Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
1
The Winery Engineering Association proudly acknowledges the support of its Patron Sponsor & Founding Sponsor
Hi Everyone, Well it is incredible to think that It is now over a month since we ran our Barossa conference with a post conference report being included in this edition, also included is a preview of our New Zealand conference that gets underway in Napier in a little over six weeks time, so those of you who are considering attending our NZ event we suggest you register ASAP in order to take advantage of the early bird discount that is available up until 21st September. Also included in this edition are a number of interesting and informative articles the first of which is from Ross Kennedy at CTPM which follows on from the presentation that he delivered at the Barossa conference and in turn explains the role of effective daily management in achieving operational excellence. Following articles then deal with energy auditing and efficiency, Winery presentation & image, Potential energy savings associated with compressed air auditing and an interesting piece on how New Zealands oldest winery drives sustainability. Enjoy the read
www.wea.org.au
WineLines August 2018 Issue
Newsletter of the Winery Engineering Association
President
Ben McDonald Treasury Wine Estates
Treasurer
Peter Stone Best Bottlers
Secretary Ray Pender
Australian Vintage Limited [email protected]
Postal Address
PO Box 433 BURONGA NSW 2739
Phone
03 5022 5100
Facsimile 03 5022 5135
Conference Organizer Trevor Leighton
PO Box 432 Buronga
NSW 2739 Ph. 03 5024 8611 Fx. 03 5024 8925 Mb. 0417 597 956
Speaker Coordinator & WineLines Editor
David Clark Ph. 03 5358 2059 Mb. 0412 518 685 [email protected]
In This Issue • WEA 2018 National Conference Report • WEA 2018 New Zealand Conference Preview • WEA Membership • WEA Sponsorship Opportunities • CTPM Article – The Importance of Effective Daily Management • AWRI – Energy Audit Case Study – Progressive Winery Goes Even Further • Programmed Property Services – Wineries: Connecting the Dots between
Customer Experience & Maintenance • CAPS Article – How Much Could Your Winery Save with a Compressed Air
Audit • Mission Estate – New Zealand’s Oldest Winery Drives Sustainability
Newsletter Pre-View
2
WineEng 2018
Winery Resources – Future Challenges
July 2018 saw the running of yet another successful Winery Engineering Association National Conference and Exhibition that ran over two days and was held at the Vine Inn located in Nuriootpa in the Barossa Valley. Conference This year’s Australian WEA Conference and Exhibition ran over Wednesday 25th & Thursday 26th July and in turn was attended by delegates representing all areas of winemaking production. With the theme title of this year’s conference being ‘Winery Resources – Future Challenges’ delegates were able to attend a comprehensive program of technical papers over the two days of the conference which commenced with a welcome address by WEA president Ben McDonald and keynote address from Dr. Simon Nordestgaard – AWRI Senior Engineer , in his address Simon presented on the prevalence of different wine production equipment and practices and covered such area’s as destemming-sorting harvesters, different yeast types, clarification methods, fining agents, timings of inoculation for malolactic fermentation, and heat and cold stabilization techniques. The drivers in different choices were discussed with some thoughts on future directions put forward. Reasons why some technologies have not been widely adopted as might have been expected were also examined as was some novel technology implementations from overseas.
WEA Australian National Conference & Exhibition
3
Welcoming Address - Ben McDonald
The keynote address from Simon set the scene for the conference and after a short break in proceedings was followed by a number of technical presentations covering Winery scheduling, The importance of effective daily management and Structured problem solving. Following the lunch break afternoon sessions commenced, the first focusing on Energy & Automation issues and the second dealing with Cooperage and then Automated Cork Analysis all of which were extremely well received by the conference delegates.
Ross Wikinson – TWE & WEA Simon Nordestgaard – AWRI & WEA Session Chairperson Opening Address Day two of the conference comprised of a number of short technical presentations looking at issues associated with Refrigeration, Compressed air, Understanding stainless steel, Asset sweating, Black winery mould and Winery gas control. After a short break the final session for the morning took place covering filtration and separation technology.
4 Following the lunch break the afternoon session commenced with one of the highlights of this year’s conference program taking place being a Cross Industry Oxygen Management Forum, the forum was chaired by Dr Simon Nordestgaard – AWRI Senior Engineer with panel members being as follows: Dr Martin Day – AWRI Research Scientist, Mr David Medlyn – Coopers Brewery Technical Brewer, Dr Jean Macintyre – Pernod Ricard Project Manager – Wine Innovation, Mr Ulrich Mempel – Krones Head of Sales Pacific Countries & Mr Luke Wilson Yalumba Senior Process Engineer. Following an introduction by Simon each of the panel members gave a short presentation outlining initiatives taken to manage oxygen either in their respective winery or brewery or in the case of Krones the technology that had been developed in their filling equipment to minimize oxygen pick up, these presentations were then followed by an open panel discussion including delegate participation via Q&A. The forum was extremely well received by delegates and will certainly be a format that we will include in future conference programs.
Forum chair - Dr Simon Nordestgaard - Senior Engineer with the AWRI & WEA Vice President
Forum Panel
Dr Jean McIntyre Dr Martin Day Mr David Medlyn Mr Ulrich Mempel Mr Luke Wilson Project Manager Research Scientist Technical Brewer Sales Director Senior Process Engineer Wine Innovation AWRI Coopers Brewery Krones Pacific Yalumba Family Vignerons Pernod Ricard Winemakers The final session of the conference was an educational tasting but with a different twist this year focusing on beer styles, the tasting was conducted by David Medlyn – Coopers Brewery Technical Brewer who presented 4 different beer styles produced in Coopers Brewery and in turn explained the process with producing each style, David’s presentation was both detailed and entertaining which in turn resulted in a good deal of interaction with a capacity audience of tasters.
5 Copies of the 2018 conference PowerPoint presentations can be viewed on the WEA website www.wea.org.au Exhibition Exhibitor booths were taken up by a broad range of suppliers which in turn gave exhibitors and delegates a great opportunity to discuss new products and services, development plans and associated equipment requirements for the future as well as general networking. All exhibits were well attended during the tea and lunch breaks as well as before and after the conference proceedings each day.
