Members of the BBI were recently rewarded with a thoroughly interesting visit to the Diageo factory at Runcorn. The site is an important Diageo company operation, responsible for packaging of the world famous Guinness Brand, and its variants, and is renowned for being involved in the launch of Guinness Draught in cans, known as the first ‘widget’ beer.

Our first impression was that the site is a very secure and safe environment giving employees and visitors a good-feel factor on arrival. Our host was Roy Ashley, Bottling Area Manager, who organised a great visit for us. Graham Johnson, Operational Excellence Manager gave members a first class presentation on the company, site facilities, and site culture.

Guinness Original is a carbonated stout first brewed in the late eighteenth century by Arthur Guinness and in those days known as 'Porter'. Today the beer is still brewed in Dublin and is 'conditioned' in a second yeast fermentation before being transported by tanker to Runcorn to be packed into cans and bottles and kegs.

Runcorn is home to the only Guinness bottling and canning site in Britain. The company has had a presence in the area since the 70's and packs over one million hectolitres of beer each year. There has been a great deal of recent investment at the Runcorn Site. The 18 acre site operates 24/7, producing 200 sku’s and there are over 200 employees producing all varieties of Guinness products on two canning and two bottling lines as well as a keg line producing UK draft Guinness. This facility supports over 180 markets world wide with the exception of Ireland.

During the presentation Graham Johnson explained the thinking and preparation that was behind their new Operational Excellence project. The idea was to create a future state based on ideal operating models with full engagement of the factory team. Operational Excellence at Runcorn focuses mainly on,

Quality systems and processes.

Health and Safety.

Team working, training and coaching, including team briefings, training days and away days.

Performance improvements on production lines with a reduction in waste. Perfect plant state.

Front line management capability, with skill sets and personal improvement for all employees.

The ‘Operational Excellence’ was summarised as having good management systems, high capability of employees, giving continuous improvement in all aspects of the business. The versatility and innovation within this plant requires full commitment from all teams, an example of commitment being a production team working on a community project at a local care home.

BBI members, divided into groups, were given a full guided tour of the site and at each stoppage point the local area manager gave short explanation of the part of the operation that they were responsible for.

As mentioned there are 2 high speed can lines and 2 high speed bottling lines and a kegging line on site. Both canning lines run at 57,000 cans/hr, one bottling line produces 36,000 b/hr and the other 20,000 b/hr. A recently installed Alvey palletiser on can line 4 allows all palletised configurations for the wide range of packaging formats that are produced on this line. There is a variety of multipacking arrangements on all lines the newest on Line 1 being the installation of MeadWestvaco’s BasketWrap 200 and EvoTech machines running both wrap and basket-style cartons in differing configurations, and accommodate bottles in varying diameters and heights. The packaging formats are designed for world wide markets one example being the application of widgets in bottles for America.

The kegging line is separate in a new building, purpose built as part of a KHS turnkey project fully commissioned 2005. There are 3 KHS Contikeg fillers handling 50litre kegs, one size only. The combined filling rate is 1,000 kegs/hr and the equipment is laid out in a traditional “U” shape fashion.
The KHS Contikeg filler concept combines the pre-cleaning, main cleaning and racking steps on one continuous operation carousel-principle platform and prior to filling, each keg is thoroughly precleaned then caustic cleaned then steam purged and finally purged with N2. There is also final Camera Inspection. There are 4 KHS de/repalletisers stacking kegs 6 per layer 3 high servicing this operation.

Since Guinness is brewed in Dublin and shipped to Runcorn there is substantial tank farm and beer preparation process on site which has a significant role. A fully automated system operating 24/7 receives 7,000 tankers per annum. Again, there has been considerable investment in this area, such as water treatment and tank capacity, to compliment the demands of the packaging lines.

The visit was well attended and gave a much appreciated opportunity for members of the BBI, who were impressed by the capabilities of this site. There is high level of packaging innovation, it is a very flexible operation and there is a well motivated workforce where a culture of continuous improvement exists. In rounding up the visit Brian Gibbs, BBI Visits Coordinator, thanked Roy and the Runcorn team for their excellent hospitality and giving their time and effort in making this an extremely interesting visit.

Visit Diageo website ....... http:// www.diageo.com

Brian Gibbs