DAIRY PLANT DESIGN AND LAYOUT

Module 4. Design aspects of dairy plant

Lesson 24
PREPARATION OF DETAIL LAYOUT WITH MODEL PLANNING

24.1 Introduction

Preparation of detailed layouts and model planning for the dairy plant is very much important to provide specific information which is required by entrepreneur and technical persons implementing the project. Different types of dairies manufacturing different dairy products will need different kind of equipment, service pipe line, and sectional layouts. The material of construction will also differ depending on type of product to be manufactured. Therefore it is very much required to prepare detailed layout with all details along with model for the dairy plant.

24.2 Preparation of Detail Layout and Dairy Plant Model

Preparation of detailed layout for dairy plant with equipment layout, service pipeline layout and sectional layout is a joint venture of dairy manager, engineers, architects and administrators, and it forms overall managerial functions. A knowledge of managerial policy with respect to future volume of production and size of a business firm is of particular importance to the dairy layout engineers, because it points to the need for providing for future expansion or concentration in the plant layout for efficient planning. A good layout must (i) improve or facilitate production operation, (ii) minimize material handling, (iii) maintain flexibility of the operation for alteration and expansions and (iv) promote effective utilization of the labour force and provide for employee convenience and comfort.

The dairy plant model is prepared before going for actual implementation of the project and suggestions are invited from the group of dairy technologist, engineer, architect, administrators and policy makers. The plant building should form an attractive look by proper designing and construction. Good design and construction can be made even more attractive by neat surroundings that results from proper care and landscaping. Single story type construction is commonly preferred because loads on the floors are transferred to the ground rather than supported by structural parts of the buildings, trucks and conveyors replace stairs and expensive elevators, capital investment is less if land is available to spread construction, and building maintenance and plant expansion are simplified.

Mainly there are four basic types of layouts, namely straight line type, ‘L’ type, ‘U’ type and ‘T’ type. In most cases straight line type is favoured in respect of small creamery factory because not much interference is there from utility sections and also it provides easy supervision facilities. If possible, single storey building with straight line or ‘L’ type layout should be preferred. The shape of the plot will immediately give an idea as to which type of layout is best suited. A single line skeleton layout for a small factory is appended for general idea in Fig. 24.1

Space required by an equipment depends upon capacity and dimensions of equipments to be installed. If area of each room is known, then by totaling area of all rooms, area of entire plot can be found. For approximate calculations, an area for processing room should be at least 5 times equipment area. Space in between the equipment and around equipment should be 3 feet. The overall area of plant may be taken as 3 sq. ft/ 5 litres of milk handled per day. This will include office areas for large plant buildings. There must be enough space around factory building for roads and parking.

Planning for dairy plant building, various sections and equipment installation would require careful thinking and suggest that processing room, storage and office room should be initially made sufficient large enough so that, if expansion id there, the main set up is not disturbed. Equipment installation will follow processing concept, i.e. sequence order of operation for forward flow of product, keeping in view short routes and minimal travel of persons and materials.

Fig. 24.1 Concept for layout of dairy plant