Rockwell & NHP Representatives Part of General Exhibition Area Conference Dinner As always, the conference dinner was well attended and enjoyed by one and all with great food and wine being the order of the day. The evening commenced with pre- dinner drinks following which dinner proceedings commenced with a short address by WEA President Ben McDonald, Bens address was then followed by an extremely informative talk by Tony Vaughan – Deputy CEO of the Royal Flying Doctor Service who ran through a host of statistical information associated with the RFDS day to day operations including the purchase of a specially designed jet aircraft that they have added to their fleet servicing the outback with the aircraft being the only one of its type in the world that can land on unsealed air strips. The next item on the night’s agenda was the traditional RFDS fundraiser that this year was conducted in two stages the first being an auction of a small number of lots of wine plus a magnum of Coopers Vintage Ale, the auction was conducted by local Elders auctioneer and principal David Cook who did a great job of auctioning off the lots with an amount of $2,930 being raised part of which was $800 that was bid for the magnum of Vintage Ale. The traditional WEA dinner raffle followed the auction which has been conducted each year since 2003, this year’s raffle raised an amount of $6,040 and when added to the auction proceeds gave a grand total of $8,970 being raised on the night which now brings the total amount raised and donated to the RFDS by the WEA since 2003 to $71,836. All raffle prizes over the years have been generously donated by exhibitors and supporters of the WEA for which we are extremely grateful as without such support we would be unable to assist the RFDS in providing their great service to the outback and beyond. Finally, we are much indebted to the MC for the night being Greg Schultz from Rockwell Automation who did an outstanding job.
6
2018 New Zealand Conference
Conference Registration Registration for the 2018 New Zealand conference is now available via the WEA website www.wea.org.au or alternatively via Trevor Leighton at either [email protected] or 0417 597 956. The cost of registration for the full conference is as follows: - Members of WEA
Early Bird by 21st September = AUD$250 After 21st September = AUD$295
Non Members Early Bird by 21st September = AUD$295
After 21st September = AUD$340
Registration includes: Conference Satchel - Conference Book - Meal and Coffee breaks - Attendance at all Sessions
+ Conference Dinner on the Wednesday which is always a great event
For those who are unable to attend the full conference, single day attendance registration will be available at the conference registration desk or for those wishing to take out such registration prior to the conference please contact Trevor Leighton via [email protected] or 61 (0)417 597 956 Conference Program
Planning for the New Zealand conference and exhibition is now its final stages with the date now being only around 8 weeks away and the bulk of the speaker program being as follows with a small number of presentations as yet to be confirmed:-
- 2018- WEA New Zealand Conference Preview -
7
2018 WEA NZ CONFERENCE PROGRAM WEDNESDAY, 17th OtOBER, 2018
9:00am Registration and view Exhibition - Tea/Coffee available
10:00 AM – 12:15 PM Chaired by Dr. Simon Nordestgaard, (Vice President of the WEA) 10:00 am Welcome Dr. Simon Nordestgaard, Vice President Winery Engineering Association
10:15 am Key Note Address Mr. Philip Gregan – Chief Executive Officer – New Zealand Wine Growers 10:45 am Winery Scheduling
Ailytic – Mr James Balzary – Founder & CEO
11:15 am Lean Principles for the Wine Industry Improvement Direct – Mr Peter Maunder - Managing Director 11:45 am TBA TBA
1:45 PM – 3:45 PM Chaired by – TBA
1:45 pm Mission Wineries Efficiency & Sustainabiliy Initiatives Mission Estate Winery – Mr Paul Mooney - Winemaker
2:15 pm The Hidden Value in Industrial Wastewater Beca NZ – Mr Nathan Clarke – Principal Wastewater Engineer
2.45 pm The Havelock North Water Contamination Event – Implications for Wineries Discharging Over Aquifers
Apex Environmental – Mr Matt Morris – Project Manager 3.15 pm TBA
TBA. 4:15 PM – 5:15 PM
Chaired by TBA 4:15 pm Too Good to be Wasted, Options when Changing Product at the Wine Filler & the Wine Line Krones – Mr Ulrich Mempel – Head of Sales Pacific Countries 4.45 pm NDtech – Breakthrough Technology and the Industrialisation of a Game Changer Amorim – Mr Jose Miguel Amorim – Production Manager 5:15 PM Day one conference sessions conclude 5:15 – 6:00 PM Free time to view exhibits Cont. next page
Display Area Afternoon Break 3:45 PM – 4:15 PM
Display Area LUNCH 12:15 PM – 1:45 PM
Conference Opening
8
7:00 PM Pre-Dinner Drinks 7:30 PM Conference Dinner MC: TBA In the tradition of our conference dinners we have a BYO arrangement to encourage everyone to bring his or her own wines to share at the dinner.
thURSDAY, 18th OCtOBER 2018 8:45 am Visit Exhibition, Tea/Coffee available
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM Chaired by TBA 9:00 am Seismic Design Onguard Group – Mr Will Lomax – Managing Director 9:30 am Assessing and Incorporating Seismec Resilience Structex – Mr Adam Walker – Director & Senior Structural Engineer . 10:00 am Risk Engineering & Asset Protection
Aon Global Risk Consulting – Mr Chris Standing – Risk Engineer Aon Global Risk Consulting – Dr Mostafa Nayyerloo – Senior Risk Consultant
11:00 AM – 1:15 PM Chaired by TBA
11:00 am Filterability Measurement for Process Optimisation in Wine Packaging Blue H2O Filtration – Dr Paul Bowyer – Group Eonologist / Regional Manager SA 11:30 am DE Free in the Winery
PALL Filtration – Mr Ragan Wood – System Sales Specialist ANZ
12:00 noon Title to be confirmed Hawkes Bay Refrigeration – Shayne Murphy - CEO
12:30 pm Title to be confirmed
Wine Technology – Marlborough – David Gill – Managing Director 1:00 pm CONFERENCE CONCLUDES 2:15 pm Optional Winery Site Visits
Display Area Morning Break 10:30 – 11:00 AM
Display Area LUNCH 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
9
Presentation Abstracts Copies of a good number of the 2018 New Zealand conference presentation abstracts and associated speaker professional biographies are now available for viewing on the WEA website www.wea.org.au with a few examples being as follows which will give you an idea of the caliber and informative nature of this year’s speaker program:-
Peter Maunder Managing Director – Improvement Direct Lean Principles for The Wine Industry
Peter Maunder, Managing Director of Improvement Direct Ltd, has broad experience including 15 years with Toyota Motor Company in New Zealand. He has delivered Lean Enterprise Training and coaching services to over 50 client companies over the past 16 years and has presented work-shops at Auckland, Waikato and Massey universities. Improvement Direct is an approved service provider through the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Accelerate Success and Better By Lean programs and a member of the New Zealand Sustainable Business Network
He can be reached at [email protected] Website: www.idirect.co.nz
Presentation Abstract The Lean Business model is recognised and proven path to better business benefits including; increased customer satisfaction, motivated workforce and maximised profit. Lean Business Models require each part of the organisation to cooperate and coordinate as a unit to provide the service or product and improve the processes that create it. Implementing Lean is implementing a new way of thinking that engages all Team Members in assuring excellent results. This presentation identifies some of the challenges and opportunities in applying “lean thinking” within the Wine Industry. The format of the program includes brilliant, practical examples and time for discussion
Paul Mooney Winemaker Mission Wineries Efficiency & Sustainability Initiatives
Born in Alexandra, Central Otago. Educated at Sacred Heart College in Auckland and at Waikato University in Hamilton. Graduated in 1976 with a BSc (physics). Employment history: 1976 – 77 Geophysics research technician on Campbell Island for Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Otago University and Auckland University. 1978 Trainee Field Engineer for a French American Oil exploration company 1979 to 1982, employed as Assistant Winemaker at Mission Vineyards. In 1982 assumed the role of Winemaker to present. Interests have included fly fishing, flying, 19th and 20th century literature, history of science
Presentation Abstract The Mission Estate is New Zealand’s oldest winery. It was established by the Society of Mary in 1851 and first sold wine commercially in the 1870’s. The mark of its sustainability is the continuous operation under the original ownership for 167 years. In 1998 Mission created the current environmental management system (EMS), audited to the ISO 14001 standard, the accreditation of which it maintains to this day. Maintaining an effective EMS has involved the company setting policy, targets and objectives to maintain its sustainable business model and reduce our impact on the environment. This talk will cover the initiatives taken to meet this sustainable business model from a winery production perspective. These will cover capital expenditure, monitoring and measuring energy use, water consumption, consumables and waste. Included are details on a winery rebuild, feasibility studies to lower energy use and successful implementation of appropriate capital expenditure following these studies.
