Some plants may split a production line into two or more smaller production lines, which allows for smaller volumes to be manufactured in a more efficient manner.
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In an ideal world, every production line is built for the products that are made on it. Historically though, production lines have been asked to do things that the builders of the line did not have in mind when the equipment was installed. Systems are often designed around existing infrastructure, equipment, production teams, or other such limiting factors. Sometimes a new line can be asked to mimic an existing one, as Alex Belknap, founding partner of Facture Group raises the question, “Is this an existing process that we can leverage best practices from?”
On the other hand, putting in another production line is an opportunity to critically look at the previous installations. “It’s really understanding the attributes of the final product that you want from a technical standpoint and being very real with the business that the line is supposed to serve,” says Yifat Rogers, founder and CEO of Yaniv Consulting.
Ingredients
According to Tony Moses, entrepreneur in residence at One Ventures, “When scaling up a new product, the first step is to understand what those attributes were for.” In other words, what are the distinguishing factors of the product that make it unique? This information is commonly sourced from both marketing and R&D. These attributes are the absolute requirements from the production line. With these in place, it is important to understand how the product was designed. “Start from first principles, keep it as simple as possible, and build out detail,” according to Belknap. In this case, what ingredients are in the product, how do they respond to basic engineering forces, what order do they need to be added, and what are the basic properties of those intermediate blends?
The ingredients in a product can define some portion of the production line, often the ingredient handling systems and initial blending systems. For example, dissolving sugar into water can be time-consuming on the line, but liquid sugar systems with flow meters can be a batching cycle, time-reduction strategy. Often, ingredient packaging is also part of the supply chain discussion as well, targeting ingredient packaging of 25% to 300% of the use per batch is ideal for keeping weigh-up cycle times to a minimum.
Beware of downstream processes that may affect the properties of a developed intermediate blend. For example, ketchup pushed through a pipe will undergo some amount of low-grade shear, which will reduce viscosity post-milling.Getty
When ingredients are mixed together, their properties can change. A blend of flour and water needs time and elongational mixing to hydrate and develop the protein to make a dough with the desired attributes. Oil and water plus an emulsifier require precise shearing to develop into a stabilized emulsion, which is based on particle size distribution and amount of emulsifier. Neither of these intermediate blends may be the intended final product, but the properties of these blends are instrumental to the final product quality and potentially the target attributes. Even the order that ingredients are added into the same blend tank may change the product attributes, and as such, each intermediate blend should be understood.
By understanding the properties of each of the intermediate blends, it becomes easier to define a process flow for the entire product that is built on smaller process flows for the intermediate blend attributes. That said, beware of downstream processes that may affect the properties of a developed intermediate blend. For example, shearing a dressing after particulates are added will grind the particulates beyond the targeted size, and ketchup pushed through a pipe will undergo some amount of low-grade shear, which will reduce viscosity post-milling.
Food Safety
As a preliminary process flow is being built, it is important to understand where food safety factors into the product design. For many products, this can be simple with a thermal kill step defined by a process authority. For others, there are several critical control points (CCPs) that determine the safety of the product. It is important to remember that there are often two key principles at play: make sure nothing harmful gets into the product, and anything that could be there is taken below a harmful level. This could be as simple as magnets and metal detectors, or it could be complex heating and cooling systems coupled with environmental controls and packaging sterilization, as with aseptic systems. Remember that the packaging, specifically the assembly of the packaging (i.e. lid gaskets and seal surface areas), is key to the first principle of letting nothing harmful into the product. Understanding where food safety plays into the process flow builds a more robust plan for approaching equipment manufacturers.
Equipment selection
With a process flow complete, the next step is to determine the size of the equipment necessary to execute the various process requirements. For many production lines, this information comes from both the business and equipment manufacturers. Coupling the batching cycle time to the downstream demand of a pseudo-continuous filling line allows for the sizing calculations to inform the ideal design of the process. This ideal design may not be the one constructed though, due to timing, capital, production redundancy, utility, or other such external factors.
Most projects are not given unlimited timing or capital budgets (if you have one, give me a call). Timing can often force tradeoffs between ideal equipment and used or available demonstration equipment that can still deliver the intended product attributes. When this happens, move the construction of the ideal equipment to a later project for independent return-on-investment (ROI) justification. When capital runs short, target ingredient handling equipment that can be removed because that equipment is more easily replaced and independently justified.
One tactic that many plants use to deal with non-uniform demand from a production line is to split it into two or more smaller production lines. This technique allows for smaller volumes to be manufactured in a more efficient manner. Additionally, if a facility is very sensitive to downtime (often based on a historical outage), having the ability to maintain one line while the other continues production may be preferable to the plant leadership. When this occurs, consider a break point of where the process flow goes from batch to continuous. Design the system to send the batches to both continuous lines for optimum flexibility. This is also a reasonable design tactic for a product that has uncertain projected volumes.
Infrastructure and Business
As equipment is selected, layout drawings can be developed for alignment with stakeholders. This commonly starts with an existing building or building design started by others. Maintaining appropriate clearance while plotting in traffic flow for both product and people can be challenging. The key is to share layout struggles with other stakeholders—solutions may come from any number of people. Ensure that utilities are able to support the new production line.
Building a new production line without a volume timeline, not just a volume projection per year, is setting up a project for failure, as Rogers notes, “The biggest money waste is where businesses are building something way too big before they have any kind of commitment to volume.”
To that end, Moses offers some tactical business advice. “You need some flexibility to iterate a little bit, so working with a contract manufacturer that has some flexibility or moving to a different contract manufacturer, allows you to pivot once your product has been in the marketplace. Otherwise, you could be stuck with a bunch of equipment that you have to use to manufacture a product that just doesn’t quite fit in the market.”
Conclusion
Remember that if these product attributes survive to the consumer, they are building a user experience that consumers will return for. Our brands rely on returning customers to ultimately pay our salaries. To that end, remember that the project is not done at commissioning, and sometimes designing something to be replaced in a few years may be the better tactical move to ensure long-term project success.
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Beware of downstream processes that may affect the properties of a developed intermediate blend. For example, ketchup pushed through a pipe will undergo some amount of low-grade shear, which will reduce viscosity post-milling.Getty
