By Lisa McTigue Pierce in Packaging Design on June 11, 2014
The Diageo Team Cube received a Gold Award for commercializing a low-cost modular production plant for the blending and packaging of spirits in multiple regions within 12 months
Pre-fab production operations and packaging solutions that improve patient safety were among the accomplishments that earned Diageo Team Cube and Joe Mase (respectively) Gold Awards in the 2014 UBM Canon Packaging Group Visionary Awards.
The program pays tribute to individuals and teams who show vision and leadership in advancing their company's goals of innovation, differentiation, savings and growth.
Visionary Awards finalists were recognized and the winners were revealed at a gala event on June 10th, at the Javits Convention Centre in New York City in conjunction with the EastPack show, which is owned and organized by UBM Canon.
Held in partnership with the Institute of Packaging Professionals, the event also paid tribute to recipients of the 2014 AmeriStar Package Awards.
GOLD AWARD: PACKAGING PRODUCTION & OPERATIONS CATEGORY The Diageo Team Cube received a Gold Award for commercializing a low-cost modular production plant for the blending and packaging of spirits in multiple regions within 12 months.
The Diageo Team Cube includes Paul Millar, head of packaging technology; Dawn Reilly, brand technical manager; Ray Webb, project manager; Ian Bell, packaging manager; and Donal Comerford, market support manager for Africa regional markets and business integration manager.
During his acceptance speech on behalf of the team, Millar shared that the company has realized an additional $300 million in sales because of the production of these new operations.
ABM LTD Were appointed by Diageo to design, build and commission the complete Blending and Packaging System, which included Full Product Blending, Production of Blow Moulded bottles and Packaging in Widnes prior to the Systems being sent out to Africa.
ABM were also appointed to re-commission the systems once in Africa, with the first system being commissioned in Accra, Ghana and spirit being produced, packaged and sent to trade within just two weeks from the arrival of the Cube on site at Ghana.
A further two 'cubes' have also been successfully built and re-commissioned in Nigeria and Mozambique.
The diageo team which was put together to design and manufacture the cube factories with ABM have now become a finalist in the UBM Canon Packaging Group Visionary Awards.
The UBM Canon Packaging Group Visionary Awards are presented to people who show vision, innovation and leadership in packaging production, operations and development/design.
The Diageo Team Cube developed and constructed the radical concept of a low-cost modular production plant for the blending and packaging of spirits and commercialized it in multiple geographies within 12 months.
The solution met operational requirements and saved 60 percent on capital investment.
ABM were delighted to receive a prestigious award at Diageo's "International Engineering for Excellence" event at The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin last week.
Diageo, the world's largest producer of distilled spirits have highlighted ABM's hard work and have recognised this by giving an 'Engineering for Innovation' award for the excellent work with the three spirit blending Cubes installed in Africa.
The Heroes of Excellence award is given to the supplier that delivered a significant and critical project on time and on budget with exceptional leadership.
Award winners must also demonstrate the kinds of innovation that result in exceptional value to Diageo.
"Our team are honoured to have been recognised by Diageo as a winner of the Engineering for Innovation from a field of world class suppliers" said Allan Rogerson, founder and Managing Director of ABM.
ABM have successfully installed a new CIP Unit at Joseph Holts' long established brewery in central Manchester.
Joseph Holts needed a new CIP system to improve the cleaning regime and to make savings on the costly chemicals used during cleaning of the brewery's vessels and extensive pipework.
ABM's solution of a fully automated single circuit unit allowed the operators improve both the performance and speed compared to the previous cleaning regime.
The installation and commissioning process were completed in around 2 weeks complete with extensive operator training.
This Turnkey Project included the following
Diageo Dublin approached ABM requesting the possibility of developing a shipping container housed spirit blending system to be used to push Diageo's strategic growth plan in the African spirit market.
The traditional cost of setting up new manufacturing facilities could be reduced by producing an easily deployable manufacturing solution.
