Expertise
March has been trusted by key UK industries for decades. We understand the challenges that business faces in terms of productivity, competition, cost control, safety, security and compliance.
Our client is one of the the biggest breakfast cereal and snack producers in the world. For over 40 years, March has provided a range of services to ensure that plants continue to run efficiently including steel and pipework manufacture, mechanical and electrical engineering, systems integration and supporting industry 4.0.
History
Our client is one of the biggest breakfast cereal and snack producers in the world. From plants in Manchester and Wrexham and Spain, Belgium and Poland within Europe, they manufacture well-known brands in cereal and snacks. Our client’s Manchester operation is the largest cereal factory in Europe and makes corn and rice-based products 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for 350 days of the year.
March has been delivering asset engineering services for our client for over forty years.
Solution
The March team operates two core teams onsite at both UK manufacturing plants. Project work covers a wide range of services including electrical and machine maintenance, design, manufacture and installation of steel and pipework, ducting, dust extraction and the installation of new lines and upgrading of existing ones.
A core team is supported by electricians from March when required for additional capital projects. The teams have experience in all aspects of plant maintenance, including electrical and pipework installation.
March works with all three European cereal manufacturing plants to drive performance and operational improvements, deliver cost savings, support future automation and provide enhanced security. The team works on a wide range of projects including MES data collection projects, packing line analytics as part of a global digitalisation initiative, and multiple innovation driven projects across process and packaging areas
A deep understanding of the sites and the production process means March can support our client to define project standards and then manage roll out including consultancy, FEED (Front End Engineering Design), development and implementation.
Results
When our client needed to move a production line from Germany to the UK under challenging timescales, they turned to March to provide the support they needed.
It was important to ensure that the new facility was designed and equipped to meet current standards as well as the future vision for automation and IT systems. The plant also needed to present a best practice model for future installations.
The group provided mechanical and electrical services and systems integration. March was responsible for the design, manufacture and installation of pipework and ducting, and the installation of new equipment. All manufacturing was undertaken at the March site in Manchester.
March joined the client design team to help shape the specifications and functional requirements. Liaising with Process, PC&IS and vendor teams, March followed a consultative approach to translate limited client user requirements into tangible specification documents.
Having the plant running on modern hardware safeguards the life span of the business unit and ensures a low MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures). Designing the system based on modern Industry 4.0 technologies drives benefits to both operation and engineering teams including improved diagnostics, ease of maintenance, system security and resilience.
The team’s deep understanding of our client and the food manufacturing process, helped them deliver the project within challenging timescales, without compromising on the quality processes required throughout the project life cycle.