10
Dr Paul Bowyer Group Oenologist/Regional Manager S.A – Blue H2O Filtration Filterability Measurement for Process Optimisation in Wine Packaging
Dr Bowyer has a background in organic and inorganic chemistry, having completed a double major in chemistry with first class honours at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 1991. He undertook a PhD in 1992 at UNSW, part of which was completed at the University of Cambridge. Three years of post-doctoral research in pure chemistry followed at ANU and the Universität Basel, Switzerland. Dr Bowyer accepted a position at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga teaching wine chemistry and wine sensory analysis, where he received a teaching excellence award in his third year as an academic. In 2003 he moved to the University of Adelaide and in 2006 he joined the commercial sector with Laffort Australia as the Australasian Technical Manager. In 2011 Dr Bowyer joined Blue H2O Filtration as Group Oenologist and Regional Manager SA. He has been very active in the promotion of wine filterability analysis to the Australian wine industry.
Presentation Abstract Sterile (membrane) filtration accounts for an ever-increasing proportion of wine packaging. Recent changes in membrane compositions, coupled with the intrinsic variability of wines and the use of additives such as tannins, yeast extracts, grape juice concentrate, gum Arabic and CMC, have warranted an examination of how best to streamline the packaging filtration process. The process impact of many of these additives is only detectable by measuring wine filterability index (FI). The measurement of FI is very topical in NZ at present, with two different FI methods being used. This presentation will briefly overview different filtration approaches and methods for measuring FI, as well as an indication of other applications for FI in the winery, such as monitoring cross-flow performance and assessing water quality. The interpretation of filterability analyses, and some caveats, will be provided. Vinpac International has used FI measurement for sterile filtration wines since July 2013, and some interesting figures from their vast FI measurement library will be presented, in addition to some valuable findings that they have made.
Conference Updates
Regular updates regarding the New Zealand conference program including speaker professional biography’s and presentation abstracts will be posted on the WEA website www.wea.org.au . Exhibiting The following companies are some of those who will be exhibiting at this year’s event and we encourage you to attend to discuss first hand with these experts your requirements and how they may be able to assist. In regard to companies who are considering exhibiting but haven’t committed as yet we encourage you to contact Trevor Leighton [email protected] as soon as possible in order to ensure that you do not miss out as there are only a limited number of booths remaining available.
Smart, safe solutions to transform your manufacturing challenges into advantages Power generation and temperature control solutions Advanced Metallurgical Solutions Pty Ltd – Engineering Design and Development Services, Viti-flow Filtration Systems.
11
ONGUARD is the first genuine seismic tank system specifically designed to protect liquid storage tanks and their contents from earthquake damage and loss Design, build, install, commission wastewater treatment plants
Della Toffola has over 50 years’ experience in winemaking equipment and technologies
Atlas Copco provides complete solutions for on-site nitrogen generation, compressed air and vacuum pumps for the Wine Industry. provides filtration, clarification, and purification services throughout Australia and New Zealand. With an extensive range of filters and hardware. BHF creates solutions that increase process efficiency and save you money
High performance Centrifuges for Wine Industry
An international leading supplier of processing equipment in the winemaking industry
New Zealand’s leading provider of facilities management services
Provide cost effective solutions to your processing challenges. Experts in Filtration Bonding, sealing and coating technologies
Pentair Flow and Filtration Solutions – process equipment, valves, pumps, CO2 equipment, filtration.
12
Sponsorship We are once again pleased to be able to announce that our Patron Sponsor - Rockwell Automation
Rockwell Automation LISTEN. THINK. SOLVE
and Founding Sponsor – Programmed Property Services
will be major supporters of this year’s event as will Aggreko, Pall & New Zealand Wine
Just a reminder for those of you who have not renewed your WEA membership that renewal was due on April 1st, If you have not already renewed your membership we strongly recommend that you do ASAP in order to ensure that you are kept up to date with WEA events and news. If you know of any colleagues who you believe would benefit by becoming a member of the WEA, application for membership can be made by either going to our website www.wea.org.au or contacting Trevor Leighton on 0417 597 956 / [email protected] The annual cost of being a member is currently only $65 which not only entitles members to receive the newsletter and other updates but also entitles you to reduced registration fees to our conferences which in itself can result in savings of at least $50 / year.
The WEA now have a range of sponsorship options available (Gold, Silver & Bronze) each of which have significant benefits for those companies taking on such sponsorship ranging from exposure to the wine industry via WEA publications, complementary WEA memberships and conference registrations through to the allocation of exhibition booths at our conferences. For more information on these great opportunities please contact either David Clark – [email protected] / 03 5358 2059 or Trevor Leighton - [email protected] / 0417 597 956
- WEA Membership -
- WEA Sponsorship Opportunities -
13
14
Cloud – based condition monitoring
no Article by Ross Kennedy – CTPM Founder & President Role of Effective Daily Management in achieving Operational Excellence To achieve Operational Excellence, organisations need a Continuous Improvement Strategy that includes Reactive Improvement, Stable Production or Work Plan through Flow Logic and Pro-active Improvement. Unfortunately many organisations get so focused on Pro-active Improvement through their Lean, Six Sigma, TPM or Operational Excellence initiatives that they lose sight of the importance of Reactive Improvement and having a Stable Production or Work Plan. Reactive Improvement is focused on running the business through Effective Daily Management, whereas Pro-active Improvement is focused on improving the business by achieving your Improvement Vision. Creating a Stable Production or Work Plan through Flow Logic enables Reactive Improvement and Pro-active to proceed with minimal disruptions caused by fire-fighting throughout the supply chain as production and work plans are unexpectedly getting changed. We have found if Reactive Improvement or Stability is poor, you may struggle to find time for Pro-active Improvement. As the Pro-active Improvement journey can take many years to achieve Operational Excellence, there is a strong argument for getting Effective Daily Management through Reactive Improvement in place sooner rather than later. This is best demonstrated in Figures 1.2 and 1.3 which outlines the impact of different approaches when trying to achieve Operational Excellence. The first approach recognises the importance of having Effective Daily Management through properly deployed Reactive Improvement supported by progressively stabilising the Production or Work Plan using such methods as the Glenday Sieve and Flow Logic. As the Production or Work Plan stabilises and Daily Management improves there is more time available for everyone to work on Pro-active Improvement resulting in achieving Operations Excellence within a realistic timeframe.
