Market leader in China opts for technology from ... - Gea-tds.com

Tuchenhagen
Dairy Systems
EUROPEAN DAIRY MAGAZINE
Dairy & Fluid Foods Technology
K 10189
September
5
September
Septembre
2006
Market leader in China
opts for technology
from Germany
Tuchenhagen Dairy Systems builds
a new dairy in Inner Mongolia
Yili's new showcase facility in Hohot

Milk silos at the showcase facility in Hohhot
Yili has four CIP plants in the new facility
The Chinese dairy company Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Co. Ltd., the
market leader in China, has started operations at a new, ultra-modern
production facility in Hohhot. The entire milk processing room equipment,
including automation and cleaning systems, was supplied and installed
by Tuchenhagen Dairy Systems (TDS) in cooperation with GEA Process
Engineering China (GPCN). GEA was also responsible for project management,
process planning and engineering.
According to Christiane Schetzschen,
responsible for the Chinese
market at TDS, the order was
awarded in October 2004 after a
tough negotiation marathon, which started
in autumn 2003. A GEA team spent a
couple of weeks in China to
clarify the details with Yili
because the project was
definitely ambitious: Yili was
striving to set up a showcase
production facility that is
unrivalled in the whole of
China. Christiane Schetzschen
said, “The GEA-Group, with its
individual companies – TDS, Westfalia
Separator, GEA Ecoflex, Niro Soavi, GPCN
and GEA Wiegand – successfully outrivalled
other internationally active plant engineering
companies because tailor-made
solutions were offered at a fair price, and
TDS and GPCN can draw on valuable
experience from building large-scale dairies
both in China and other countries
worldwide.”
The facility, one of the largest green-field
dairy facilities in China for the production of
drinking milk, was built on a total area of
290,000 m 2 . This first construction stage
has the ability to process 1 million litres of
The Yili logo wants to convey
fresh and natural like the
local pastures
raw milk per day. Yili is in the centre of
China’s most important dairy region Inner
Mongolia (28 per cent of the entire milk
production). It acquires raw material of the
best available quality, i. e. with a bacterial
count of less than 500,000 germs/ml, from
its own farms and local
producers. The factoryowned
milk collecting
trucks are unloaded at
twelve milk reception points
in six bays and
the milk is
pumped into two
underground buffer tanks. It’s
then heated by a GEA Ecoflex
plate heat exchanger with a flow
rate of 60,000 l/h, currently the
largest milk pasteuriser in China.
A milk evaporator to increase the
dry matter content, a suitably
matched separator with Protein
Plus System, an automatic
standardisation system, and a
homogeniser complete the milk
pre-processing equipment. The
next stages include complex
mixing processes for dry and
liquid additives before the
product reaches the filling lines
via UHT plants (the former are not supplied
by GEA).
The fully automated factory has 1,100
pneumatic valves: about 500 of the
Tuchenhagen VARIVENT type and around
the same number of pneumatic butterfly
valves produced in Shanghai by GPCN (GEA
uses these butterfly valves exclusively on
the Chinese market). In addition there are
600 manually-operated butterfly valves, 40
control valves, 95 pumps and 38 heat
exchangers for the four CIP plants and the
production areas. The facility is controlled
by two S7-417 systems.
For the first time, Yili ordered an
integrated MES system in addition to the
automation of the production systems for
this new dairy. Apart from delivery and
implementation of the system, TDS was
also in charge of coordinating data
communication with the co-suppliers. The
plant provides the following functionality:
Some people in Inner Mongolia still live in yurts of this type
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Working
together.
Common
understanding leads
to optimal solutions.
Tuchenhagen’s philosophy
is listening, understanding
and working
together. We exchange
know-how, which often
The spacious pastures of Inner Mongolia are predestined for milk
production
– Recipe management and job control
Powder metering processes are recorded by means of
barcode scanners – this ensures that the recipe is followed
and that the product can be traced back to the powder
supplier.
– Tanker truck management and logistics
Trucks are registered by transponder cards at different
stations on the factory premises (gateman, outside cleaning,
weighing point, milk reception, etc.) and guided through the
system. By integrating the laboratory systems, the trucks can
be assigned to the unloading bays in accordance with the raw
milk quality.
YILI
The dairy company Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Co. Ltd.,
based in Hohhot, has experienced a strong expansion in the
past few years: while 200 tonnes of milk products a day were
produced in 1997, current production amounts to more than
7 000 tonnes. The company’s success is based on ultra-modern
processing and packaging technology and strict quality
assurance. With a market share of approximately 20 per cent
of the milk market, Yili is currently the leader on the national
market; the advertising message is “fresh and natural like the
pastures”.
The group operates 24 market milk factories alone and takes
in milk from the three core regions in Inner Mongolia, the
metropolitan area of Beijing and the north-east of the country.
39 production factories, which apart from market milk also
produce ice cream, milk powder and sour milk products,
belong to the Yili group. Yili is one of the 500 leading
companies in China, and in mid 2005 they also took the lead in
their sector when they outclassed their competitors Mengniu
and Shanghai Bright Dairy, with a sales volume of more than
g 1.2 billion. All in all, Yili boasts annual sales of about g 1.5
billion; their 2004:2005 growth rate stood at 39.38 per cent.
The company has also been exporting UHT products and other
products to neighbouring markets.
A company of GEA Group
Tuchenhagen Dairy Systems GmbH
Am Industriepark 2–10
21514 Büchen, Germany
Phone: +49-(0) 41 55 / 49 22 00
Fax: +49-(0) 41 55 / 49 27 24
info-tds@tuchenhagen.de
www.tuchenhagen.de
leads to new discoveries
and new challenges.
As a result of this, we
create new technology, fulfilling
future demands.
Tuchenhagen will
always be working
closely with you so
that we can find
solutions together.
3

