Wastage Audits

A "blitz" type wastage audit of your factory would identify the major effluent intensive areas by measuring individual operations within each department. An incisive wastage audit of the key areas would provide a detailed assessment of the potential savings in effluent loadings, effluent volumes and water usage.  Furthermore, valuable product and effluent treatment savings would be highlighted.

We have completed numerous 'blitz' type wastage audits for many companies within the Food & Drink sector, with extremely successful results, namely: GlaxoSmithKline, Dairy Crest, Geest Prepared Foods, Greene King, Greggs, Robert Wiseman Dairies, Cereal Partners UK, Nestlé Rowntree, Cadbury's and many others.

A selection of wastage audit case studies can be found be viewed by clicking on the following links for further information:

• Case Study 1 - Cheese Factory
• Case Study 2 - Confectionery Factory
• Case Study 3 - Brewery
• Case Study 4 - Milk Processing Dairy

As many of the losses within the food and drink factories are cleaning related, it is essential to have a system for accurately recording the loss from a 'Cleaning In Place' (CIP) set. We have witnessed techniques used by many of our competitors and believe these to be inaccurate and misleading. Several years ago we specifically developed a spreadsheet based system CIP-PROP (version 3.1) to accurately measure CIP losses and also provide a profile of the clean that also enables the degree of wastage to be assessed, targeted and easily reviewed.

The MSA CIP-PROP technique is included within the latest dairy industry IPPC regulations as an example of Best Practice for wastage minimisation. Indeed MSA were commissioned by the Environment Agency as their experts to rewrite the guidelines for the dairy sector in a practical and workable format.

 

SmartMixer

In addition to this CIP-PROP, MSA have combined forces with TCS Automation to promote a revolutionary type of mixing system which is designed to blend a wide range of dairy products in real-time with negligible wastage.  The SmartMixer has been developed to accurately produce the desired product to a tight specification using three ingredient streams, any of which can contain fat as well as solids. 

The first SmartMixer installed at a dairy has repaid the capital investment in a matter of a few months.  The key advantages of the system are:

• Dramatically improved control over Fat % and TS % of end product
• Large cost savings with lower "giveaway" on Fat and SNF
• Greatly increased production capacity via the continuous, real-time operation mode compared with simple batch methods
• The ability to use ANY ingredient specification, meaning that production errors from other departments no longer need to wasted and can be re-used through the SmartMixer
• Consistent, repeatable and homogenous end product
• Tight management control over recipes and accurate management information

Click here for more information about the SmartMixer.

  

Case Study 1 - Cheese Factory

An audit of a large cheese factory with the capacity to produce 25,000 tonnes of cheese per year was undertaken by msa to prevent further breaches of its consent limits and reduce the risk of prosecution by the local water plc.  The audit identified that although general wastage levels within the factory were good there was still significant scope for improvement as potential financial savings of £138,000 per annum were identified.  One simple alteration to the factories 'cleaning-in- place' operation yielded financial savings of £88,000 per annum.

 

Case Study 2 - Confectionery Factory

This factory located in North-East England discharges its effluent  to sewer for treatment by the local Water plc. msa were commissioned to try to reduce the large increases in Trade Effluent Charges by undertaking a 'blitz' type wastage audit  to reduce effluent loadings.  The wastage audit uncovered numerous major sources of effluent across the factory and as a result identified potential savings of  £800,000 per annum in trade effluent charges and £83,000 per annum savings in mains water charges. 

The savings in effluent loadings also meant that the site could shelve plans to build an on-site treatment system, for which £1million capital had been allocated. The audit also highlighted that a further £200,000 could be obtained from the regional water plc in the form of a rebate as a faulty water meter was discovered that had been  over-estimating charges for a number of years.

 

Case Study 3 - Brewery

A 200 year old brewery located in East Anglia discharges its effluent to sewer via multiple discharge points for treatment by the local water plc.  The factory management were keen to review the level of wastage across the brewery and commissioned MSA to conduct a 'blitz' type audit of a key departmental area. The audit identified significant potential effluent loading savings of some 240kgCOD/day and potential financial savings of £54,000 per annum.  The majority of the financial and effluent loading savings were achieved through a simple process modification.

 

Case Study 4 - Milk Processing Dairy

A 'blitz' type audit of a modern milk bottling dairy located in the Midlands was undertaken by msa to reduce the risk of prosecution by the local water plc after persistent breaches of its discharge to sewer consent limits.  The audit identified effluent loading savings of some 570kgCOD/day (c.33% reduction in effluent loadings) and financial savings of some £177,000 per annum. The majority of the effluent loading and financial savings were achieved through simple modifications to the processing plant.