch standardizing that necessitates long buffer times with fat or protein yield  (meaning the entire product batch needs to discharge from the pasteurized tank). 

Commissioning of inline, dairy standardization equipment also avoids disruption to a plant production schedule. “We had about three days to install a new standardized system that would replace three, obsolete pieces of equipment,” says Josette Bogerman, regional project manager at Arla Foods in the United Kingdom.

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