Practical Design, Construction and Operation of Food Facilities

J. Peter Clark

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9780080557779
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

Around the world concerns about cost, efficiency, and safety - employee, product, process and consumer -- have led to changes in the way food plants are planned, constructed and evaluated. From initiation of major capital requests to legal design requirements to project management and plant operations, food engineers and scientists must understand the myriad of requirements and responsibilities of successful food facilities. J. Peter Clark provides that guidance in this complete volume.

Included are:

• A summary of lessons on understanding how management evaluates potential investments and how they can contribute to ultimate shareholder value, and checklists to help accurately estimate capital and operating costs
• Important, and in some cases unique, features of a food plant including focus on food safety. Addresses not only consumer products, but ingredients for consumer products and the concerns of distribution and flexibility that must be considered. Also considered are the support facilities that are equally essential to the safe production of food
• An effective approach to understanding production lines and optimizing operations during expansion by briefly introducing Goldratt's Theory of Constraints. The book explores the challenges of construction while maintaining safe and sanitary operations
• An approach and methodology that can be extended beyond the case studies presented in order to effectively plan development processes and make correct equipment selections
• Project management and plant operations guidance to assist engineers who find themselves in the role of managing a design or construction process project, or of supervising a portion of a plant. Includes suggestions for effectively troubleshooting an unsatisfactory operation

• Provides real-world insights including guides for proper project estimation, understanding the role and importance of support facilities, maintaining standards while under construction and other vital considerations
• Includes checklists and proven approaches to guide the reader through the wide range of necessary planning and implementation steps
• Considers factors for both new plant construction and expansion of existing plants

Chapter 1. Introduction

This book was suggested to me by people who knew of my unusual career in research, education, industry and consulting. Most of my professional life has been spent designing, helping to build and consulting on the operation of food plants. I have not seen a text in which these topics are addressed from an industrial or practical point of view as distinguished from an academic or theoretical perspective. Concisely, that is the objective of this work.

There are many sources of information on specific food processes, including some which I have written or to which I have contributed (Valentas et al., 1991; Clark, 2007), so I do not attempt to duplicate that material here. Rather, I try to provide information about designing, constructing and operating food plants that is not typically available elsewhere.

The next chapter tries to set the context for the typical food plant project, whether new or an expansion, by describing a typical corporate structure within the broader food industry. Most companies have similar procedures for initiating and approving a major capital request, so those are described as well.

It is important to understand how corporate management evaluates potential investments and how a new or expanded plant contributes to ultimate shareholder value. Engineers and food scientists may not easily communicate with financial analysts and accountants, but they must learn how to do so. There have been some important but relatively obscure studies by The Rand Corporation on the factors that contribute to poor capital cost estimates, especially for new technologies. These have been valuable to me and so I try to summarize the lessons while also providing checklists to help in estimating capital and operating costs (Merrow et al., 1981).

The next section discusses some of the many important, and in some cases unique, features of a food plant. Food safety is a paramount concern and is challenged by the facts that foods are made from agricultural raw materials, which are variable in properties, contaminated by soils, and perishable. Many foods are consumer products while others are ingredients for consumer products. This means that distribution and flexibility are critical concerns affecting siting and design. Finally, while the actual processes are certainly important, and are often the subject of academic research and education, the support facilities are equally essential but are often neglected in thinking about food plants.

Expansions, either physical expansion of a building or expansion of production capacity within existing walls can be a viable alternative to a new facility. Here is introduced, briefly, Goldratt's Theory of Constraints, an effective approach to understanding production lines and to optimizing operations (Goldratt and Cox, 1986). The practical challenges of construction while maintaining safe and sanitary operations are also discussed.

Process development and equipment selection are vast subjects, which can be only treated briefly. However, the intent is to teach an approach and methodology that can be extended to other cases in addition to those described. Food process equipment may be relatively standard, similar to that used in other industries, or proprietary, in the sense that it is highly specialized and intended for a specific purpose. Even standard food processing equipment is subject to some legal and voluntary design requirements. As a result, most are made of stainless steel and are often polished and have smooth welds. Choosing among alternative equipment choices can be challenging, but there are ways it can be done.

Project management and plant operations are the topics of the final two sections. These have more to do with leadership and management than with technical skills, but engineers often find themselves in the roles of managing a design or construction project or of supervising a portion of a plant. Troubleshooting an unsatisfactory operation is usually seen as a technical challenge, but might in fact be a human performance issue.

Appendices I and II discuss some topics that did not fit smoothly in the body of the text, including basic heat transfer and the calculation of residence time in hold tubes. Some flow chart symbols are provided in Appendix III and Appendix IV is a glossary of some of the terms used that may be unfamiliar to a few readers. Finally, Appendix V is a collection of short discussions of various topics based on the Processing column I have written for Food Technology since 2002. These can be used as brief case studies or tutorials.

This book might find use in a senior course in food or biochemical engineering and should also be of interest to new and even more experienced engineers in the food industry. Students of business, project management and executives should also find it helpful.

