The SDA Allansford site has grown in both size and complexity over more than 130 years of operation. The site takes in approximately 1 billion litres of milk annually, producing a wide range of dairy products including cheese, butter, milk powder, whey powder and liquid milk.
On such a complex manufacturing site, plant and process reliability is crucial for efficient operations. Additionally, equipment reliability is also an important component of the food safety in our plant, especially with the valves that are critical components of process lines and equipment. Inspection and maintenance of these valves must be carried out during annual production shutdown periods and is prioritised based on equipment criticality and our internal knowledge & experience of the plant. Capturing this knowledge & experience and imbedding it in an interactive decision matrix will help to build better reliability programs on site.

The student team will be required to develop a detailed understanding of the production processes and critical valving equipment in a key production area on site. The team will build their knowledge of the equipment from hands-on work in the production plant as well as consultation with experienced maintenance personnel, equipment suppliers and operators.

Using this knowledge, the team will develop and pilot an interactive app-based tool that captures the understanding of each piece of equipment and the process environment it is operating in and uses a criticality matrix to provide recommendations for maintenance programs.