DAIRY PLANT DESIGN AND LAYOUT

Module 2. Location and site selection for dairy plants

Lesson 9
LOCATION OF MILK PRODUCT PLANT

9.1 Introduction

The location of milk product plant is decided based on milk product consumption, availability of milk, and other services required. It is advantageous to locate manufacturing plant close to areas where surplus milk is available after meeting the daily requirement of liquid milk. The activities of milk product manufacturing should be centralized to get advantage of economic handling of both fluid milk, seasonal surplus milk and milk products with a better management control. The location of the plant is as per the requirement of dairy machinery and its installation requirements,which decides the building should be of single storey or multi-storey and accordingly site is selected looking to the topological requirements considering water level and application of super structure concept for the building.

9.2 Classification of Dairy Plants

9.2.1 Product milk plant

Here, there is the production of products like cheese, butter, ice-creams, etc. which do not require daily distribution to the consumers. So the plant should be located near the producing areas. The difference in the location areas of both plants results in the minimized transportation cost.

Milk plants can be classified based on its capacity:

9.2.2 Small capacity milk plants

These are usually on ground floor i.e., one level like for liquid milk plant. The milk storage tanks can be easily be placed in the processing rooms. Also the laboratory is connected to the milk reception room. The despatch should be placed next to the storage. The arrangement should be such that keeps the flow in view and all pipes should be kept as short as possible. A wall should be made in such manner that allows a provision for future expansion.

9.2.3 Medium capacity milk plants

The capacity of the medium sized dairy plant ranges from 20,000 lit to 1,00,000 litres of milk handling per day. Layout for products like market milk, butter & ghee and cheeses can be designed. Each room should be planned separately and arranged with forward flow of product as per requirement.

9.2.4 Large capacity milk plants

Here, the plant building may have few floors having multi-product manufacture, where the reception is done at the ground floor and should have both milk treatment and tank storage on the first floor. If products like milk powder are to be manufactured, then the powder plant should placed in different building.

A few points mentioned below will help in determining the location of milk product plant:

(i) The plant should be located at a place where transportation facilities are available, such as railway siding or near highway. It should be noted that, suitable site would always provide easy transport of raw material to the plant and disposal of finished products.

(ii) To avoid contamination, the bulk transport of pasteurized milk should be discouraged. If pasteurized milk is to be distributed in glass bottles or small containers which are to be returned for reuse, the dairy should be situated close to consumption area. For any reason, if dairy is situated far away from consumption area, it is necessary to transport bottled milk in large quantity to local depots equipped with cold storage facilities.

(iii) Advertising value also affects the location of the plant. For instance a plant installed by the side of a heavily traveled highway naturally commands good sales.

(iv) Location of building should be such, that, all necessary services e.g. electricity, water, waste disposal are available at reasonable cost.

(v) The site must be large enough and of suitable shape to give freedom in planning the building and to allow space for future expansion.

(vi) The area should be free from atmospheric pollution.

(vii) Adequate labour must be available at site and it may be necessary to provide housing facilities to workers.

(viii) Traffic congestion around the plant should always be avoided. Larger plant will require more land for smooth control of traffic pattern.

For any entrepreneur desirous of setting up a dairy industry, it is advisable to go through the following check list on ‘Location’ to assess its suitability. A milk product plant can be located preferably in a village location due to the following reasons;

1. Proximity to the milk shed, reduced transportation cost for raw material

2. Increased shelf life of the product when compared to the raw material

3. Availability of cheap land and labour

4. Reduced noise and pollution

5. In many cases the volume of the final product is less than the milk used, hence reduction in transport and handling cost eg: Cheese, Butter

6. Solid products can be transported in trucks

7. Some products doesn’t even require cold-storage