This containerised solution could be readily relocated as business needs changed and would be less than 50% of the cost of traditional plant.
Put simply, the system would need to be able to produce recipe based high quality, spirit products from locally sourced neutral spirit, utilising standard proven technology.
ABM were commissioned to provide a feasibility study, quickly followed by a full detailed design complete with 3D Virtual Model of the blending production unit.
The design footprint grew from 2 containers to 5 as the requirement changed to include a PET bottle blow moulding facility along with bottle filling and packaging.
The timescale for this complete detailed design was 9 weeks.
During the initial feasibility study, ABM found a specialist manufacturer able to fabricate a taller container to sufficiently meet the process requirements as encountered challenges to fit the necessary equipment into a standard shipping container.
ABM involved Diageo's specialist risk assessors to fully understand and eliminate the explosion risks associated working with 96% ABV spirit alcohol and minimise the project cost implications when working to Atex explosion requirements.
Diageo have now ordered 3 units, to be shipped to Ghana, Nigeria & Mozambique.
ABM has recently been awarded the complete turnkey project of installing and commissioning the new Hydes Brewing facility.
This new facility will be far more efficient than the existing plant and will focus exclusively on the production of high quality beers targeted at the growing cask ale sector.
This will include Hydres popular favourites such as Hydres Original and Manchester's finiest as well as a diverse range of seasonal and themed craft ales.
This new automation system will fully automate all of the components within the new brewery including the items detailed below.
This new facility is due to start being brought online late in 2012
An article about ABM and the new Copper House at Wadworth Brewery was published in the Horses Mouth magazine - Spring 2009
ABM help out the award winning Coach House Brewery Company.
This award winning micro brewery which is run by the Coach House Brewing Company, recently had a serious problem when it's automatic cleaning system stopped working.
The system which was based on a Texas Instruments 520c Programmable Logic Controller(PLC), was found to have a serious processor problem which would require a new PLC.
This particular model of PLC had not been manufactured for quite a while and support was not really available any more.
So ABM took on the challenge of finding a replacement system which could be implemented at low cost and on a quick timescale.
The ideal solution would be a brand new PLC solution with modern hardware which was up to date and supportable.
ABM Chose to implement a solution based on a Crouzet Millenium 3 PLC, These processors are extremently economical for small scale systems and it was deemed ideal for this project.
At the same time ABM had the challenge of re implementing the panel mimic display to work with the new system.
Within one week ABM had the cleaning system programmed, and within two weeks the system was implemented and was fully working with all the appropriate electrical panel modifications done in house by ABM electrical engineers.
During the last twenty years, demand has grown dramatically for high and consistent quality consumer products, such as beverages, pharmaceuticals, food and dairy products. In the light of this trend, manufacturers have been faced with the need to enhance control of their production processes as well as to maximise productivity by automating as many of their operations as possible. In this feature we set out to discover where the know-how to deliver these advances in the art of process automation has come from.
We asked leading specialist in the field, ABM Limited to explain. ABM Managing Director, Allan Rogerson has been involved in process automation for the last forty years and set up ABM over twenty years ago.
Early Days
As Allan put it: "When I was a brewery production manager one of my main interests was to find ways of improving control of the brewery operations. So, when the opportunity arose to be able to concentrate on this and to offer solutions to other process industries, I set up ABM with two colleagues. Right from the start we found that demand for our services was strong.
In fact, most of the early requirement for ABM's services was in the form of individual process automation jobs, frequently involving automation of existing processes and equipment. Over the last five to ten years however, ABM has provided an increasing number of full turn-key projects, calling for management of the project from initial concept right through to commissioning. This trend has continued and over the last five years, the majority of ABM's work falls into the category of Project Management.
One of ABM's brewery customers, Wadworth Limited of Devises in Wiltshire, used to carry out all their own process automation work. As Wadwoth's Bob Tyre put it: "We used to do everything ourselves, from building our own control panels to programming PLCs. Then we saw ABM's CIP (clean-in-place) work at other breweries and were impressed. So we asked them to look at automating much of our operation and are very happy with the results they delivered."