- The Importance of Effective Daily Management -
15 Sadly, the second approach of poor prioritising of the 3 critical parts of a Continuous Improvement Strategy is what we find at many organisations where the focus is on applying all the Pro-active Improvement tools with little work on stabilising the Production or Work Plan or having Effective Daily Management. As a result of this, after many years little progress has been made in achieving the Operational Excellence targets that other best practice or world class organisations achieve because everyone is too busy responding to urgent day to day issues that keep reoccurring or they are fire-fighting as the production or work plan regularly gets unexpectedly changed. As such, we have found Effective Daily Management through Reactive Improvement is a critical foundation for achieving Operational Excellence. Why Reactive Improvement is important? Too often we find sites obsessed with trying to achieve new production records in an attempt to increase overall output. The sad reality is that trying to achieve new production records rather than focusing on why the average or target performance was not achieved will nearly always lead to less total output over the longer term such as a 12 month period. Chasing new production records may sound very heroic and may create great motivation within the workforce, especially if linked to attractive rewards or bonuses, however when compared to the long term average performance that can be achieved through Reactive Improvement, the difference can be quite significant. As highlighted in Figure 1.4, chasing production records will often widen the distribution curve as there is often very poor performance after a record has been achieved because the plant has been pushed too hard resulting in unforeseen failures or disruptions. By reviewing performance daily, by shift and by hour and putting the effort into why the desired (average or target) performance was not achieved, and rapidly identifying and addressing the root causes, you will progressively reduce the variation in performance and move the distribution curve to the right increasing the average and resulting in a greater output over the long term along with significant lower costs. What is Reactive Improvement? Reactive Improvement develops the capability and discipline within the organisation to be able to rapidly recover from an event or incident that stops you from achieving your expected or targeted performance for the day, shift or hour and most importantly, your ability to capture the learning and initiate corrective actions so that the event or incident will not re-occur anywhere across the organisation.
16 As such, Reactive Improvement focuses on improving Daily Management at the site through your Daily Review Meetings, your Information Centres supporting the Daily Review Meetings and your Frontline Problem Solving Root Cause Analysis capability at all levels, especially at the frontline. The 7 Elements of Reactive Improvement There are 7 Key Elements of Reactive Improvement that need to work in concert for Effective Daily Management:
1. Supportive Organisation Structure to support development of your people so they have ownership and accountability for the performance of their area of responsibility;
2. Effective Frontline Leaders to ensure everyone else in the leadership structure are not working down a level;
3. Appropriate Measures with expected targets that are linked to the site’s Key Success Factors for Operations to ensure Goal Alignment, and are relevant for the area being focused on;
4. Structured Daily Review Meetings to identify opportunities (problems / incidents) and monitor progress of their solution so they don’t happen again;
5. Visual Information Centres that visually display daily and trending performance along with monitoring of actions to address issues / problems raised;
6. Frontline Problem Solving Root Cause Analysis Capability across the site; and
7. Rapid Sharing of Learning Capability across shifts, departments and across the site. Determine your Starting Point CTPM has developed an Effective Daily Management Innocence to Excellence Rating sheet to allow you to score your site so as to establish a starting point or baseline to monitor the impact of your Reactive Improvement activities. The rating sheet covers the 7 elements identified above. A copy of the rating sheet can be obtained from CTPM by emailing [email protected] We suggest you get a range of people at your site who attend daily review meetings to do the rating so your baseline becomes more robust. Outline of the 7 Elements required to achieve Effective Daily Management 1. Supportive Organisation Structure No leader should have any more than 7 direct reports so they can develop their problem solving, visual management and prevention at source skills which are all required to stop problems or issues from happening again.
2. Effective Frontline Leaders Frontline Leaders are those responsible for the people adding the value to the business (workforce). In a manufacturing environment we would expect Frontline Leaders to be wages people who can operate the plant when required however they would have very specific responsibilities and the time allocated for these responsibilities through Leader Standardised Work rather than just the ‘go-to’ person when things go wrong. In a production environment the Frontline Leader’s responsibilities should include:
0. Understand and Reinforce Company Policies and Procedures; 1. Frontline Safety & Environment; 2. Frontline Quality; 3. Achieve the Production Plan; 4. Reactive Improvement through effective Daily Review Meetings; 5. Pro-active Improvement through Cross-functional and Area Based Improvement Teams;
17
6. Frontline Work Area Management / 5S; 7. Frontline Equipment Management / Clean for Inspections etc; and 8. Frontline Energy / Resource Management.
3. Appropriate Measures A key foundation for Operational Excellence is to have Goal Aligned Performance Measures. This is where all measures at all levels of the operation, are aligned to the Key Success Factors for Operations. We can divide Key Success Factors into Causal and Effect. In other words what Causes us to have an Effect? The ‘Effect’ is Cost / Financial Performance. The ‘Causal’ Key Success Factors are the things that cause us to either make or lose money from an operational perspective, and most importantly most can be measured and reported on a weekly, daily, by shift and even hourly basis whereas most financial measures are reported monthly and hence provide a ‘rear view mirror’ perspective of performance. In the table below we have listed the most common ‘Causal’ Key Success Factors we come across and the possible impact if they are not right.
