How a Facility Assessment Helped Royal Cup Coffee Build, Expand and Renovate Efficiently [Case Study]

In our industry, the best project outcomes require a great deal of planning. When it comes to greenfield and renovation projects, that means formulating a manufacturing analysis and a strategic plan. Before investing in any changes, however, a crucial step is understanding the status quo:

• How is your facility performing?
• How efficient are your processes?
• What can be optimized?

A comprehensive facility assessment can answer these questions and more.

Brewing success through facility optimization

When Birmingham, Alabama-based Royal Cup Coffee first approached Stellar, they were on a mission to keep up with their booming business. The premier importer and roaster of specialty coffees and fine teas decided to invest in cutting-edge manufacturing updates to keep pace with its blossoming consumer base and sales.

Royal Cup’s strategic plan revealed the need to both renovate an existing facility and build a new one. We worked on three construction projects to prepare the campus for the future:

1. New build — We constructed a new facility to accommodate green coffee bean reception and storage: the delivery point for green coffee beans to the plant

2. Expansion — We expanded Royal Cup’s processing and distribution spaces and added roasting, flavor blending, storage and sanitation capacity while improving overall logistics

3. Renovation — We renovated Royal Cup’s existing facility to achieve SQF Level 2 certification

Royal Cup’s goal: Optimize capital spending on each of these major projects. In this case, a facility assessment helped identify key areas to save money, increase safety, streamline production and decrease risk.

One year later, Royal Cup is savoring the benefits from a facility assessment

The assessment encompassed a variety of factors across the plant, from energy inefficiencies to food safety — issues critical to any food and beverage facility. The rest of the project was then driven by that assessment.

Just one year out from completion, Royal Cup has already seen significant benefits from Stellar’s facility assessment and using that to drive its three construction projects:

Food safety

• Improved quality and food safety control that led to receiving certification from the Safe Quality Food Institute
• Improved facility cleanliness with new dust collection systems and central vacuum cleaning systems

Process efficiency

• A more efficient product flow throughout the campus
• Improved storage flexibility across the campus
• Improved product loss tracking, accounting and order tracking with new integrated software
• Automated and integrated historical data collection

Energy efficiency

• Increased heating/ventilating efficiencies thanks to an upgraded thermal envelope
• Greater energy efficiency through an upgrade to LED lighting

Work conditions

• Improved employee thermal comfort due to upgraded thermal envelope
• Improved indoor air quality, occupant comfort and cleanliness due to upgraded heating, ventilation and filtration systems
• Improved worker visibility thanks to LED lighting upgrade
• Improved acoustics and noise transfer rates across the facility

But the most important change Royal Cup has seen? Improved customer satisfaction and new customer accounts.

By engaging in the facility assessment process, Royal Cup met the goals it had set for this project and ensured everything that Stellar did fit with the company’s ambitious strategic plan.

To learn more about this project and how Royal Cup’s success can translate to your plant, download our free case study below.

 

Editor’s note: This post first published in January 2017 and has since been updated with new information.