Project

Atria builds €155 million state-of-the-art poultry production plant in Finland

NIRAS has assisted in creating the masterplan for Atria's new €155 million state-of-the-art poultry production plant in Finland.

Atria - one of the leading food companies in northern Europe - will build a new €155 million production facility in Finland. NIRAS has assisted in creating the masterplan for the project, and has also been involved in the process part of the conceptual design and digital simulation reviewing of the new plant.

November 24, 2020

SDG: #9, #12
SECTORS: Food & Beverage
COUNTRIES: Finland
DONOR: ATRIA
CLIENT: ATRIA
Cost: €155 million

Atria is one of the biggest poultry companies in Finland and their new €155 million processing plant facility represents one of the largest investments in the Finnish poultry industry. In 2019 Atria decided to make a strategic overhaul of its production capacity in order to adjust to the increasing demands of the growing poultry market.

The company contracted NIRAS to assist developing a masterplan for the new facility. NIRAS’ expert was involved in developing process layouts and carried out analysis of cost estimate (CAPEX) and investigated different options for the new plant.

Atria opted for a greenfield solution at the company’s existing site in Nurmo in Western Finland.

The new production technology will be more environmentally friendly. We will be able to reduce food waste caused by the production process. The new technology will also significantly reduce energy and water consumption, and it will allow us to improve health and safety in the workplace.

Juha Gröhn, CEO Atria Plc

State-of-the-art greenfield plant

Atria’s new facility is a high efficient production plant, and due to a series of supplier workshops that NIRAS’ experts have helped facilitating, this have ensured that the facility will contain the latest “state of the art” technology.

Atria’s new site will include new slaughtering, cutting and packaging processes, and it will increase the company’s production capacity by approximately 40%.

NIRAS hired as Subject Matter Expert and Project Facilitator

“Even though The Atria Engineering Team is highly experienced, we needed a second set of eyes in order to minimize risks and secure optimal design for the new poultry plant. NIRAS had very good references from similar poultry projects that had been carried out for clients like Miratorg, Maple Leaf Foods and Norsk Kylling,” says Project Director Reijo Äijö at Atria Plc.

“Therefore we decided to contract NIRAS to facilitate the Master Planning and conceptual design of the process part. We also hired NIRAS as Subject Matter Expert and Project Facilitator so their experts could drive discussions and decisions forward without bias.”

Digital Twin Simulation of complex production

NIRAS also carried out a series of Digital Simulation models of different production processes such live receiving, cut-up process and packaging area, including design verification.

NIRAS’ Digital Twin Simulation tool was also used to simulate the largest and most complex production weeks for the fully extended factory to test out the complete design.

Digital Twin is a virtual copy of a production plant that can be used across the whole food and beverage industry to simulate production processes in order to prevent bottlenecks and other halts to production. The tool can be applied to both existing factories and in the design phase, and thereby help to save time and money for food and beverage companies.

NIRAS’ activities on the new Atria Poultry Plant

In close cooperation with the Atria poultry team, NIRAS has developed the following for Atria:

Overall Masterplan

Layout workshops with all main suppliers
A complete set of long-term planning assumptions
Flow analyses regarding products, packing goods, waste, personnel and hygiene
Overview of main production lines
Overall implementation plan

Input to financial feasibility

Cost estimate (CAPEX)
Supporting project management team with relevant input to Business Plan

Digital Simulation

Digital Simulation model of Live receiving, cut-up process and packaging area including design verification
Digital Twin Simulation of largest/most complex production weeks for fully extended factory to test out the complete design