Causal Key Success Factor Effect - if not right
Safety & Environment Performance
If we have accidents, injuries or incidents it can be very disruptive and cost a lot of money
Quality Performance
If we don’t get the right things right first time, we will waste a lot of materials and time resulting in higher costs
Customer Satisfaction Performance
If we don’t satisfy our internal and external customers with delivery and quality expectations we will cause delays in our processes, lose sales or have a lot of claims resulting in loss of income
Plant & Equipment Performance
If our plant & equipment does not perform well and is not looked after we will lose capacity and have higher maintenance costs
People Performance
If people don’t turn up or are not productive, or don’t find problems at the earliest possible time we will end up with higher costs
Supplier Performance
If our suppliers let us down or provide inferior goods or services, our costs will go up
Inventory Performance
If we carry too much inventory, we will have too much cash tied up in the business which can incur interest costs, or if we don’t have enough inventory we can miss opportunities or delay operations
4. Structured Daily Review Meetings
Are your daily review meetings held just to comply with policy and gather data to feed up the line or are they really focused on ensuring your Frontline Leaders are getting the support they need to safely achieve the
production plan each day to the required standard? Most sites have Daily Review Meetings, however far too often they are not effective. They start late or drag on for too long, they accept poor performance standards, they skip over below target performance by accepting ‘work-a-round’ corrective actions, they have no agreed triggers for initiating Frontline Problem Solving Root Cause Analysis, and follow-up to issues raised is often just done on an ad-hoc basis if done at all, with very poor monitoring or closure. Depending on the size and complexity of the site, there will be several layers or tiers of Daily Review Meetings with the information flowing from the lowest level up to the top level. Key features of an Effective Daily Review Meeting are:
1. Location is appropriate for the meeting; 2. Stand up environment as people think and respond quicker and more distinctly on their feet; 3. No distractions in the area such as Coffee facilities or vending machines;
18
4. Agenda displayed with timeframes; 5. Clock is visible to all and is visually controlling the time of meeting; 6. Meeting starts and finishes on time to allow people to leave after agreed finish time; 7. Issues are raised but not solved with Problem Solving conducted outside the meeting; 8. Current performance updated by responsible attendees and displayed using visual prompts (eg black is target,
green is good, red is bad); 9. Meeting focus is on Area or Line total performance rather than separate metric performance; and 10. Focus is on helping Area Leaders or Frontline Leaders to address their concerns.
5. Visual Information Centres Are information boards used to allow everyone to see at a glance where the problems are, and what is being done
about them, or do people have to search through screens of information to get an understanding of the real situation?
Information Centres are places where Daily Review Meetings are conducted. Ideally they should be located where the people who work in the area can see them clearly. Depending on the type of site, the Information Centres may be located in a space or on a wall near the work area or a place where everyone walks past, however if noise or other distracting environmental conditions exist, then they may need to be located in a room preferably with significant glass walls or windows for people to see as they walk past. Below is a listing of the type of displays we find at Information Centres:
• Meeting Agenda; • Scoreboard of daily performance to monitor achievement to expectation with provision for comments if
expectations are missed; • Monthly Run Charts of Daily Performance for the key performance measures to monitor trends; • Planning Board to monitor achievement to expectation in units and to advise tomorrow’s plan; • Action List; • Policies for Frontline Problem Solving Root Cause Analysis; • Triggers for Frontline Problem Solving Root Cause Analysis; • Root Cause Analysis Status Board; • Parking Lot Board to capture issues that need to be escalated to a higher Level meeting; • Clock with Visual Control, to monitor the timing of the meeting; and • Marker Pen Holder with at least 2 of each required colour, along with a whiteboard wiper for cleaning the
boards before entering the next day’s data. 6. Frontline Problem Solving Root Cause Analysis Capability
Have you developed the problem solving skills of all your frontline people so that if there is an incident that triggers a root cause analysis, they commence the root cause analysis before the daily review meeting rather than
wait for someone to tell them to do it? A frontline problem is an event or incident that stops the shift from achieving one of its performance expectations or targets, for example quality expectation down due to a pallet of re-work or scrap, or output below expectation due to a breakdown. It is not a trend of poor performance over time, or a gap in the benchmark to other best practices, for example our set-ups take 40 minutes when they should be 10 minutes. These poor performance trends and gaps in benchmarks should be addressed through Pro-active Improvement using a 9 step process as outlined in my first book: Understanding, Measuring and Improving Overall Equipment Effectiveness.
19 In Frontline Problem Solving it is also important to remember what some refer to as the ‘Tyranny of Time’. The longer the time between a problem or incident occurring, and the time you discover it, the more difficult and more expensive it will be to solve as evidence, especially as people’s memories fade with time. For example asking someone what happen 5 minutes ago compared to asking them what happened yesterday, will often give you vastly different response. There are many Root Cause Analysis problem solving processes in the marketplace; however the key (as discovered by Toyota many years ago) to Operational Excellence is to find one that can be used by all people in the organisation rather than just a select few. 7. Rapid Sharing of Learning Capability Over the years successful businesses have continued to find ways to have a Competitive Advantage in the marketplace. Competitive Advantage can come from a number of business areas including unique products & services, unique distribution channels & methods, unique financing and operational capability. What Toyota has demonstrated to the world with their Toyota Production System is that operational capability is one of the hardest competitive advantages to replicate quickly and easily as compared to products & services, distribution channels & methods or financing. Historically, competitive advantage from Operational Capability has evolved over the years from lowest Cost; to lowest cost and best Quality; to lowest cost, best quality and most Responsiveness; to lowest cost, best quality, most responsive and most Innovative; to in more recent times as processes and equipment have become more complex, adding the ability to Learn rapidly across the organisation. Actions to help create a Learning Organisation include:
1. Establish Standards for Documenting Outcomes so they are easy to interpret and share; 2. Establish an easily accessible and up to date Continuous Improvement Library and Knowledge Base; 3. Establish an effective Daily Review Meeting Plan for the entire site; and 4. Create the right environment to promote Adult Learning through on-going improvement ultimately involving
all personnel. The Way Forward One of the biggest challenges we find at many sites is to get management to recognise the need for doing something about improving daily management. Often the site manager and their team are too busy doing new projects and responding to initiatives from corporate that developing effective Daily Management gets little attention. First, we would suggest getting the management team at the site to recognise the importance of Effective Daily Management at all levels or tiers. This sounds very obvious however at many sites we have found management think that the current, often ineffective, start of shift and morning meetings being conducted are sufficient. Recognising the importance of Effective Daily Management can be assisted by having the site management team complete the Daily Management Innocence to Excellence Rating sheet mentioned earlier. This also provides a baseline before introducing any changes to current practices. Once they are on board, the next action would be to have the management team confirm or establish the site’s Key Success Factors for Operations, and determine the order they are to be presented. Once you have your Key Success Factors for Operations model for the site, all the relevant existing site performance measures should be displayed under the relevant Key Success Factor in a consistent or standard presentation format. If there are gaps in what is currently being reported then such gaps should be addressed by the appropriate manager.
20 If it is an issue, conduct a review of the Organisation Structure including the role of your Frontline Leaders to ensure there will be clear ownership and accountability. Finally from a preparation perspective, create a Daily Review Meeting Plan by determining the number of Daily Review Meetings required at each level or tier including Support Departments, and the most appropriate times for all the meetings. We have found a team based approach involving the key people who will be involved in the Daily Review Meeting is the best way to obtain good buy-in and ownership to the process. As such we suggest you select at least two meetings from your Daily Review Meeting Plan as a trial or pilot. The content in this article is just a snippet from my second book which is to be published in February 2019 in USA, UK and Australia through CRC / Productivity Press in the USA. The title of the book is: Understanding, Measuring and Improving Daily Management – how to use effective Daily Management to drive significant process improvement. My first book was published by Productivity Press in August 2017 and is titled: Understanding, Measuring and Improving Overall Equipment Effectiveness – how OEE drives significant process improvement About the Author:
Ross Kennedy is the President & Founder of CTPM – The Centre for Australasian TPM & Lean / CI Ph: 02 42266184 M: 0418 206 108 Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-kennedy-6a464a6/ International Author: www.routledge.com/9781138066953 https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Measuring-Improving-Equipment-Effectiveness/dp/1138054208 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>…..
