Page 32 - Packaging News magazine March-April 2022

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BEVERAGE PACKAGING | www.packagingnews.com.au | March-April 2022
Process Partners ‘never fail’ to impress
As part of Coca-Cola EuroPacific’s expansion of its Moorabbin plant, the company’s Neverfail spring water bottling facility was relocated to a brownfield site in Heatherton, Victoria. Engineering company Process Partners played a pivotal role in the project. Lindy Hughson reports.
Describing the scope of the project, Craig Gilbert, senior packaging engi- neer at Process Partners tells PKN, “The proposed site was a former ware- house, and as such, was not prepared for a manufacturing space.
“Further, a number of services were shared between Moorabbin and Neverfail. These services now had to be sized and designed, including sys- tems for the air, power distribution and spring water, CIP, steam, compressed ethernet & control.”
The process implemented involved accepting delivery of spring water from the tankers and bottling this on the Neverfail line at a rate of 1050 bot- tles per hour in 15-litre returnable bulk water containers.
On average, the spring water deliv- ery volume is 100,000 litres per day. Included in the implementation was ensuring the supply for CIP of the pro- duction line and for the washer.
Describing the challenges faced on the process and services implementa- tion, Gilbert says the longest lead time item was the tanks, and it became challenging when Process Partners’ usual suppliers were both unable to meet delivery dates.
“After an extensive search of Australia, New Zealand, China and Vietnam we found BTM (Brisbane Tank Manufacturing) who could deliver the equipment within the required timeframe.”
Covid too presented obstacles, with an initial delay during construction when the primary contractor could only have limited numbers of personnel on site. This delayed Process Partners’ starting date by six weeks, putting pres- sure on the timeline for installation and commissioning. Nevertheless, commis- sioning started close to Christmas, and completed by mid-January.
PLANT relocation presents challenges at the best of times. In 2021, when the Neverfail relocation project kicked off, the Covid environment added layers of complexity around the construction with slowdowns, lockdowns and an extra level of care
required to keep everyone safe and up to date with government regulations.
For independent food and bever- age engineering company Process Partners, engaged initially to design a new spring water plant for the site and then commissioned to install the turn- key processing and packaging line, flexibility was the name of the game.
Coca-Cola EuroPacific (CCEP) proj- ect manager – Neverfail Relocation, Judi Brown says that having Process Partners handle the process end to end provided major benefits in design con- tinuity and contractor management.
“Uncertainty around the government Covid restrictions meant that works needed to be rescheduled. Process
Partners were flexible and worked hard to achieve the best outcome for Neverfail,” she says. “With good com- munications throughout the project and the ability to work well with other con- tractors on-site, their part in the project was delivered very successfully.”
It’s a point of pride for Process Partners – which counts among its cus- tomer base multinationals like Lion, Bega, Asahi and Mondelez – that the CCEP project was delivered in January this year on time and within budget, with the new site now fully operational filling locally sourced spring water into a range of container sizes.
Process Partners were flexible and worked
hard to achieve the best outcome for Neverfail.”
– Judi Brown, CCEP project manager