What would you do if you discovered that the state-of-the-art processing equipment you’d just ordered from Europe didn’t fit into your facility? This was the scenario that ready meal maker Jewel of India recently faced.
It makes both branded and private label chilled and frozen ready meals and accompaniments, with products based mostly on Indian, Malaysian and Thai recipes, however strong growth in consumer demand for its products had placed Jewel of India under pressure to increase equipment output rates.
This involved a dramatic redesign of its manufacturing process layouts to keep up with demand. Jewel of India found it needed to move from a batched handmade production process to a fully automated and flexible workplace to deliver a 10-fold increase in output to meet demand at its Botany facility.
To maintain product hygiene, it also had to ensure clear physical segregation from raw materials to finished product was maintained in the manufacturing layout design.
Jewel of India asked Total Construction to help with the fit out of the facility to make sure if functioned effectively from a workflow perspective. It was only after the company had approached Total Construction’s food and beverage division in late 2012 for assistance that its process engineering team discovered that the new equipment for the expansion had been ordered, but no detailed building requirements to suit the new suite of equipment had been looked at.
According to Tony Tate, Total Construction’s GM, Food & Beverage Division, the team evaluated the process flow required for the new equipment and a process design was developed to offer maximum efficiency from the space.
Total Construction’s team also had to ensure the proposed process flow and segregation would meet strict British Retail Consortium (BRC) hygiene guidelines for ready to eat or reheat high risk food products, says Tate.
“Work commenced on a part strip-out of the existing building and commencement of design and structural works and services to accommodate the new equipment,” he says.
The design phase was broken down into four stages. Design stage one needed to focus on the equipment layout that would enable shared control of multiple equipment processes, and utility services (power, water, air) mapped effectively to minimise the client’s sunken capital expenditure.
Design stage two was to ensure high risk products were segregated physically from potential contamination of raw materials by introducing separate changing facilities for personnel.
Equipment positioned in the high-risk area had physical separation between uncooked and cooked materials. Packaged items also needed to be passed through a sanitisation air lock prior to entering the high-risk area with waste from the area having to be disposed of quickly and safely.
Design stage three was to ensure all walls, ceilings and floors were supplied and installed to world’s best practice hygienic protocols, and ensuring segregation was maintained by having separate drainage and positive air flow in the high-risk area.
Design stage four was to ensure both operational and process layouts could be used for the desired intent and purpose, providing operational effectiveness, production of food safe products and flexibility for future innovative product developments.
“Using its ‘inside out’ approach to process design and construction, Total Construction was able to provide a well-designed manufacturing layout fit for purpose in the space available,” says Tate.
“Total Construction was also able to complete the project within time frames and budget and laid the foundations for Jewel of India’s ongoing manufacturing cost efficiencies to be maintained while keeping with the best quality food safety practices in the market.”
The project not only went without a hitch, according to Tate, Jewel of India now has a well-designed and extremely efficient facility, which saves time and money due to its smaller footprint, without the need to repurchase smaller and less efficient equipment.
Product snapshot
Made from natural ingredients and created using old family recipes, Jewel of India products offer authentic Indian cuisine.
Its range includes ready-to-eat curries, simmer sauces, cocktail and finger foods, naan breads and aromatic rices and accompaniments of chutneys, marinades and dipping sauces.
The products are sold in Woolworths, Coles, Thomas Dux and David Jones.