AWRI – Case Study (as published in AWRI August 2018 Technical Review No 235)
Energy efficiency has been a hot topic lately, for both industries and governments. This has been driven by rising
power prices, grid instabilities and the advances in solar and storage technologies that allow businesses to take more
control of their energy supply. Several state governments have established grant schemes for businesses to conduct
energy audits and perform upgrades that reduce energy use. Sustainability Victoria’s Energy Assessment Grants
scheme, which is available to wineries in Victoria, is accepting applications until September 2018. Agriculture Victoria
has also recently launched its Agriculture Energy Investment Plan which provides on-farm energy assessments for
grapegrowers in Victoria. The AWRI website (https://www.awri.com.au/information_services/grants/) provides a list
of grants available to grapegrowers and wineries; however, even without a grant, an energy audit can still be a
valuable exercise.
- Energy Audit Case Study – Progressive Winery Goes Even Further -
21
AWRI Commercial Services recently performed an energy audit for a medium-sized winery (3,500 t crush) in north-east
Victoria. This winery had already taken a number of steps to improve its energy efficiency, but wanted assistance to
identify some of the less obvious opportunities for improvement. Benchmarking against other wineries of similar size
in the membership database of Entwine (Australia’s wine sector sustainability program) showed that the winery was
already in the top 15% of performance in terms of electricity use per tonne of grapes crushed. This had been achieved
through: • installation of a 100 kW solar photovoltaic system which covered approximately a quarter of the winery’s electricity use, with
70% of electricity generated used on-site and 30% exported to the grid
• installation of LED lighting inside the cellar and throughout the outdoor tank farm, which reduced electricity use on lighting by
66%
• replacement of an old chiller with two modern packaged chillers, which allowed one to be run year-round and the second to
be only used during vintage when required. Heat recovery was also installed on the primary chiller to pre-heat water for the
boiler
• switching from rotary drum vacuum filtration to cross-flow filtration.
Between 2004 and 2017, the winery reduced its expenditure on grid electricity by almost 60% even though electricity
prices increased over that time. An energy audit was requested to investigate the potential to find even more
efficiencies.
Case study The audit started by investigating the winery’s energy trends, equipment usage and winemaking regime to estimate
the breakdown of electricity use throughout the winery. This is shown in Figure 1. Breakdown of winery electricity
use identified during the energy audit, with a further breakdown of the electricity used for refrigeration.
Refrigeration accounted for 34% of site electricity use, which is less than the 50–70% often seen in large wineries (AWRI
2012). But the most striking aspect was the electricity used by the aerator on the winery’s wastewater dam. The winery
had an unmanaged aerobic wastewater treatment dam that ran continuously through vintage and then eight hours
per day outside that period. This appeared to be excessive. On closer inspection, two factors were found to be
contributing to this. The pH management of the dam was not ideal, so the bacteria present were not performing as
efficiently as they could. There was also no dissolved oxygen (DO) measurement on the dam, so the aerator may have
been running more than needed. Based on recommendations following the audit, the winery has now installed a DO
meter in order to run the aerator based on a DO set point instead of a timer. Recent performance (outside of vintage)
with the new meter has seen the aerator only running 10% of the time, rather than the eight hours per day it was
running based on the timer.
The air compressor at the site only ran for approximately 800 hours per year and its principal role was to service the
membrane presses during vintage. Despite this limited use it still was responsible for 9% of the annual site electricity
consumption. The compressed air system had never been audited so further investigation was recommended to
evaluate its performance and check the system for leaks. Small leaks in compressed gas systems can lead to large
energy losses. It has been estimated by the US Department of Energy (2004) that typical losses from compressed air
systems can be around 20–30%, whereas well-maintained systems lose less than 10%.
22
Figure 1. Breakdown of winery electricity use identified during the energy audit, with a further breakdown of the electricity used for refrigeration
As previously mentioned, refrigeration use at the winery was lower than industry averages, but an opportunity was
identified for further savings to be realised through modifying wine storage temperatures. White wines, which made
up the majority of the winery’s production, were stored at 2°C, which is excessively cool. The rationale for this was
to preserve wine freshness, but a recommendation was made to raise this to 7°C (5–10°C is typical in Australia).
Importantly, this would also allow the winery to run warmer brine when cold settling and cold stabilisation were not
being performed. The winery generally runs -5°C brine all year round, but if the lowest temperature required in the
winery is 7°C, then it could feasibly run with 2°C brine for about six months of the year. This would provide an increase
in efficiency of 15%, based on the technical specifications of its chillers.
The winery preferred flotation over cold settling in principle, not only to save energy but also as a way of getting the
juice to ferment more quickly and reducing the risk of microbial spoilage. However, analysis of winemaking records
indicated that cold settling was still being used instead of flotation in a significant number of cases. This led to a
reminder being issued to the site winemakers to use flotation when possible.
The audit also evaluated and recommended natural space cooling, to bring cold air from outside into the cellar at
night; insulating the remaining few uninsulated winery tanks; and trialling ultraviolet tank sanitisation technology.
Solar and storage
The winery had previously installed a 100 kW solar system and was pleased with the results but was interested in
evaluating the installation of another system. This installation would be more challenging because all the roof space was
already occupied, so it would have to be a ground- mounted system. The new system would also put the total solar
capacity over 100 kW, meaning that the new solar array would need to be classified as a power station. This changes the
way energy credits are handled under the Australian Government’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme. Systems
under 100 kW generate small-scale technology certificates (STCs) which essentially subsidise the purchase price of the
system, whereas power plants generate large-scale generation certificates (LGCs) which are awarded as generation
occurs and can then be sold to generate income. The nature of the LGC market adds a layer of risk to the ongoing
economics of the system.
23
A range of solar expansion scenarios were considered, ranging from 30 kW to 150 kW, with quotes being sourced from
several suppliers. An additional 100 kW gave the lowest simple payback period. This would take the percentage of the
winery’s electricity use coming from solar from 24% to 36% but would drop the overall solar utilisation from 76% to
52% (i.e. 48% exported to the grid). This is a very high level of export, but the winery faced a high peak tariff, and
had negotiated a competitive buy-back rate for their exported solar-generated power, so the simple payback period was
only 4.8 years. A sensitivity analysis was performed on some of the key risk factors. A worst-case scenario was
constructed where the solar buy- back rate was halved at the end of the current contract, and the LGC market price
went to zero. In this case, the simple payback period increased to 7.6 years.
