GOTAFE student Ben Finlayson has helped his employer to save thousands of litres of water on its production line, after completing a class assessment.
Mr Finlayson is completing a certificate IV in food science and technology at GOTAFE, which has campuses in Shepparton, Benalla, Wangaratta, Seymour, Wallan and Werribee.
He has been studying at GOTAFE since April last year and recently finished a project based on reducing water usage at his work site by working out how to optimise a Clean in Place (CIP) reduction – a method of cleaning the interior surfaces of pipes and other equipment without disassembling them – at the plant.
Mr Finlayson works at Sungold Milk, the fresh milk brand of Australia’s oldest dairy company, Warrnambool Cheese & Butter.
For his assignment, Mr Finlayson assessed Sungold’s CIP process and identified that its average water usage on a Sunday was 90,000 litres.
He aimed to reduce this by half and worked with the company’s quality administrator to ensure that the reduction of CIP didn’t affect the quality of the product.
After proposed changes to the CIP were introduced, Sungold’s Sunday water usage decreased from 108,000 litres to 48,000 litres for the day.
Mr Finlaysn said that his employers had responded with a “very positive” reaction.
“My supervisor has provided a lot of support and feedback to myself and others lending a hand,” he said.
He said he would like to thank the GOTAFE staff for providing the knowledge and opportunity to carry out the project, along with Kyle Rodger, Nicola Perry and Jackey Tejano from Sungold.
