Utilities Operations
Mechanization of cleaning processes also ensures safety. In fact, when the Clean India and Forbes Facility Services teams walked into the Pepsico Fritolay unit, we were greeted with messages of Safety on the wall and the floor. “Safety for the Month of February”, said the small poster. “Yes, every month we have a theme; last month it was ‘safety while working on heights’,” said Shivshankar Tekale, Assistant Manager-Engineering. “This programme enables us to create awareness about the safety rules that should be adhered to and precautions to be taken not only for the benefit of the surroundings or the company alone but for the workers’ own safety. We give pep talks and have a separate EHS manager who keeps regular checks on the implementation.”
Safety is one of the aspects of sustainable practices that Pepsico has implemented at all its manufacturing facilities. One other major area of concern at any factory or facility is the Utilities, which contributes heavily to energy consumption. “We have availed specialized FM services of Forbes Facility an year back for the Operations and Maintenance of our Utility services. I am very happy with their services as they have been able to meet the demands,” said Tekale.
Utilities Operation and Maintenance Management includes power generation and 
activities pertaining to the transformation and distribution of energy resources and treatment of liquid and solid waste and maintaining air quality. An FM service provider plans and executes the operation and/or maintenance of the electrical systems, cooling systems, steam and hot water generators, water treatment systems, utilities and technical gas distribution systems, ETP stations, management & disposal of solid waste, fire fighting system, loading-unloading of diesel tankers & ensuring the quality & quantity of diesel.
“A year ago, when we took Forbes Facility on board there were a lot of issues, right from infrastructural constraints to retro fittings leading to constraints on system performance, including that of HVAC. Together, with Forbes Facility support and our experience, we have been able to curtail losses and reduced chances of breakdown.”
We have availed specialized FM services of Forbes Facility a year back for the Operations and Maintenance of our Utility services. I am very happy with their services as they have been able to meet the demands.
– Shivshankar Tekale
The infrastructural challenges faced at the factory units were a combination of AC and non-AC halls with several openings, causing waste of cool air and increased pressure on the HVAC systems. “In the first case, we shut all these openings to contain the cool air. Further, we introduced a maintenance schedule whereby the filters are checked and cleaned periodically,” said Takale.
Role of FM
“We as FM service providers make it possible for clients to achieve on-going reduction in the overall cost of supplying energy vectors in industrial processes,” said Santram Sakunde, Facility Manager-Operation & Maintenance, Forbes Facility Services Pvt. Ltd at Pepsico Pune.
The Forbes Facility team of 10 does the maintenance of HVAC system, air compressors and nitrogen plants at the Pune unit. “At this site, there are four units. One supervisor with eight technicians and two fitters, do all the mechanical work such as repairing motor parts, replacing bearings and so on. We have been deputed to take care of the HVAC systems, nitrogen plants and fire fighting systems.
“A complete checklist of routine work & standard operations is in place for daily, monthly and preventive maintenance schedule as per OEM recommendations. Before the actual production work starts, we check the load requirements, ACs, water level standards, HVAC support systems, air pumps, etc. We follow the checklists provided to us. Units are kept open as per production demand. This saves a lot of operational cost and improves the overall efficiency, minimising the costs of maintenance as well. Compared to last year, the overall consumption of electricity has marginally come down.
“Again, there is not much requirement of HVAC system during winter when temperature is relatively low. In the early morning and late night we don’t find heavy uses of the system We control energy consumption by maintaining the temperature at 22oC in the shopfloor area. “To ensure and achieve the desired level of quality assurance, we have actually deputed more men. At every unit, there are separate checklists which are followed by all the technicians and are checked by the Engineer. This is further checked by the QA team of Pepsico.
“We also monitor the water hardness being fed into the cooling systems. It has to be first processed before using. The recommended quantity of additives are added as per the requirement to ensure desired pH value.
“Another major service we do is maintaining the six air compressors. The two Nitrogen plants, which are connected to the production units, are maintained by us. While one plant is in standby mode, another works 24 hours. We monitor the supply flow as per the production schedule instructions. As far as the work related security is concerned, we work in coordination with the security officer,” added Santram.
Specialised Services
Adding further, Tekale said, “We have a boiler which requires scheduled steam regulation. About six months back, we installed Voltas VAM and the waste flash steam generated from the boiler is now fed to the chillers.” The water in the boiler is blown down to control the amount of total dissolved solids (TDS). This pressurized and hot dirty water creates large volumes of flash steam. A heat recovery system can reclaim large amounts of energy during this process. Pepsico has Vapour Absorption chillers installed at the Pune plant which operates on waste flash steam and caters HVAC requirement of the entire plant. The total quantity of waste flash steam is to the tune of 2500kg/hr @ 0.8kg/sqcm pressure.
“VAM enables utilisation of waste heat in steam, hot water & exhaust gas which are in keeping with today’s preferred way of working on green concepts and saving carbon foot prints,” Tekale said.
While outsourcing is a better option when it comes to operations and maintenance, the service provider should have the capability to deliver. “We did outsource Utility services to another vendor previously but their expertise in these services did not meet expectations. This is a specialized service and the service provider should be able to rise to demanding situations.
Preventive Maintenance
“Apart from the day to day maintenance schedule, preventive maintenance is necessary in order to get the machines operate smoothly without excessive shut downs. When machines are not regularly maintained we may need to shut down for a longer time leading to unnecessary loss of work. Along with Forbes Facility we have created a schedule for Preventive Maintenance in keeping with the lean time work load. This way the shutdown period has been minimized. More than the number of technical staff, we need limited but robust workforce.
Energy consumption is the main indicator of Utility service efficiency. Working on the sustainability model, this plant has introduced many green features. “Earlier we were using LPG which was creating pollution. Today, 80% of the plant operates on steam and by the end of this year, we plan to cover the entire operations. By then we are also planning to put a bio DG, which is already in the implementation stage.