The considerable percentage of solar exported to the grid would make the site a potential candidate for battery
storage, so this was also investigated. A simulation was performed based on the winery’s electricity use data to try
and model the flow in and out of a battery, but the payback on a 120 kWh battery would have been approximately
13 years, making it uneconomic. There were two main contributing factors to this. Firstly, the winery’s solar buy-
back rate was quite reasonable so the benefit of storing electricity over exporting it was minimal. Secondly, the winery
did not have a peak demand charge component of its electricity bill, so peak shaving was of no benefit. Other scenarios
such as charging batteries on much cheaper off-peak electricity and using that electricity at peak times when demand
was not met by solar energy were also considered, but battery purchase was still found to be uneconomic. However, the
cost of batteries is on a downward trend, so there may be a time when batteries would be a worthwhile investment
for this winery. For now, they are probably more suited to wineries that face low solar buy-back rates or operate on
the electricity spot market.
Conclusion
The winery involved in this case study had been very proactive in reducing its electricity use over the last 10 years.
However, the new energy audit still identified several improvement opportunities with payback periods of less than
five years. If these were all adopted, the winery’s ongoing electricity use would be reduced by a further 15%, not
counting the proposed new solar array. While an energy audit might seem like just another thing to worry about, it can
offer real insights into a winery or vineyard’s processes and the improvement opportunities it identifies can make it
well worth the effort.
References and further reading
Agriculture Victoria. 2018. Agriculture Energy Investment Plan: http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/farm- management/agriculture-energy-investment-plan, viewed 19/6/2018.
The Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI). 2012. Refrigeration: https://www.awri.com.au/commercial_services/ environmental-strategy/refrigeration/, viewed 21/6/2018.
The Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI). 2018. Grants: https://www.awri.com.au/information_services/ grants/, viewed 25/6/2018.
Sustainability Victoria. 2018. Energy Assessment Grants: http://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/About-Us/Grants-and- Funding/Energy-assessment-grants, viewed 19/6/2018.
US Department of Energy. 2004. Minimising Compressed Air Leaks – Compressed Air Tip Sheet #3: https://www1. eere.energy.gov/manufacturing/tech_assistance/pdfs/compressed_air3.pdf, viewed 20/6/2018.
Tadro Abbott, Project Engineer, [email protected]
24
Programmed Property Services Article For many wineries offering a quality product is no longer able to solely attract or retain customers. Along with differentiated products, the customer experience is now integral to helping a winery stand out, making maintenance and presentation all the more important to a winery.
While wine companies can still make an impression through the quality of their wines, the proliferation of wines, brands and wine producers is making it harder for wineries to build customer loyalty.
As with many retail businesses, this loyalty now directly correlates with how customers ‘experience’ the wine and its brand. This includes their on-site experience on a winery.
A visit to a winery has the ability to make a lasting impression and influence after sales, the subsequent buying of a wine’s label long after the customer has left the winery.
This makes the presentation of the winery and its environment critical customer touchpoints, and maintenance crucial.
Yet this can prove challenging for wineries whose core business is wine production. Having to maintain meticulous grounds as well as the physical presentation of buildings can detract from time that should otherwise be spent cultivating wines. It may also require skill sets, capabilities and understanding not readily found among the wineries’ personnel.
Engaging external expertise to provide this maintenance assures wineries of sites that are consistently presented to high standards without diminishing focus from the main business of wine production.
For better commercial outcomes, wineries can invest in long-term maintenance programs which encompass both comprehensive reactive and scheduled planned maintenance.
Such maintenance can further encompass back end production areas such as vats and tanks that can be maintained for purposes of hygiene and presentation. Scheduled wash downs and repaints also restore asset integrity and extend their lifespan, especially in the case of tanks, roofs and other steel structures.
In doing so, wineries that engage experts to carry out professional maintenance can see benefits beyond just time and cost. As a quality exercise, outcomes are of a higher level, notably in the area of safety. From a personnel perspective, they have access to specialist skills and the flexibility to scale team sizes to meet task and timeframe requirements.
Wineries can additionally leverage access to industry insights unique to the manufacturing and food production industry as well as the commercial painting, grounds management and landscaping sectors for solutions that are simultaneously targeted and innovative.
In streamlining works to address both aesthetic presentation and asset maintenance, wineries can ensure that their sites are always well looked after. Work on production facilities can be scheduled for completion during shut down or non-production periods in between the upkeep of grounds, gardens and buildings.
The varying requirements for personnel, skill sets and crew size can be as easily met for tight production shutdown windows and capital improvement work deadlines as they can for on-site teams able to deliver on-going grounds site maintenance – all without compromising the integrity of work quality and safety.
- Wineries: connecting the Dots between Customer Experience & Maintenance -
25 Customer loyalty is precious, yet fragile and prone to change with each interaction. So, ensuring a constantly high standard of presentation for an on-going quality customer experience is of utmost importance. Long-term maintenance achieves this by keeping keeps wineries and assets to desired standards.
Talk to Programmed’s maintenance experts today to so see how you can streamline the presentation of your site and the upkeep of your assets.
26
t Case Study – Progressive Winery Goes Even Further -
CAPS Australia Article
Compressed air is a critical utility to many industries, including the wine industry, performing a range of wine production functions including grape processing (crushing, pressing, cooling, heating, filtering, drying), as well as receiving and bottling the end product. Its versatility and convenience makes compressed air essential to a diverse range of applications, with approximately 15% of all industrial electricity consumption in Australia going to generating compressed air. What many businesses do not realise, however, is just how energy intensive compressed air is, with almost 90% of the electrical input energy being converted to waste heat. This means only 10% of the remaining energy is compressed air energy – only 10%! Additionally compressed air systems are often poorly set-up, maintained and controlled which creates further inefficiencies, it is not unusual to find a system using only 50% of compressed air productively. If your system is not running as well as it could, then you are using more electricity than is required. Wasting energy is wasting money. Fortunately, a professional audit and assessment of your system can reveal surprising opportunities to reduce your energy consumption and overall business cost. CAPS Australia have developed a fully proprietary auditing package, designed to give a full view of your compressed air system. It is non-invasive, low-cost and simple to undertake yet provides highly valuable insights into the operation and efficiency of your system. Typically, CAPS expect to find savings up to 15%, and it’s not uncommon to find savings beyond 50% in electricity with payback well within two to three years. Recently CAPS were able to generate some excellent outcomes for one of their customers. The implemented solution included replacement equipment along with a number of improvements to the system, the combined approach achieving:
• A 20% reduction in electricity consumption, with a payback on capital investment within two years • 30% savings in long-term maintenance costs • Improved air quality • More stable pressure to the customers’ demands, meaning greater and more consistent productivity
Having conducted over 500 compressed air audits across Australia, CAPS have uncovered millions of dollars in potential savings for customers. Their expert team holds a highly respected voice in the compressed air industry due to a professional approach, industry-leading equipment, processes and specially developed air audit software to ensure consistent and accurate results. CAPS is offering your winery an obligation-free air (level 1) audit with CAPS, whose team will perform and simple yet efficient health-check of your compressed air system. You will receive a report complete with expert recommendations that are geared to deliver long-term savings and improved efficiency. For further information contact
CAPS AUSTRALIA Complete Air And Power Solutions
1 Strieff Road, Wingfield South Australia 5013 P 1800 800 878 D +61 8 8162 7905 M +61 437 513 721
[email protected] | caps.com.au
FOR SMARTER INSIGHTS FOLLOW US
- How Much Could Your Winery Save with a Compressed Air Audit? -
27
NEW ZEALAND’S OLDEST WINERY
DRIVES SUSTAINABILITY
The Mission Estate, set in the picturesque outlying hills of Napier, is New Zealand’s oldest
winery and unbelievably is still under its management of origin. Established in 1851 by French missionaries, the Brothers of the Order travelled to France to study and learn both viticulture and winemaking. Their current winemaker, Paul Mooney, continues this legacy
having originally been trained by the Fathers. Today, The Mission Estate is still true to its roots, supporting the Society of Mary.
