Capital Project Management for a Manufacturing Plant Expansion

A world-leading food company purchased a beverage plant to expand their business into this growing industry. The client came to DISHER for capital project management support. They needed DISHER to act as the owner’s rep in managing the various projects related to the acquisition.

DISHER conducted a complete process time study to determine the equipment needed to optimize productivity in the plant. Existing equipment and process data was gathered, analyzed, and modelled.

Using the data, DISHER recommended a new production line with new equipment designed to accommodate production growth. The new equipment included a mixing room, a storage tank room, a new filling machine, product packaging equipment, a robotic palletizer, and an automatic stretch wrapper.

DISHER managed the plant expansion to accommodate the size of the new equipment to support the increase in production. Walls had to be raised, new utilities run, and the old floor needed to be demolished and reinstalled. All activities had to take place during normal production hours and could not interfere with production goals.

We met with department stakeholders within the plant to gather input on their specific wants and needs and facilitated the collaboration between Production, Quality, Engineering, Maintenance, and Logistics. All the feedback was compiled into a matrix and was included in the earliest stages of the design. DISHER ideated on the optimal design for equipment layout, operator safety, material handling, and production flow.

Partnering with a local design build general contractor, we collaborated to generate a 30% complete design of the building and layout. That design was brought back to our client and reviewed by every department.

The feedback generated from those meetings was brought back to the GC and was incorporated into the future design. The same process took place for a 60% review and a 90% review. After the 90% review, all stakeholders had their input in a complete design that was ready for construction.

While the equipment manufactures began building the process equipment, major renovations started at the plant. DISHER collaborated with our client’s quality department to develop a Food Safety Construction Plan. These requirements outlined how to separate the production facility from the construction zones. Once production was isolated, DISHER supervised the general contractor as they removed the floors, ceiling, roof, and walls.

Weekly progress meetings were held between the general contractor and DISHER to ensure the project continued on time and under budget. DISHER held weekly update meetings with the greater plant team and updated individual stakeholders on a daily basis, as needed.

Parallel to construction, DISHER had regular update meetings with the equipment vendors to monitor their progress. Once the equipment was constructed and passed the Factory Acceptance Test, DISHER helped coordinate the delivery and installation of the equipment.

DISHER facilitated all communications between our client and the equipment vendor so the installation could take place without interrupting production.

The end result was a new optimized production line, starting from raw materials all the way through final product and packaging. Our client was grateful for the way DISHER managed the project seamlessly from start to finish, freeing them up to focus on their day-to-day priorities with minimal interruption from the project. The increased capacity of the new line enabled our customer to reach record throughput.