Overall plant control, and the control system (SCADA) for four lines of plant at the new bakery, will also be designed in-house and supplied by the group.
The new A$135 million bakery is being built by George Weston Foods in Chullora, south west Sydney and will also include a distribution centre which will become the centre for GWF's operations in New South Wales, responsible for brands such as Sunblest, Hi Fibre, Noble Rise, Burgen and UP. The company's previous bakery in Fairfield, Sydney was destroyed by fire over 18 months ago.
The two new bread production lines will each be capable of producing 8,750 loaves per hour, and the bun line is rated at 40,000 per hour, giving a total output of 16.5 tons of product every hour of every day.
Both bread lines will incorporate APV Baker mixing, forming and baking technology, including the latest Tweedy PV (Pressure Vacuum) mixing systems which ensure good texture and consistency. The bun line, from forming through proving, baking with a Lanham conveyorised proof and bake system, to depanning, tray conveying and automatic storage, will also be supplied by APV Baker.
Equipment is being sourced from APV Baker's two centres of design, process and project management expertise in the UK and the US. The company's operation in Melbourne, Australia, will build some elements of the baking systems locally, lead the installation and commissioning phase and provide back-up and service.
The state-of-the-art bread plants will incorporate features such as oven temperature control sensors to enable rapid changeover between a variety products, ranging from the heavier Noble Rise breads to raisin bread and white loaves.
The control system will cover the three APV Baker lines, plus a muffin plant, and include every aspect of the process from ingredient feed/batching to basket handling, over equipment from a range of local and international suppliers.
The SCADA specification includes SAP integration with recipe scheduling, product reporting, batch usage reporting, downtime reporting, video capture, swipe card log in and full product tracking.