Fluid engineering expertise for the dairy industry

With almost 30 years' experience of the dairy industry, Terry Clough provides a valuable insight into the process requirements of the dairy sector.

With almost 30 years' experience of the dairy industry - and some 15 years spent delivering the highest levels of process technology to milk and dairy product producers of all sizes - FMA Process Engineering's Commercial Director, Terry Clough, provides a valuable insight into the process requirements of the dairy sector, the drive for greater efficiency and FMA's ability to deliver ever-increasing levels of process accountability and quality control.

Offering a wide range of project management, engineering design, management reporting and process control services to mainly blue chip clients in the field of "hygienic liquid processing", Lichfield-based FMA Process Engineering has created quite a name for itself within the dairy industry.

Established in 1981, the company quickly recognised that the levels of innovation, efficiency, expertise and technical solutions that it provided on a regular basis to Britain's brewers were of equal benefit to those in the dairy sector.

Indeed, following an early degree of success with several UK dairies - and involving such projects as cleaning in place and milk process systems - in the late 1980s FMA decided to firmly establish its credentials for process design, supply and implementation skills right across the dairy sector.

Joining FMA in 1989 from Unigate Dairies - his employer since graduating as a chemical engineer in 1974 and where he had worked in numerous production sites, became Unigate's youngest ever factory manager at the age of 25, and concentrated on various development projects - Terry Clough's considerable expertise provided FMA with a unique insight into the very real requirements of dairy companies.

"Quite simply I understood fully the process control issues affecting the large scale modern dairy production site", comments Clough.

"I'd managed Unigate's Guildford Milk Processing Plant in the early 1980s.

My engineering background enabled me to instigate new packaging equipment and processing projects during my time with Unigate and I was fully au-fait with the various quality standards in place.

I had also been responsible for the engineering of 'customer facing' dairy processes and liquid packaging systems at the, then new, Unigate Westway facility in London".

Joining as Process Engineering Manager - with the specific focus of developing the scale of FMA's dairy projects - Terry Clough was successful in securing several contracts in the early 1990s.

His initial involvement in FMA was in a major process control task for Unigate in Folkestone.

Embracing all plant functions from raw milk intake, storage and pasteurisation, through to finished milk storage, routing and filling, the contract provided a perfect demonstration of FMA's complete turnkey abilities, design, installation and commissioning skills - while minimising impact on production during commissioning.

After that all-important Unigate Folkestone contract in 1989, a significant project to reduce milk wastage followed for Woodgate Farm Dairies in 1991.

A new CIP set to supplement the tanker cleaning facilities and provide a high standard of reproducible cleans was installed at St Ivel, Chard, followed closely by the installation of new milk intake cooling facilities.

Since that time, a whole range of other dairy industry projects, encompassing both process control and management reporting functions have followed.

For Unigate in particular, FMA have undertaken everything from complete plant control to upgrades of raw milk intake to final filling complete site redevelopment programmes, CIP and reclaim facilities, intake cooling and product dispatch, fully automatic pasteurisation control systems and pasteuriser/homogeniser/blender installations.

Only last year, in a contract worth an estimated 30% of the total GBP 39 million overall investment, FMA was responsible for all aspects of process design and supply - including state of the art process control and data logging systems implementation at Dairy Crest's prestigious Severnside Super Dairy development in Gloucestershire.

Having fulfilled that initial task of "maximising project opportunities in the dairy industry", Terry Clough was then required to strengthen FMA's dairy-focused skills base - a process involving the recruitment of designers and engineers with the specific experience necessary to provide unrivalled solutions to FMA dairy customers.

Understanding the process control issues of the dairy business better than most, FMA sought out those individuals with specific skills who fully appreciate the processes and needs of a modern dairy production facility from either a chemical, mechanical, electrical or software engineering perspective.

Indeed, bringing such experience on board has further underlined FMA's commitment to the dairy industry and enabled the company to regularly set new industry standards in terms of efficiency, quality and service.

Via process design, state-of-the-art process control and management reporting and implementation - FMA is able to deliver the necessary skills that ensure higher quality standards.

The drive towards greater production efficiencies, reduced downtime and less product wastage is common across all industries and the dairy sector is no exception.

Consequently, at the same time as FMA was establishing a name for itself in dairy process control and data delivery, large-scale dairy-industry rationalisation was also taking place.

Throughout the 1990s, the movement of equipment from one site to another was commonplace; the upgrading of existing capacities was required and new pasteurisers were being installed - all of which led to a considerable amount of work on new systems and in further reducing milk wastage.

"Having spent the best part of 15 years working for - and understanding the requirements of - a major dairy chain", adds Clough, "through FMA I have been able to contribute considerable skills back to Unigate and other dairy companies.

I've seen the issues relating to large volume dairy operation from both sides of the fence; I understand the ethos behind production techniques and am able to impart my knowledge in terms of making projects work and, perhaps most importantly, understanding the end product requirement through a different set of values.

By fully understanding the issues, FMA has been able to solve problems that dairy companies were aware of, as well as those they didn't know they had".

With today's focus towards plant consolidation - typified by the recent announcement from Arla and Express Dairies, FMA is also becoming increasingly involved in helping to amalgamate plants, maximise re-use and re-engineering of existing valuable plant and equipment.

The merger of Unigate and Dairy Crest and the subsequent development of Severnside is a typical example of how these levels of expertise can often be best used.

As manufacturing industries of all kinds constantly seek to improve product traceability, reduce costly plant downtime, minimise product wastage and establish those vital key performance indicators that can maximise the return on investment from both plant automation and process control, FMA have become industry experts in the provision of process control technology and real-time data collection systems that have helped dairies of all sizes embrace the very highest quality standards.

By achieving BS5750 (now ISO9001) in 1990, FMA was able to demonstrate to potential customers that it was wholly accountable and able to deliver totally consistent solutions.

Indeed, as Terry Clough is first to admit, at one stage BS5750 spearheaded FMA's marketing strategy as clients also sought to ensure that their suppliers operated to the highest levels.

Today, quality standards are increasingly market-driven and FMA continues to directly influence the way in which standards are rising.

This has been perhaps best demonstrated via the delivery of process systems geared to providing vital data at shop floor level right through to vertically structured systems encompassing Scada, management execution systems (MES) and interfacing with complex enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) across multiple production sites.

Via innovative software solutions, efficient product routing and the implementation of MES reporting, FMA is able to instil an environment of enhanced plant control and information delivery where manufacturers can capture vital plant information by both time and event, where precise volume monitoring can highlight losses against inventory and where superior product tracking provides total product genealogy.

"We are influencing the way standards are rising across the dairy industry", concludes Terry Clough.

"Using our 'best practice' knowledge, FMA is able to address all quality issues and provide the very best solutions".

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