Many companies who manufacture goods frequently find themselves lacking resources, space, and time to invest in their business when it comes to improving or expanding their production processes. Attempts to add new equipment, or shutdowns to existing equipment for upgrades, become disruptive and interfere with meeting production quotas; the additional work also stretches staff with extra tasks not planned for.
Today, most manufacturing centric businesses operate with their focus on being competitive, and maintaining a lean cost (as well as staffing) structure. Thus, methods for highly effective capital improvement projects become a requirement. To address this client driven mandate, companies providing this project expertise have evolved their capital solution model to one that creates as much project content and functionality as possible at the supplier’s site before delivery to the customer for implementation, so that time in the client’s plant, and support needed from the client’s personnel, is minimized.
One way to package process solutions that provides the requisite efficiency and flexibility is to build the needed improvement or extra capacity into a skid. The skid provides structure to unitize all elements of the client needed manufacturing steps (for example, mixing, heat add or removal, filtration, solution addition, Clean In Place or CIP, pumping/solution delivery, dosing system, etc.) in a package complete with interconnecting piping systems, valves, and industrial controls. The skid is assembled complete, and debugged under automatic control at the vendor’s shop up to the point of wet testing to verify all functionality short of the client’s product parameters.
The end result is a self contained piece of equipment that can be quickly delivered, unloaded, rigged into place, connected mechanically and electrically, and be brought into service with minimal surprises or onsite effort. In a very short time span, and with minimal interruption (weekend installs and start-ups are typical), a new piece of manufacturing capability can be brought on line. The benefits are multiple: very quick install time, minimal production interruption, little or no support required from on site staff, few bugs to troubleshoot after start up, and minimal time to good product.
