Industry Sectors

MAX-SERV is designed to support manufacturers who operate in the process industry sectors:

Process plants subject materials to substantial physical, chemical or biochemical changes. Like the hidden bit of an iceberg, processing is all too easily over looked. It is easy to forget that it takes a process plant to deliver the product, when attention is focused on the latest new wonder drug, new material or demand is focused on the next fashion food. The products and services of process industries are instrumental in meeting many needs of mankind and are present in all facets of life, from food and clothing, housing, communications and transport - through to leisure activities.

Food & Beverage Sector

The EU is one of the world's largest markets for food products and food processing, and demand is still on the rise. The food and drink industry is of paramount importance for the economy of the European Union. With 15% of the total production value in the manufacturing sector, it is ranked first in Europe ahead of the car, chemical, machinery and equipment industries. In terms of jobs, the food processing industries are positioned in the top three industrial employing sectors in the EU.

The food and drink industry is among the largest industry sectors in the Union:

• with more than 25,000 companies across the EU,
• employing some 2.6 million people,
• an annual turnover of 600 billion euro,
• and a large SME base with around 90% small or medium - sized enterprises.

The food & beverage industry involves the processing and manufacture of all kinds of food. It is a diverse industry that includes the following sectors: meat, poultry & seafood, fruits & vegetables, confectionery products, grain products, bakery products, dairy products, beverages, snacks, animal and vegetable fat manufacturing industries and further processed foods and specialties. The definition of "processed foods" includes anything in bottles or cans, boxes, or sealed plastic packages: everything from soft drinks to taco shells to sauces.

MAX-SERV draws on expert knowledge of advanced technologies that are already established in the food industry and elsewhere, and encourages their adoption in food manufacturing. Our e-based consulting will give you access to our experts and suppliers who are well positioned to advise on the adoption of new applications and on the integration of novel processing methods (eg ultrasound; high pressure; enzymes). MAX-SERV experts will be able to assess your performance in relation to other food processing companies. In addition our suppliers draw on a wealth of experience to provide up-to-date advice on the best use of new advanced technologies to enhance your operating performance.

MAX-SERV can assist you with advanced manufacturing for food processing, in the following functional areas:

MAX-SERV suppliers will support users in optimizing the basic unit operations of the food processing industry: flavors & ingredients, processing equipment, refrigeration/freezing, fluid handling, instrumentation/controls, material handling, packaging materials and equipment, food safety & QA/QC, sanitation, powder & solids handling, warehousing/ distribution, architectural/engineering/construction firms, and independent labs.
Many of the above topics require a multidisciplinary approach that MAX-SERV can provide through the involvement of academic groups, with the relevant expertise, and suppliers who will collaborate with you the customer to find the best solution to achieve manufacturing excellence.

MAX-SERV's experts and suppliers will help you answer the following questions:

• What are the trends related to food safety, waste management, product quality, competitiveness, operational efficiency, and environmental regulations?
• What are the essential technologies for the food and beverage industry and what are the environmental and energy implications?
• What are the latest developments for equipment used in food processing operations?
• What is the energy consumption of existing technologies being used and what would be the expected energy usage of alternate comparative technologies?
• How are advanced technologies used differently within subsectors for meat, dairy, grain, preserved fruits and vegetables, beverages, and bakery products?
• How are these advanced technologies used in the subsectors of fats and oils, confectioneries, and beet sugar, etc?
• What efficiency approaches can be taken with existing equipment?
• What emerging technologies should food and beverage processors be aware of?
• What advantages do new and emerging technologies offer in terms of food safety, environmental issues, energy efficiency, or better control?

MAX-SERV experts will help food processors evaluate how technological, financial, environmental, and regulatory developments will affect your business decision-making. Food processing companies can benefit by learning from MAX-SERV experts about current methods and interventions that can assist in effectively managing their resources, water consumption, energy usage and environmental impact minimisation.

MAX-SERV recognizes that there remains a lot to be done to ensure sustainability. Sustainable development is part of the European Authorities' priorities and represents a theme of major importance for the food and drinks industry.

Adapted from UNEP, 1999

MAX-SERV will assist you in addressing environmental considerations throughout the food supply chain, which starts with the production, purchase and processing of raw materials, continues through manufacturing, materials, continues through manufacturing, consumer. MAX-SERV experts will focus on the adoption of cleaner production practices, the minimisation of packaging waste and optimisation of transport (see figure 1).

