Increase capacity and flexibility with Tetra Pak® PlantMaster
A milk and whey-based powder ingredient producer in central Europe constructed a new fully integrated, automated, and high-capacity production site – with built in flexibility and traceability.
Case in short
Customer
A producer of milk and whey-based powder ingredients in mid-Europe.
Objective
- Increase production capacity
- Replace old equipment with a new integrated plant
- Flexibility due to variation in incoming raw material
Result
- High capacity and fully integrated production
- Seamless and efficient handling of their different types of products
- Full traceability
“Our solution integrates automation for all of the equipment in the plant, (…) which enables them to streamline their daily production, make quick changes and ensure full traceability throughout the plant.”
Per Jansson, Tetra Pak Automation Project Leader
Challenge – increase production throughput and run at higher capacities
The customer needed to increase production throughput and run at higher capacities to meet demands on efficiency. They also needed to replace old equipment and bring their production up to date with the latest technology including automation and traceability. Furthermore, they needed more flexibility – both in handling variation in incoming raw materials and to meet the fast-changing demands of a dynamic product market with a huge range of different types of products, including Lactoferrin, which has a complex production process.
Solution – a fully integrated and automated plant
To help them achieve all this, we commissioned the largest processing plant we have ever created in our long history in the industry. All of the equipment, from raw material intake to finished and packaged products is fully integrated and automated, and fully traceable – including 100 tanks, 19 filters, 13 pasteurizers, heaters UHT, 2 CPS evaporators, 3 CPS dryers, 1 Tema dryer, a powder system, 3 CIP stations and well as mixing equipment and a reception system. We gave them one point of control with everything operated from the control room. Advanced reception handling, logs and registers trucks and uses the information for full traceability. The traceability and recipe control also covers equipment from third party suppliers. In addition, the solution lets them customize reports for filtration and dryers.
Result – streamlined daily production with full traceability throughout the plant
Today, the customer has gone from struggling with an old site that was both too small and rigid for their needs, to a spacious, modern, fully automated, and very flexible plant. With full paperless traceability, they produce lactose and whey products including lactose, as well as milk and whey protein concentrates. The new site lets them easily adapt to meet the varying market and customer demands, for example by quickly and easily changing production based on the raw materials they receive. Our customer is both satisfied and proud of the solution, which they showcase to their own customers since the benefits are so apparent.