Mataura Valley Milk situated in McNab north of Gore in the South Island wanted to build the world’s best nutritional business that could quickly tailor production to specific customer requirements while guaranteeing the delivery of best-in-class quality products.
Mataura Valley Milk’s first operating season proved that the plant can consistently manufacture world-class nutritional products with microbial results well below standard requirements. Over 3,300 Aerobic Plate Count tests were performed during the 2018/19 season to identify colony forming units per gram (cfu/g). Mataura Valley Milk’s highest recorded result was a mere 190 cfu/g, with the accepted limit being 5,000 cfu/g, believed to be a first for New Zealand and indicating that the plant’s critical hygiene areas and processes benchmark performance worldwide.
An end-to-end solution
Auckland based company GEA – one the largest technology suppliers for the food processing industry was selected to be responsible for the main construction of the main process plant and building along with the specification, installation and commissioning of the sophisticated plant and equipment that manages tanker unloading, raw milk storage, separation, ingredient batching, evaporation and drying through to final product packaging.
Schneider Electric’s robust EcoStruxure Plant and Power solution that delivers connectivity across all layers of the operation, minimises energy usage, guarantees power quality, and provides real-time data so that transparency and integrity are maintained across the supply chain, from farm ingredients to manufactured products was specified.
Scott Waddell, Engineering Manager at Mataura Valley Milk says, “Standardising on Schneider equipment gives us confidence around our power supply and the integrity of our operations. It’s not just the reliability of their equipment but also the support and expertise we get from Schneider. We’re able to see our real-time energy usage, and AVEVA’s System Platform provides context to our data, enabling fine-tuning of our power usage and carbon footprint.”
A connected and scalable backbone that enables Mataura Valley Milk to seize market opportunities, secure in the quality of its product and the reliability of its infrastructure. The company can remain innovative, agile, and versatile by confidently making decisions based on live data it knows can be trusted.
Credits: GEA New Zealand and Mataura Valley Milk.