How to Use This Book

An instructor using this book as a text in a typical food engineering design course will find the discussion questions and candidate assignments at the ends of chapters provocative and open-ended. They are not intended to be typical numerical equation solving exercises. There are plenty of those in other texts. Rather, they ask the student to make some decisions before even embarking on the assignment. Likewise, the instructor may have to do some homework before specifying assignments that might affect grades. One approach is to take the questions as written. Another is to make some choices, perhaps giving the class 1–4 specific foods, companies or processes, where the question asks the reader to select one, in the interest of reducing variability among responses. In preparation, an instructor might collect flow sheets, trade press articles and business press stories about the food industry to supplement the text and suggested assignments. I recognize that some instructors will not have the industrial experience I have had and so may be uncomfortable expounding on the subject. This should not be a concern. I believe the best learning occurs through action rather than listening, and so strongly suggest that class time be heavily devoted to student presentations and discussion of the open-ended questions. Some supplemental lectures by visitors from industry, such as vendors of equipment or plant managers, could provide additional insight. Approached creatively, teaching a course with this book should be a significant learning experience for all parties.

Readers not taking a formal class can use the questions for self-directed learning. Some readers will be new to the industry, for whom I hope the book is a valuable introduction. Others will have more experience and may differ with some of my opinions. In many areas I discuss, there are few absolutes and there can be many valid opinions. I offer mine on the basis of what I have learned, experienced and observed. I offer them in good faith, I respect those who differ and I welcome correspondence with corrections of errors and suggestions of alternative approaches.

I am grateful for teachers, mentors, clients and co-workers who have accompanied me in my career and whose collective contributions to this book are too numerous to detail but are enthusiastically acknowledged. The wisdom is theirs; the errors are mine. The illustrations were drawn by Chris Fry of Siebert Engineers Inc., Lisle, IL, based on manufacturers’ literature, my sketches and other sources. The book is dedicated, with love and gratitude, to my wife since 1968, Nancy, who patiently read every word, commented wisely and perceptively, and generously encouraged me throughout this effort and through all the years of my career.

Chapter 2. Context for new or expanded facility

Typical Corporate Structure

Most corporations have a hierarchical structure in which some functions are centralized while others are dispersed. Functions include: marketing, research, finance and accounting, human relations, manufacturing, information technology and engineering. Within these broad functions, there are many specialized areas, such as advertising, sales and brand management. Corporations are constantly rearranging the pieces and reorganizing, suggesting that there has not yet been found the ideal or universal form of organization.

Especially as firms get larger through growth and consolidation, the challenges of communication and control grow exponentially. Public corporations are owned by their investors, shareholders, who are represented by a board of directors. The board's major responsibility is to hire a chief executive officer (CEO) and then to monitor his or her performance; approve compensation for the CEO and other officers; and approve major financial decisions, such as spending, distribution of dividends, borrowing and issuance of stock. The board must also approve attempts to acquire other firms or offers from other firms.

Family-owned firms and smaller companies have most of the same functions, but some may be sparsely staffed. A sole owner plays many of the roles of a board of directors.

Major capital expenditures, such as a new facility, would typically be presented to the board, after long scrutiny by lower levels of executives. Once an amount is approved, most boards are quite reluctant to approve additional costs, so it becomes crucial to the career survival of responsible parties that major projects be well-defined, estimated accurately and managed well so as to finish on time and within the approved budget. Helping to achieve those goals is one objective of this book.

Estimates of future capital spending are constantly being made in a typical corporation. From the leadership – the CEO and Board, or the owner – may come guidance that a certain fraction of available resources is to be reinvested in the business to promote growth, reduce costs and enter new markets. From the operating branches of the company may come expressions of need, new product ideas and cost reduction concepts. Collectively, the opportunities to invest are usually greater than the resources available. Choosing among alternatives then becomes a significant strategic exercise.

In contrast to this approach, there are firms with relatively modest capital expenses most of the time that occasionally identify a need for a major investment, such as a new plant, an acquisition or an expansion internationally. For such firms, with sporadic capital spending, there may be less well defined procedures and practices than in those environments where spending is more regular and routine.

In any event, someone, often the Director of Engineering, has responsibility for assembling the capital budget, seeing that it is spent wisely and projecting future needs.

A common mechanism for defining and collecting the approvals of a capital project is the Capital Appropriation Request (CAR), which may have other names and acronyms in some firms. This is a standardized document on which a specific project is briefly described, including a financial analysis of its impact, a sc...

Table of contents

• Brief Table of Contents
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Chapter 1. Introduction
• Chapter 2. Context for new or expanded facility
• Chapter 3. Economic evaluation
• Chapter 4. Design of a new facility
• Chapter 5. Expansions and conversions
• Chapter 6. Process and equipment selection
• Chapter 7. Equipment selection
• Chapter 8. Project management and execution
• Chapter 9. Plant operations
• Appendix I. Basicheat transfer
• Appendix II. Residence time inhold tubes
• Appendix III. Flowchart symbols
• Appendix IV. Glossary of someterms used
• Appendix V. Short Discussions of Various Topics, based on the Processing Column in Food Technology,published by the Institute of Food Technologists 2002–2006
• Bibliography