SKM Eggs – Pasteurizer Upgradation

Project Info

  • Construction Date

    August 2016

  • Category

    Turnkey Solutions

  • Client

    SKM Eggs Limited Erode India

 

Project Scope

SKM Eggs Limited, the largest egg processor in India, required to upgrade their existing manually operated Egg Pasteurizer to meet the new global compliance of Mondelez, which necessitates a fool-proof production operation wherein an operator/ supervisor cannot bypass production CCPs and protocols. This required, among several other things, a SCADA-based operation, continuous monitoring of process parameters (temperature, flow, pressure, conductivity, FDV status, etc.) at 0.5 sec interval, installation of requisite instruments, new electrical panels and wiring, and eventual redesign of  the complete Pasteurizer into a skid-based unit. Both production, and Clean-in-Place operations were to be done via SCADA, with minor protocols like Cut-in Cut-out, product-utility pressure monitoring, etc. as part of every batch.

The project was to be delivered in a short time with minimal of production downtime and vertical start-up. Further since stakeholders involved not only SKM Eggs and Mondelez, but other local and foreign buyers of SKM Eggs, the final design should encompass and deliver the expectations of all stakeholders.

 

PMG Deliverables

The key objectives included

  • Supply and Installation of all necessary components (valves, instruments, pumps, electrical panel and electricals, automation, piping, structure, etc.) to upgrade the existing Pasteurizer
  • Commissioning of the upgraded Pasteurizer on all of the production recipes and generating all requisite production reports
  • Training of operations and maintenance staff on the new system

The other objectives included

  • supporting SKM Eggs team to develop, compile and provide to Mondelez Quality Assurance team the engineering, production, and quality documentation
  • Developing standard CIP recipes and CIP Validation for each of the recipes and mixes
  • Developing concept and provision to extended SCADA control and operation to Raw Egg and Pasteurized Egg storage, and other sections in future

Differentiated Value Creation

Unlike a traditional milk or cream pasteurizer, the operation of an Egg Pasteurizer is much critical as

  • a minor variation in pasteurization temperature can severely impact product properties (viscosity, flavor, etc.)
  • over the period of production, the holding tubes and other equipment start to clog, wherein the system needs to self-improvise to control heating to keep up to the pasteurization temperature yet, not leading to burning or coagulation of product
  • CIP cleaning must involve caustic and acid in each CIP, and validation of cleaning time, temperature, flow, chemical concentration is vital

With our experience in diverse food industries and end-to-end in-house capabilities we were open to new learnings and quick to improvise on standard SCADA control logic and design to suit to Egg Pasteurizers.

Sub-optimal communication and information exchange is the crux of most project failures, i.e. money spent but objectives missed. Our integrated design, procurement and execution team ensured that no detail (or communication) was missed across the spectrum. Our policy to procure from the best suppliers, install through the best contractors, and supervising everything by in-house engineering and quality assurance team culminated into meeting project objectives with first time quality and 100% stakeholder alignment.