PC-JUN09-PGS5.OK:PC-JUN09-PGS5.OK.qxd 29/05/2009 14:21 Page S5
Focus Food processing & packaging
Training leads to production gains
In times when production efficiency is crucial, and plant
uptime levels critical, a multi-skilled engineering workforce
is an effective workforce. Michelle Lea visited United
Biscuits’ McVitie’s plant in Harlesden, to find out how MCP
Consulting and Training is training engineers in the skills
they need to keep production running
W
hen you are producing bis- equip them with the skills they
cuits and snacks 24 hours a needed. MCP Consulting and Training
day, seven days a week it’s was given the task of carrying out the
not only the machinery and training. According to Holland, he
equipment you rely on, you also have chose MCP because they ‘could
to be sure that the operators and engi- deliver what United Biscuits was look-
neers have the level of competency ing for, with the training delivered by
required to get a line up and running experts who had a good level of practi-
quickly should a fault occur. cal knowledge.’
This is certainly the case at United
Biscuits’ McVitie’s site in Harlesden, Multi-skilling
North London, which produces well- Initially, the training programme will
Engineers at
After the theory training and some
known biscuit brands such as focus on electrical engineering and
McVitie’s have the
practical experience on training rigs,
HobNobs, Digestives, Chocolate mechanical engineering disciplines,
skills to identify
a ‘buddying’ programme allows engi-
Homewheat and Rich Tea, and snack with the aim of giving electrical engi-
faults on the pro-
neers to put into practice what they
products including Mini Cheddars. neers the skills to carry out basic duction line and have learnt in the classroom, whilst
With a biscuit typically taking two mechanical functions, and vice versa. make the necessary being supervised by a mentor.
hours from initial raw product to pack- This multi-skilling will give engineers repairs Holland said: “The ‘buddying pro-
aged end product, it is imperative that the knowledge they need to be able to gramme’ gives the employees the con-
each biscuit production line at the site perform basic maintenance and fault- fidence that there is an experienced
runs smoothly, avoiding any of the finding on the production line in areas engineer by their side, and also pro-
bottlenecks, hold-ups and breakdowns outside of their specialism. vides an independent verification of
that could cause production problems Not only does this mean that more their competence.”
both up and down the line. engineers are able to identify faults on
This was one of the reasons that a production line and make the neces- Flexible mentoring
John Holland, training & development sary repairs/adjustments to keep it With the site running two day shifts
manager at United Biscuits, decided to running, but it also means the individ- and one night shift, the mentoring
instigate a training programme for uals themselves are given the opportu- process had to be flexible. It was
operators and engineers which would nity to expand their skill set. essential that MCP could provide men-
tors who could work with engineers in
the middle of the night, as well as
Pumps help eliminate manual emptying
during the day.
Holland is now looking at training
P
roblem: Church End Brewery produces over 40 distinct beers, including unusual products such as fruit, herb and
courses that can help engineers mea-
chocolate malt beers. Manually emptying the waste from equipment at its production facility in Nuneaton,
sure Overall Equipment Effectiveness
Warwickshire, was a time-consuming and labour intensive process, so an alternative was sought.
(OEE) and identify areas where waste
Solution: A Compact C Range pump from Mono NOV has been specified by the brewery to improve process efficiency
levels can be reduced. Currently, he is
and handle highly viscous material.
consolidating the training that has
The pump has been installed to mix water and crushed barley (the setting of the mash) and then transfer the resultant
already taken place, as he believes that
spent grains at 50l/min to a storage tank prior to disposal. As the mash is a highly viscous product, the pump was
there has to be a lead time of between
18 months and two years before any
designed with a square inlet to assist the product into the pumping element.
‘real-life benefits’ can be demonstrated.
Stewart Elliot, managing director at the Church End Brewery,
As the beleaguered population of
said: “We had a number of companies quote for the job, but
the UK indulge in biscuits more and
right from the outset Mono stood out from the crowd. They sent
more to seek some reprieve from the
someone out to us straight away to analyse the situation and
economic doom and gloom, demand
then quickly came back with a very competitive quote.
for McVitie’s products is likely to
“Also, Mono’s specification was spot on – other competi- increase. United Biscuits’ decision to
tors came back with over specified quotes, which were not invest in the training required to
what we asked for. We are very happy with our Mono pump, not ‘multi-skill’ engineers may ultimately
only has it performed extremely well, it is saving us a lot of prove to be a timely one!
time and sweat from manually emptying the mash!”.
Mono NOV
MCP Consulting and Training
T: 0161 339 9000 www.mono-pumps.com Enter 227
T: 0121 506 9034 Enter 228
www.mcpeurope.com
Process & Control JUNE 2009 S5
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