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SA Food Centre - Your first stop for...processing

Badge of success

A design and construction company with its beginnings in Adelaide is assisting South Australian food businesses grow their production capabilities - and iron out any bottlenecks along the way.

Designing a new food production facility – or rebuilding an existing one – is about far more than attractive design and new signage.

Easing bottlenecks, planning for future production growth and ensuring good process flow are also key elements, according to Badge.

Badge is recognised as one of the few design and construction companies in Australia with an expertise in food and beverage facilities. Name any one of dozens of food producing facilities in South Australia, and chances are that Badge may have been involved somewhere along the line.

Badge’s Design Group Manager Brendon Zarins said "looking ahead" was a key to Badge’s success.

"Master-planning facilities to enable growth beyond the current project - should it be required – is always a key consideration."

Pinch-points, or bottlenecks in processing that may have an impact on outputs, are also targeted.

Brendon said there were many benefits in improving processing areas to enable greater production output.

"Process flow is always a major consideration. There is no point in creating a new end to a process that can cope with increased output if the start of the process will never be able to cater for the increased throughput." He said good master-planning went a long way to resolving this issue.

"Process areas need a level of flexibility. Products and market demands are constantly changing and evolving. All plant and equipment has a finite life, its replacement often has different space and service requirements. These changes need to be included in the design process."

"Most processing plants evolve over a long period of time. Areas get added to or extended to cope with immediate requirements and are rarely future proofed. This is not something that needs to carry a cost burden, but simply some careful consideration during the early design phase."

Brendon said logistics and safety were also paramount considerations. "Personnel, trucks and forklifts need to coexist in such a way to maximise safety and minimise, or eliminate, the crossing of functions."

Badge works closely with Council Planners, the EPA, Metropolitan Fire Service and other relevant statutory bodies to ensure that the most cost effective solution for all building commissions are achieved.

"This enables our client to continue doing what they do best - it enables them to focus on the project without the burden of addressing any statutory requirements," Brendon said.

Want more information?

Contact
Brendon Zarins
Badge
p +61 8 8293 5099
e bzarins@badge.net.au

Making processes efficient

It’s a familiar story. Someone sees a gap in the market for, say, a decent brandied fruit. They remember a wonderful recipe their grandmother used to make. They head off to the market, stock up on dried fruits, rush home and make a batch of the most divine brandied fruits.

They share jars of the precious produce amongst their friends and the feedback is encouraging. Before long, the brandied fruits are selling like hot cakes at the local farmers market. A fledgling cottage industry is born.

Encouraged by the success of the product they begin making and selling their product in earnest and earning a decent living from the brandied fruits.

Success breeds more success and, in time, family members join the business. Production increases steadily, until the existing premises seems to be bursting at the seams.

Now a new dilemma – battle away in an overcrowded premises, or outlay millions to develop a new purpose-built facility.

An inevitable choice. Or is it?

According to Andrew Barber, Principal Scientist, Food Innovation and Value Chain at the South Australian Food Centre, the above scenario is not uncommon in the South Australian food industry.

"So many of our State’s food businesses are small to medium sized, family owned and operated. Often as the business grows, what was a good practical manufacturing method on a small scale can become less efficient as the business – and production, grows," he said.

"The business reaches the stage where it is ‘full’ and the owners think they need to move from its existing site to a new purpose-built facility.

"But the truth is that seldom are ‘full.’ Usually we find that if the business spends some time, money and effort laying out the production facility more effectively - so that their processing becomes more efficient – there is no need for them to move at all. Often, this decision can save the business millions of dollars."

The SA Food Centre can help SA food businesses to improve their processing capabilities. Areas of improvement that Andrew and Food Processing Engineer Mohan Raj have worked with businesses on include:

  • Revisions in process plant layout so that businesses can more effectively utilise the space in which they work rather than having to accelerate plans to expand or to move into new facilities. This process has resulted in shorter term changes being employed at a cost of tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, allowing the businesses to maximise productivity in their existing sites.
  • Assistance with the implementation of more effective heating and cooling systems to provide improved temperature control of sensitive food products.
  • Improved segregation of food products at different stages (raw, cooked, packaged) of processing.
  • Increases in product shelf lives associated with improved product handling.
  • Assessments in the practicality of the introduction of new (or second hand) processing lines.
  • Investigations into the practicality of proposed sites for food business operations.

Want to know more?

Contact
Dr Andrew Barber
SA Food Centre
p +61 8 8348 2488
e andrew.barber@sa.gov.au