Complete Project Management
Allan Rogerson added: "We've recently commissioned a £2million development at Wadworth. We started by digitally surveying the whole operation and produced a three-dimensional virtual model of what we believe Wadworth's facility would look like when the project was finished. Together with their input, this provided a really clear start point on which to base the project. This allowed us to put forward an accurate costing, from site clearance and preparatory work, to sourcing and installing equipment, all electrical and control work, right through to commissioning"
To produce a virtual model of a facility like this requires around 60 individual laser scans and takes ABM about two days to complete. These scans locate in space, all walls, process vessels, pipework and other equipment by producing what's called a "Point Cloud". In turn this is used to produce a three dimensional virtual model of the facility that offers a number of advantages:
This modelling approach has become a standard part of ABM's service.
Bob Tyre added: "In fact ABM was appointed overall project manager for the complete project and we're really happy with their approach. I can talk to any of their engineers and their MD at any time about any concerns I have. Their customer care is very good."
Long Term Development
Another important feature of ABM's work is their input to long-term development at individual customers' facilities.
As one such customer, Ray Webb, a project manager at Diageo explains: "We don't have in-house resources to design and manage these types of project so we use specialists to gain access to certain areas of expertise. When it comes to process automation, we've used ABM for many years. What we're looking for is a customer orientated supplier who understands our business and our needs at individual operator as well as management level. Most importantly we need someone who will deliver what we want, rather than their standard solution made to fit our situation. This is what we get from ABM. And they've proved themselves time and time again."
Diverse Markets
Aside from the beverage sector, the food industry is another key market for process automation. Colin Pope, Group Project Manager with Interlink Bakeries, now McCambridge (North) Limited, sees a major role for process automation in his industry: "Our business has grown from its origins as a cottage style industry. There's no doubt that we can benefit greatly from improved automation and control, especially in fermentation and CIP, as well as in batch and portion control."
Much of this bakery group's manufacturing capacity has been built up over a long time and produces excellent quality products. The key now is to harness control of the whole baking process to improve quality consistency, reduce waste and lower costs.
As Colin Pope went on: "What we're looking for is a specialist who can improve the control our existing equipment. This is one of ABM's strengths. They are able to work with our existing systems and apply their know-how to these. The cost of installing new plant from one of the major plant suppliers is prohibitively high and then you're locked in to their after-service. With ABM we get cost-effective solutions and we're not locked in."
The Future
So what does the future hold for the "art" of process automation? Allan Rogerson is in no doubt. "To compete in global consumer markets, our customers need to upgrade continually their productivity to maintain cost competitiveness, as well as to produce repeatable high quality. Manufacturing processes are becoming increasingly complex and along with this is the increased need to manage and control them. So we see significant growth in market for process automation and particularly for turn key, managed projects."
Looking back ten years, ABM was carrying out individual projects to a value running into five figures. Today, their order value is in the six or seven figure category and almost all their work contains a significant project management element. Companies like ABM offer them a cost-effective way of bringing on steam a well-managed project, complete with all the necessary process automation for their particular application.
Within ten years, Rogerson sees ABM becoming one of the leading project management companies in the UK. He believes his company is already seen by the brewing industry as the "safe" decision in brewing. His ambition for ABM is to achieve the same position in other process industries, including food, dairy, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals.
He added: "One of our most important business principles is that we talk about production issues, not control technology. So our customers can readily see how our proposals bring real benefits to their operation. In the next year or two, I'm looking at strengthening our management team to ensure that there's adequate succession and hence maintain our service to customers in the years ahead. So we'll be in a strong position to take on the challenges of the next ten years. Today we employ around 20 people. I would foresee this rising significantly over the next few years.
Hydes brewery have introduced high gravity brewing.
This article in the Brewers' Guardian shows how ABM helped make this happen.
