FJB Systems with its one stop integrated service provides design and project management services for food factories and cold storage projects and, in particular covers process layouts, architectural planning drawings, design drawings and specifications, and project management and commissioning.

The services involved in acheiving the above include amongst others:

4Agricultural Surveys
4Food Processing Plant Business Plans
4Feasibility Studies
4Food Plant Designs & Process Layouts
4Planning Applications & Architectural Services
4Technical Specifications & Drawings
4Tender Documentation
4Tender Evaluation
4Contracts
4Project Management & Commissioning
4Management Training & Contracts
4Planned Maintenance & Energy Services
4Due Diligence
4Expert Witnesses

Our Involvement
The nature of our involvement depends on the client. It can range from broad professional advice to the undertaking of clearly defined, specialist management, architectural or engineering functions. Our contribution may be limited to the pre-contract stage or carry through to completion and eventual operational management. In general, however, our work can be summarised under five broad headings:

1. Design & Project Management - including technical evaluation, planning, implementation of detailed design, tender documentation and supervision of construction.

2. Specialist Design Expertise - Our specialised engineering and process know-how may be called upon to complement the skills of other specialists, such as consulting engineers or contractors.

3. Refrigeration, Insulation and Electrical Engineering Design - where our practical understanding of highly specialised applications requires us to collaborate with more generalised consultancies on specific aspects of a project.

4. Operational Management - where our plant specialists will set up management cost control systems or plant management services to help our clients run recently constructed factories or existing operations.

5. Planned Maintenance Systems - to ensure maintenance costs are controlled and plant reliability maintained together with energy control programmes.

This is necessarily an oversimplified summary of our many areas of activity. In order to understand FJB Systems’ potential in greater detail, let us look at the stage-by-stage progress of a typical large-scale project. Remember, though, that no two projects or clients ever demand identical FJB Systems involvement. Our service is designed to be as comprehensive or as detailed as you require it to be.

Implementation

Stage 1 - Feasibility FJB Systems prepare a management feasibility study. This will probably result in a series of alternative general layout drawings indicating the deployment of buildings and particularly of process plant. For each layout we prepare budget costs of construction and operation. These initial schemes may be based either on information supplied by the client or on a total commercial analysis of the requirements of the area or the industry by the preparation of full business plans.

Stage 2 - Planning Approval The agreed process layouts which determine the foot print of the factory are then developed into the necessary planning drawings by our own specialist architects, and the planning application implemented.

Stage 3 - Design, Specifications and Drawings Once a design has been agreed and planning approval obtained, we will develop it into tender drawings together with detailed specifications to cover building works, mechanical process equipment and mechanical, electrical and refrigeration services. At this stage a list is also prepared and costed of all loose plant such as lift trucks, pallets, racking, converters, scales and transport.

Stage 4 - Tender Invitation Tenders are usually invited separately for building work on the one hand and mechanical, electrical and refrigeration services on the other. In each case, at least three tenders from each discipline would normally be sought.

Stage 5 - Tender Analysis Following receipt of the tenders, FJB Systems prepare a thorough analysis of each, giving detailed reasons for recommendation or rejection in each case.

Stage 6 - Contracts We prepare contract documents and arrange for signature after negotiating and selecting the most suitable combination of specialist contractors.

Stage 7 - Project Management At the start of large contracts, FJB Systems will appoint a resident site engineer/team to ensure that the contractors comply with specifications and construction standards. This management team will remain on site until the project is completed.

Stage 8 - Progress Control Regularly throughout the contract, the FJB Systems Project Manager and Quantity Surveyor will visit the site to assess progress and determine valuations. At each visit, site meetings will be held with all specialist contractors present to resolve site problems or design changes. The project is completed by successful commissioning and agreeing final accounts at the end of the warranty period.

Management Services
FJB Systems do not sell food processing equipment or work as a building contractor. Rather they implement total food processing systems - as an independent and unbiased body. Whatever project we are asked to design, supervise or contribute to, our ruling principle is to ask "How will our work benefit the effective operation of the finished plant?" On certain projects, our principles are put to the ultimate test; FJB Systems is prepared to provide a management team to service completed factories or cold stores.

In some cases, this may take the form of a short term initial contract during which we will prepare the Client's personnel for eventual take-over to ensure design throughputs are achievable.

In others, we may undertake longer-term management contracts. Either way, we regard the plant management experience as one of our most vital resources, the one which enables FJB Systems not only to design technologically effective plant, but to plan operationally manageable factories or cold stores and to guarantee to the Client the workability of the total project.