|
|
|
Grampian
Capacity Study
Grampian Country Food Group was established in 1980 at Banff in the North East of Scotland. With the acquisition of businesses, it has become one of the UK’s leading food processors, supplying all the major multiples with poultry and meat products. The key to Grampian’s success has been to build a vertically integrated business encompassing all aspects of the food production chain from feed milling, breeding, hatching and growing of chickens, growing of pigs, processing and transport and distribution.
As part of a major initiative aimed at addressing customer interface and efficient manufacturing within the Group, Grampian wished to evaluate the feasibility of a major expansion of their processing facility at Broxburn in Scotland. Whilst most of the production goes to the major multiples, the Broxburn facility also supports a van sales operation throughout Scotland. In addition delivering to staple foods, the company produces traditional products, adding to the high level of seasonality, particularly before Christmas.
Working against tight deadlines, Davies & Robson was asked to review the supply chain processes in order to determine the optimum size, layout and operation of the finished products warehouse, despatch and yard areas necessary to support the expanded operation. The conclusion was that whilst the yard could be redesigned to cope with the increased vehicle movements it would be necessary to expand the size of the warehouse and introduce a different racking layout and working practices.
Davies & Robson was also asked to review all on site movements of packaging materials, ingredients, stillages, finished products and people in order to identify potential bottlenecks within the production facility. A difficult task in view of the complex nature of the facility, which had been added to over the years as production and new products were introduced. Davies & Robson identified all movements on an hour-by-hour basis and modelled the total operation in order to identify capacity constraints. By representing these movements graphically and pictorially, Davies & Robson were able to clearly demonstrate the points at which the increased production could breach the available capacity and actions necessary to support increased production levels.
Steve Heslop, Regional Director said, “Understanding the fine detail of the supply chain dynamics is imperative to the success of this major investment. Evaluating all the aspects from people, vehicle, material and finished product movements is a very complex piece of work. Davies & Robson has completed the project most satisfactorily against extremely tight timescales which will prove vital to our ongoing success.”
www.gcfg.com
|