MAX-SERV recognize that what is good for the environment is good for business, experts will advise you on eco-efficiency strategies to pursue to help to move towards sustainable development, creating more value with less impact, through:

• the optimisation of processes (reduce resource use, impacts and operational costs).
• recovery of by-products.
• innovation in product packaging development (better design and functions for lower impact in use).

Paper & Pulp Industry Sector

The European pulp and paper industry is a vital part of an economic cluster - the forest and paper cluster - that generates an annual turnover of more than EUR 400 billion. The turnover of the European pulp and paper industry amounts to EUR 74 billion. The industry provides direct employment to about 260,000 people, and indirect employment - through the forest and paper cluster - to a total of 3.5 million people, and is made up of more than 1,000 paper mills and 220 pulp mills. CEPI member countries produced some 88 million tonnes of paper and board in 2001.

The pulp and paper industry is a vital manufacturing sector that meets the demands of individuals and society. Paper is an essential part of our lives and culture. Paper products produced by the industry includes paper for storage and communication of information (newspapers, books, business documents and writing paper), to transport and protect goods (bags, sacks, packaging), for personal hygiene (tissues, napkins, nappies, etc.) and in medicine (a variety of hospital uses). In volume terms, graphic paper grades account for 50% of the EU's paper production, packaging paper grades account for 40%, and hygiene and specialty papers for 10%.

The industry uses 40% of recycled fibres and 44% of virgin pulp, the rest being other pulp 2% and non-fibrous materials, 14%. Within Europe, Germany is the largest paper producer, followed closely by Finland, Sweden and France. The main pulp-producing countries are Finland and Sweden. CEPI member countries account for more than 27% of world paper and board production, slightly behind North America (34%) and Asia (29%).

MAX-SERV's experts will help you evaluate how technological, environmental, and regulatory developments will affect your business decision-making. The paper and pulp industry has committed itself to EU initiatives to meet the Kyoto targets of an 8% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2012, as agreed in December 1997.The European pulp and paper industry is subject to harsh international competition and compared to most of its competitors, it has to faces higher wood costs, higher energy costs, higher labour costs and higher taxes. Our experts can advise you on new technologies to improve production efficiencies, safety, disposal of waste and compliance with regulatory authorities and eco-management initiatives (ISO 14001, EMAS). MAX-SERV experts and suppliers can help you address priority issues. The European pulp and paper industry is committed to a careful and responsible use of resources in order to reduce their impact on the environment while providing the paper products required by society.

The high cost of energy has provided a powerful incentive to improve energy efficiency in the industry. Often energy costs represent up to 25% of the manufacturing costs thus providing a major incentive and a continuous driving force to improve energy efficiency. MAX-SERV experts can advise on process technology efficiency and assessing the potential of combined heat and power (CHP or co-generation) installations investments: CHP plants operated by pulp and paper mills produced roughly one third of the total electricity needed for the papermaking process in Europe in 1999.

Environmental management systems (including ISO 14001 and EMAS - Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) provide useful tools to continuously improve the environmental performance of a mill and improvement of production operations. MAX-SERV experts can advise on gaining certification.

Paper recovery is a technical, economic and environmental reality for the European paper industry. MAX-SERV suppliers can help with the development of the recycling technologies for paper products. Recovered paper can be used by the industry as a source for further production and as a renewable energy source.

A sound handling of pulp and paper residues. MAX-SERV experts can advise on measures to take for an integrated approach to environmental care at all steps in the production and effluent treatment operations. The growing recycling rates also imply an increase in the amount of production, recycling and treatment residues that are generated.
MAX-SERV benchmarking can help you assess your manufacturing performance in relation to the best practices of companies both within the paper and pulp sector and in a wider context, horizontally, across all the processing sectors. Our 3-stage assessment provides a baseline analysis of where your company is now. This forms the foundation for an expert consultation that can help you answer the questions: Where is my business versus "best-practice"? What is the gap? How do we close the gap?

A consultation with our MAX-SERV experts can help you achieve performance improvements that match those of your competitors. Experts will advise you on how to take the best practices of top performing companies and apply them to your company's culture and current business. Our suppliers can recommend the latest in new technologies, IT and control systems to employ that will be effective in gaining energy efficiencies and improved throughput times. Superior processes with advanced technology can provide you with a competitive advantage, and the opportunity to meet changing customer needs.
A recent report from CEPI identified a number of areas that MAX-SERV experts could help address. There is a need for competence building in the European pulp and paper industry that MAX-SERV consultants and suppliers could provide. Listed below are major areas where technical competence is needed. Our suppliers can provide the competence tools (analytical chemistry, optics, control engineering, biotechnology, etc.) needed to address projects in the areas listed. The list is not necessarily complete.