The milk is processed by a GEA Ecoflex pasteuriser with a flow rate of
60,000 l/h; the photo also shows the GEA Wiegand evaporator
Detail of the pasteuriser; the milk processed has a bacterial count of less
than 500,000 germs/ml, i. e. high-quality measured by local standards
– Laboratory management
OTAS Laboratory was used to establish
an integrated laboratory management
system. TDS paid special attention to
ease of use and high efficiency in the
day-to-day running of the laboratory.
This was achieved by integrating
barcode scanners and printers, as
well as online connection of analysis
equipment.
– Batch tracking
Batch tracking is achieved using the
graphical user interface of OTAS Track &
Trace. UHT systems, filling lines and the
fully automated warehouse from cosuppliers
were integrated into the batch
tracking system.
– The entire MES system allows fast online
English/Chinese language switching.
The operators were trained in four
other GEA-built Yili facilities during 2000 to
2003, so that they were already familiar
with the control PC, OTAS and the
production systems. After pre-selection of
source and destination tanks or recipes the
programmes run automatically.
The new facility, which adds another
UHT milk production and an ice cream
production plant to the region, mainly
supplies UHT products. UHT milk amounts
to approximately 50 per cent of the
production output, with the other 50 per
cent being divided between flavoured
UHT drinks or UHT drinks containing lactic
or citric acid. The products are stored for
distribution in a modern, fully automatic
high-bay warehouse with 20,000 pallet
locations. The final products are distributed
in the region and in the whole of China.
Information about the filling technology
installed in the new dairy can be found in
another article of SIG Combibloc in this
issue.
Thanks to GEA’s successful management
the project went smoothly so that the
facility was completed on schedule and set
into operation in time for the important 5th
China Dairy Product Tech Exhibition in
Hohhot on 27th August 2005.
A UTHORS:
– Christiane Schetzschen
(schetzschen.christiane@tuchenhagen.de),
GEA Tuchenhagen Dairy Systems
– Roland Sossna, European Dairy Magazine
4
Detail of an OTAS milk processing screen at Yili