Experience example
Aqua Feed Production Expansion
How to increase production without changing production?
Industry
Food
Sector
Aqua Feed
Project
- The client has 19 facilities globally supplying annually over 2 million tons of feed to the aquaculture industry.
- The client identified their existing Tasmanian plant needed to double production from 70,000 to 140,000 tons within 12-months to meet demand.
- A key project goal was to maintain production during the upgrade so the new production line needed to be built in parallel to the existing line to avoid significant production interruptions.
- Cromarty were engaged by the client to work collaboratively with the international project team to provide the complete control and automation solution, incorporating site SCADA and PLC then integration into the materials/stock handling system.
Solution
The project was split into two phases:
Phase 1 - remove and install a new intake and batching system.
Phase 2 - install a new extruder line.
Phase 1
- Ground up redesign of new CitectSCADA whilst maintaining legacy CitectSCADA.
- Dynamically modify current control system to maintain production while existing equipment was moved allowing new machinery to be installed.
- Development of process simulation PLC code to provide a comprehensive environment to test the control system and failure modes without wasting production time, material and to speed up commissioning without putting any personnel at risk.
- 4-week plant shutdown to install and commission new plant wide control system.
Phase 2
- Ground up re-design for the new extruder control system.
- Installation of the new extruder line without stopping the existing extruder.
- The new program was installed and commissioned within a 1-week window.
- Removal of all the redundant coding and de-commissioning of the legacy control system.
Outcome
Despite the size and complexity of the project, the challenging development and commissioning time frames and the need to maintain production during the upgrade, the new facility started on schedule, was on budget, was not only almost immediately able to produce product but now has a future proofed control system.
Cromarty were also able to optimise the original equipment to provide more stable production. This not only met but exceeded the original target of doubling the sites production capacity.