• Wood and fibre properties
• Recycled fibre processing
• Wood/chip handling
• Chemical pulping
• Mechanical pulping
• Pulp bleaching
• Fibre property modification
• Chemical recovery
• Chemicals from wood and process by-products
• Natural polymers from wood
• Stock preparation, refining, fractionation, rheological properties of fibre suspensions
• Furnish additives, fillers, retention aids, performance chemicals
• Papermaking: forming, wet pressing, drying, impulse technology
• Surface treatment, coating, surface sizing
• Calendaring and other thermo/chemi/mechanical treatments
• Reeling, slitting, sheeting
• Fibre/paper - process interactions
• Printing papers, material properties, printability
• Printing processes
• Packaging papers and paperboard: material properties
• Packaging/converting processes
• Hygiene papers, fibre products for absorption of gases, liquids and solids
• Cellulose fibres in combination with other materials (composites, etc.)
• System closure, water management
• Product quality management, including health aspects
• Environmental information, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)
• Energy management
• Effluent characterisation and treatment

It should also be noted that pulp and paper research increasingly needs a multidisciplinary approach including not only technical competences but also competences such as behavioural sciences, sociology, perception science, economics and logistics. The increased focus on product development and market needs leads to an increased need for research in "non-technical" areas such as:

• Market analysis
• Distribution systems
• Social behaviour
• Cultural changes

The need for expertise in these areas is strengthened by the influence of the IT development on both the printing and the packaging fields.

Chemicals Sector

Chemicals form the Europe Union's second largest manufacturing sector, just behind food, drink and tobacco in terms of production, and behind electrical engineering in terms of added value. The EU is also the world's most important producer of chemicals, accounting for 32% of the total global output. Its positive trade balance is bigger than that of the chemical industries in the USA or Japan. European industry directly employs more than 1.7 million people and has a turnover of more than €400 billion. Another three million employees work in sectors using chemical products as direct inputs.

Chemicals manufacture in the EU is very heterogeneous in nature, mainly based on the transformation of materials into diverse substances with new chemical and physical properties. This activity is divided into two 'upstream' segments: basic inorganics and petrochemicals (or basic organics). These two segments almost exclusively serve a variety of downstream sectors, whose principal products are:

• Fertilizers and nitrogen compounds
• Basic plastics and synthetic rubber
• Pharmaceutical and medical products
• Speciality chemicals - including agrochemicals, and specially polymers
• Paints, varnishes and coatings
• Cleaning and polishing preparations
• Perfumes and toiletries
• Man-made fibres

The Chemical industry in Europe employs 1.7 million people directly and up to 3 million jobs are dependent on it. Of the world's top 30 chemical companies, 15 have headquarters in the EU and a further three in Switzerland. However, while large companies predominate in petrochemicals, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) play a vital part in the industry as a whole. As well as the multinationals, there are around 36,000 SMEs in this sector. These SMEs represent 96% of the total number of enterprises, account for 40% of the total workforce and 28% of chemical production.

MAX-SERV benchmarking can help you assess your manufacturing performance in relation to the best practices of companies both within the vertical chemical sector and in a wider context, horizontally, across all the processing sectors. Our 3 stage assessment provide a baseline analysis of where your company is now. This forms the foundation for an expert consultation that can help you answer the questions: Where is my business versus "best-practice"? What is the gap? How do we close the gap?
A consultation with our MAX-SERV experts can help you achieve performance improvements that match those of your competitors. Experts will advise you on how to take the best practices of top performing companies and apply them to your company's culture and current business. Our suppliers can recommend the latest in new technologies, IT and control systems to employ that will be effective in gaining efficiencies and improved on line times. Superior processes with advanced technology can provide you with a competitive advantage, and the opportunity to meet changing customer needs.

The OECD predicts that future of the chemicals industry will look very different to that of today, with a shift in production for European companies away from high volume basic commodity production to high technology specialities and life science products that concentrate primarily on advanced technologies.
MAX-SERV will assist the chemical process industry in delivering world class manufacturing in production, that meets consumer's demands for products tailored to meet their needs while simultaneously satisfying growing demands for better environmental performance. The driving forces for manufacturing excellence in chemical processing, as with much of manufacturing, comes from the requirement to satisfy customers and the growing demand for improved quality of life through such measures as better environmental performance.

