Page 16 - Food & Drink - June 2018

BAKERY
The ECI advantage
For those on a budget, ECI can help stretch the dollar, writes Total Construction’s Rob Blythman.
EVERY food manufacturer and producer wants to have the best possible facility, but many can’t afford to build bespoke facilities that meet all requirements laid down by some of the heavyweight buyers.
This means some clients must achieve maximum stretch of their dollar to create a facility which may not be their ideal, but will allow their business to flourish.
The key to this approach is to involve your builder early in the process. This is commonly known in the construction game as Early Contractor Involvement, or ECI.
Having a builder involved during the scoping and design stage can allow critical cost items in any build/fitout to be identified, and alternatives discussed. For instance, you may have a plan to construct a mezzanine level in your operations, but flows can be extremely costly to construct.
Sometimes a client cannot see the forest for the trees, because they are so entrenched in their business they only see one aspect of the project, which
is to increase efficiencies in their production.
Involving a builder with process engineering capability in the food and beverage industry can allow different eyes to see the requirements and suggest alternatives to the building layout that don’t just reduce the need for costly building works, but can potentially improve the process flow overall.
4.7%
CAPITAL INVESTMENT GROWTH IN AUST. BY FOOD & BEVERAGE PROCESSORS IN 2017
So how does ECI work to develop an achievable budget? Firstly, a site investigation is carried out by the builder on the existing and proposed facilities to detail and identify all services required, and what is available at the new site in the way of power and gas capacities. Increasing power or gas supply to a site can be very costly to
the project and create delays.
Another area that needs
consideration in the case of an existing building to be fitted out, is the structure’s integrity. Having to strengthen this to cope with the additional weight of fitout and services can often blow out project costs.
A workshop is carried out with all stakeholders to identify required efficiencies, confirm proposed outputs, and flag any potential limitations. As part of this workshop, all production processes are mapped and detailed for both the existing and proposed operations.
A comprehensive list, including capacities and dimensions of all equipment both existing and new, is developed. This helps identify all utilities, services required, and sets the benchmark for power and gas requirements at the proposed site.
This process helps identify potential bottlenecks in current processes and helps highlight any potential hygiene requirements in the new fitout. Getting all this data captured is critical in maximising efficiencies of the new facility.
A review of the buildability
of the facility is done and sketch
design layouts are completed to optimise process flows to best fit the client’s objectives. A building/fitout SWAT analysis is carried out and build/fitout costs are derived. Through close consultation between the builder and client, this process allows potential savings to be identified early on in the overall design and layout of the facility.
A detailed design including all services and requirements is then developed and put to the market for live market costing. This will give the client a firm understanding of what they can get for their dollar. Here
is where working to a budget comes in.
Once the ideal building and fitout costs are established, it
is then possible to derive further reductions in the overall project spend through rationalising
the design. ✷
✷ ABOUTTHEAUTHOR
16 | Food&Drink business | June 2018 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au
Baked Provisions cut the cost of its project by getting its plant design company Total Construction involved early.
Rob Blythman is the national business manager in the food and beverage division at Total
Construction. Contact
him at robblythman@ totalconstruction.com.au.