Greenfield Processing Plant Program

01 — Results

02 — Challenge

A 40-year-old multi-level plant was being run far beyond its original design capacity with low automation, a difficult destination, and aging power, dock, housing and refrigeration — carrying nine figures of unavoidable catch-up capital over ten years just to stay operating. The question was not whether to invest, but where.

The greenfield alternative carried a nine-figure estimate, and capital exposure swung with two unsettled decisions: daily capacity and the product-form strategy. Neither had been priced.

03 — My role

Capital business case, equipment strategy, startup sequencing

Timeline: 4-year program

04 — Scope

• Replaces a 40-year-old multi-level plant running far beyond its original design capacity with a single-level facility delivering roughly 3x+ capacity expansion across a larger fillet-line count
• Operational and engineering design developed area by area — primary and secondary processing, IQF, surimi, palletizing and finished goods, byproduct/meal, plus space held for a future species phase
• Six key workstations designed into the general arrangement: boat unloading with by-catch and size grading; heading/gutting/trimming/portioning; fillet lines with skinners and candling; block freezing with automated load/unload; spiral freezing, glazing and dual-line grading; palletizing, stretch-wrap and automated cold/dry storage
• Capital stack modeled by category — building, process equipment, land/site/dock, support facilities and engineering — rather than as a single lump estimate
• Low / mid / high cases driven by daily capacity and product-form strategy, with inflation sensitivity carried at both a base and a stressed rate
• Long-lead process-equipment procurement sequenced against the build schedule across international suppliers
• Milestone chain from staff-up and pilot equipment testing through GA layout freeze, RFP rounds, PO release, phased install, IQ/OQ/PQ and wet operational qualification
• Alternative product-form scenarios priced against the base case so the board could see the capital consequence of each strategy

05 — Execution

• Designed the single-level general arrangement around six key workstations: boat unloading with by-catch and size grading; heading/gutting/trimming/portioning; fillet lines with skinners and candling; block freezing with automated load/unload; spiral freezing, glazing and dual-line grading; automated palletizing, stretch-wrap and cold/dry storage
• Sized every process area against demand — primary and secondary processing, IQF, surimi, palletizing and finished goods, byproduct/meal — with space held for a future species phase
• Built the capital stack by category: factory building, process equipment, land/site/dock, support facilities and engineering
• Priced low / mid / high cases against daily capacity and the product-form decision, with inflation sensitivity carried at a base and a stressed rate
• Modeled the benefit case bottom-up across yield, labor and fixed overhead, net of the legacy-asset write-off
• Priced an alternative product-form scenario so the board could see the capital consequence of each strategy
• Sequenced long-lead process-equipment procurement against the build schedule across international suppliers
• Wrote the milestone chain from staff-up and pilot equipment testing through GA layout freeze, RFP rounds, PO release, phased install, IQ/OQ/PQ and wet op-qual

06 — Systems & technology

• Greenfield capital
• General arrangement design
• Long-lead OEM procurement
• IQ-OQ-PQ commissioning
• Cash-flow modeling

07 — Artifacts & evidence

• Facility general arrangement with the six key improvement workstations called out
• Plant top-view design with square footage allocated per process area and recovery targets
• Byproduct/meal plant sized for protein capture off the round volume
• Multi-year cash-flow model tied to the procurement and install sequence
• Opportunity/risk register covering value engineering, GC negotiation and equipment buying power against yield, start-up wastage and headcount-reduction risk
• Vendor technical support budgeted onsite for a full year across controls, refrigeration and front-end lines