Chemical industries today are wrestling with major changes. Development and manufacture of the chemical products of the future will thus need to take greater account of consumers' needs, while the on-going drive towards sustainable technologies and the elimination of waste will require still higher levels of innovation. Today's mature chemical processes may no longer be acceptable in the increasingly environment-conscious world. And many industrial infrastructures, production sites, laboratories, storage facilities and distribution networks will have to be reorganised or transformed.

MAX-SERV experts will advise you on the techniques and practices needed to become customer centric, by focusing attention on factors such as the time it takes to fulfil an order, the effectiveness with which a process plant meets customer's needs, Just-in Time delivery, "zero defects", increased customer service levels, re-engineering of business processes and systems. Chemical companies have as much to gain through improvements in their links with the supply chain as from improvements in process efficiency.

Rubber & Plastics Sectors

Manufacture of polymer resins is an important part of Europe’s second largest industry, chemical manufacture. The sector is a major contributor to Europe’s economic strength. While raw material producers in Europe number around 50, their customers, the plastics converting industry, accounts for over 30.000 companies - mostly small and medium enterprises. The plastics chain - including producers, converters and machinery manufacturers - employs over 1 million people and generates a turnover in excess of €135 billion. This figure does not represent all the plastics processing activity. A large number of enterprises (with employees and sales) are integrated into other industries, such as automotive, electrical/electronic, building and toys and games, and are classified as part of these industries. Compared with the USA and Japan, Western Europe appears to have a larger number of smaller companies involved in plastics processing.

Key Figures for the European Plastics Industry, 2001.

Source: www.eupc.org, www.apme.org, www.euromap.org

The manufacturing cycle for plastic and rubber is illustrated below. The word polymer is a generic chemical name for all synthetic rubber and plastics materials. The term “rubber” and “plastic” are generic terms, meaning “rubberlike” and “plasticlike”. Once the raw materials have been formed by the chemical bonding process of polymerization, the final step is transformation. The process by which the plastic raw materials are shaped into finished products.

Polymers are divided into two distinct groups: thermoplastics and thermosets. For thermoplastics the final manufacturing stage involves conversion of granules, flakes, powders, into various shapes typically involving steps such as melting, shaping and solidifying. In the case of thermosets liquid components are usually mixed and transferred into a mould, where they react and form a 3-dimensional cross-linked structure.

Blends that have high rubber content are almost always crosslinked. Blends that have high plastic content are usually not crosslinked. The term “crosslinked”, “vulcanised” and “cured” mean basically the same thing. Rubber and plastics from the same family are chemically compatible and therefore can be blended with each other in all ratios.

The majority of polymers are thermoplastic, meaning that once the polymer is formed it can be heated and reformed over and over again (not crosslinked). This property allows for easy reprocessing and recycling. The other group thermosets, cannot be remelted (once crosslinking has taken place at high temperature), the shape is permanent. Once these polymers are formed, reheating will cause the material to scorch.

Major industrial plastics groups include:

• THERMOPLASTICS: one part, re-softenable w/ heat alone, crystalline or amorphous.
• THERMOSETS: two or more parts react, amorphous.
• ELASTOMERS: Soft, pliable polymers such as rubber and neoprene.
• THERMOPLASTIC ELASTOMERS (e.g. Santoprene): injection-moldable so applicable to mass-production.
• POLYMER BLENDS: Also known as alloys, polymer blends are "mixtures" of various polymer chains to form a distinct polymer substance. Polymer blends can also include additives, reinforcements, and fillers.
• SYNTHETIC POLYMER SUBSTANCES
• MODIFIED NATURAL POLYMER SUBSTANCES
• HOMOPOLYMER: All mers along a polymer chain are of the same type.
• COPOLYMER: Mers along a polymer chain are of two or more types.

Plastics are modern materials. Their processing is predominantly in the hands creative middle-sized companies, who are continually pioneering new products in response to new customer demands and diverse applications.

MAX-SERV benchmarking can help you assess your manufacturing performance in relation to the best practices of companies both within the vertical rubber & plastics sectors and in a wider context, horizontally, across all the processing sectors. Our 3 stage assessment provide a baseline analysis of where your company is now. This forms the foundation for an expert consultation that can help you answer the questions: Where is my business versus “best-practice”? What is the gap? How do we close the gap?