Article by Andrea Stevenson STAPLES RODWAY HAWKE'S BAY [email protected]
28 W INEMAKER Paul Mooney is extremely passionate about sustainability and connects this to The Mission
Estate’s core values in being true to its roots and maintaining a commitment to being authentic and artisan wine producers. Paul states that, when it comes to sustainability, he is “wired that way… it’s like an obsession”. And this obsession has paid off — The Mission Estate can now boast that they use a third of the energy of the average winery of their size.
Paul has been with The Mission Estate for over 30 years, but he didn’t start life as a winemaker. Instead, Paul studied physics and, upon graduating, he took a role on Campbell Island as a Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Technician and then went into a Trainee Field Engineer role for a French American Oil exploration company before joining The Mission Estate as a trainee winemaker. In 1982, he assumed the role of Head Winemaker. At that time, The Mission Estate was under-resourced and he had his role cut out for him. Peter Holley then joined as CEO in 1996 which saw the beginning of a period of change and growth and The Mission Estate begin its journey towards sus- tainability and effective environmental management. When asked if The Mission Estate is an industry leader, Paul is reluctant to take ownership of the phrase. Rather, he feels that The Mission Estate’s approach is to quietly work away on sustainability and take seriously their commitment to ensuring their footprint, resources, energy use, water use and operations are authentically delivered on as they produce their fine wines. It is not a marketing or PR strategy, but a genuine commitment to their beliefs. “We are doing it because it’s the right thing to do” says Paul. The Mission Estate’s focus is one that is very much in line with Pope Francis’ commitment to sustainability.
SO WHAT ARE THEY DOING?
Firstly, The Mission Estate have ensured astute governance, which has seen a CEO and Board that is genuinely supportive of the sustainability focus and initiatives. Together, they have worked to ensure that sustainability has become an integral part of the Business Plan.
Initially they started small, setting up projects to begin monitoring and measuring key components of their operation from soil testing to energy use. This included careful measurement of inputs and their impact to work out relevant ratios. While these metrics are now common practice in the industry, they weren’t 17 years ago. They did this without the use of technology
Paul Mooney, Mission Estate Winemaker
29
- equipment and software has made this process much easier. The winery now constantly monitors energy usage, including finding the “coefficient of performance” (COP) of their plant and has clear benchmarks in place across a number of measures. The Mission Estate were one of the five wineries who initially set up an Environmental Management System and in 1998 they obtained their ISO Certification which recognised their ongoing commitment to sustainable viticulture and wine-making practices — two elements that are now common practice. At this time, they also started running some of their blocks organically.
From there, they have invested in capital that allows them to deliver on their sustainability objectives. A major step was the rebuild of the winery on the same footprint in 2005. Paul gives full credit to CEO Peter Holley and the Board for having a real understanding of the architecture and what was needed for this rebuild. Working closely with local engineers and an architect, a purpose-built wine-making facility was designed and constructed. The new production facility was designed to deliver and maximise both energy and water efficiency. Instrumental in this was the use of thermal mass construction. The vast majority of energy used in the winery is consumed by refrigeration, and automation has allowed for energy reduction. A key step in this process has been in moving systems to operating overnight to make best use of off-peak electricity and only cooling once a week in summer (metrics showed that it takes a full week for the temperature to return to the maximum rate).
Other steps included installing new lighting, removing the use of any diesel machinery (not an easy task when
machinery is a key component of your operation); installing an inverter on the condensing heat exchanger; a separate glycol system; combined use of compressors and running these as close to capacity as possible for high energy efficiency; using self generated nitrogen (instead of CO₂) which does not contribute to climate change; and, finally, operating on-site bottling and warehousing has seen a reduction in transport. Regular maintenance of equipment, regular checks for any leaks in refrigeration and air compressor systems also ensure high energy efficiency of all equipment. Over the years, leading edge viticulture techniques have been introduced including Precision Viticulture which identifies the variation in the vineyards using different sensors that are linked to GPS. This enables them to produce maps which optimise the vineyard's performance and ultimately helps produces better quality wine.
The Mission Estate has seen clear successes on the initiatives with feedback to the Board being very
positive. Peter has been able to offset their investment against the payback they have obtained, ensuring a positive return on investment for shareholders. This is important in that shareholders in this case are the Seminary for the Society of Mary whose members staff numerous parishes and secondary schools in New Zealand, as well as supporting various missionaries at home and abroad.
Mission Estate CEO, Peter Holley
30 WHERE TO START
Paul’s recommendation to anyone wanting to move towards sustainability is to start collating data relevant to your business, your property or even your household. This involves measuring and tracking your inputs and their impact and then monitoring those from there on. Then, set a clear target and start identifying strategies to move towards it.
Finally, a vital part for The Mission Estate in what they do is being true to their label — being authentic in all they do at all stages of the process. This includes using local suppliers and growers, and ensuring that what is in the bottle is true to the label. Overarching this is a dedicated focus on genuinely caring about what is delivered to the consumer and how. Having sampled The Mission Estate’s outputs (a tough job, but someone has to do it!), it comes highly recommended.
Republished with permission from Staples Rodway’s Numbers Magazine. Staples Rodway’s Hawke’s Bay office provides HR services to The Mission Estate. Staples Rodway Hawke’s Bay can help you with your Wine Standards Management Plan verification. Foot Note: Paul Mooney will be participating in the New Zealand conference speaker program and will be expanding further on The Mission Estate sustainability journey.