A consultation with our MAX-SERV experts can help you achieve performance improvements that match those of your competitors. Experts will advise you on how to take the best practices of top performing companies and apply them to your company’s culture and current business.

MAX-SERV suppliers can recommend the latest in new technologies, machinery and control systems to employ that will be effective in gaining efficiencies and improved throughput. Superior processes with advanced technology can provide you with a competitive advantage, and the opportunity to meet changing customer needs. The plastics industry must continue to innovate – new products systems, technologies – in order to advance its contribution to a more sustainable society. MAX-SERV’s experts will help you evaluate how technological, environmental, and regulatory developments will affect your business decision-making.

Source Plastics at work for sustainable development, APME, 2002. www.apme.org

With regard to sustainability, the range of regulatory issues is now so wide that MAX-SERVexperts can help you to focus on the key areas. Of prime interest for plastics is waste management legislation. The industry is currently facing EU legislative initiatives concerning Packaging and Packaging Waste, End-of-Life Vehicles, and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment. It is likely that measures will also be proposed in the future for Waste from Demolition and Waste from Healthcare. For plastics converters this means energy-conserving production with low emission manufacture, and the recycling of processing wastes and used products. Them industry is striving to use raw materials in a resource efficient manner.

Manufacturing activities pursued in accordance with the principle of sustainability must form the basis for acceptance of plastics by society.

MAX-SERV experts will advise on a number of manufacturing concerns seen in the diagram below.

• Lowering emission during machine manufacturing of products processes. MAX-SERV can advise on modern technologies to help to reduce these emissions and at the same time cut costs. Thus usage of raw materials is efficient.
• Energy efficient processing MAX-SERV suppliers can suggest modern technology for achieving greater energy efficiency in production and lower costs.
• Low waste production. MAX-SERV will advise on waste recycling environmentally sound and cut costs.
• Efficient and effective products MAX-SERV can advise on steps to improve quality resulting in greater customer satisfaction and higher value product.
• Utilisation value MAX-SERV can help you evaluate technology to develop longer life products.
• Internal operating costs MAX-SERV can look at methods to achieve reductions.
• External costs achieve MAX-SERV can assess how to achieve additional revenue from this from which the collection, sorting and reuse.
• Disposal of residues MAX-SERV can examine how to reduce the quantities of residues, hence achieve greater savings.

Sustainability means covering the requirements of the present without removing the basis for meeting the requirements of future generations.

Source: www.eupc.org

Pharmaceuticals Sector

The pharmaceutical industry is the fifth largest industrial sector in the European Union, according to Eurostat, amounting to 3.5% of the total manufacturing production. The pharmaceutical industry in Europe directly employs more than 540,000 (incl. 85,000 in R&D) people in highly qualified jobs, and generates 3 to 4 times more jobs indirectly. Europe's pharmaceutical industry is a provider of highly productive and especially high value-added employment. On average, the added value per employee in the pharmaceutical sector is 35% higher than in other manufacturing industries (such as motor vehicles, mechanical engineering and construction). The pharmaceutical industry in Europe is the only high technology sector to consistently show a growing positive trade balance. Europe produces more than 40% of world pharmaceutical output, making it still the world's leading manufacturing location ahead of the US (over 30%) and Japan (20%).
Europe is still leading the world in pharmaceutical production which has risen fivefold in value over the last 20 years, with exports accounting for 60% of total production. The pharmaceutical industry carries out almost a fifth of all industrial research and development in Europe. Every pharmaceutical company must reinvent itself on a 10-year cycle, in order to generate a constant stream of new products because patents for marketed medicines do not in effect last more than 10-12 years. (source: http://www.efpia.org)

Pharmaceutical manufacture can be divided into two stages.
Primary manufacturing -that is the production of the active ingredients using chemical synthesis, extraction, fermentation and/or biological processes.
Secondary manufacturing - that is the formulation and packaging of the active ingredients into medicines for patient use. The active ingredient is incorporated into a dosage form that can be used by the patient. This involves the mixing of the active ingredients with a number of usually inert materials, known as excipients, used to bulk out the product so it can be handled by the patient. Different delivery routes require different manufacturing processes: tablets, capsules, injections, inhalers, suppositories, topical medicines.
Each of these drug delivery systems present challenges for manufacturing methods:

• sound and secure packaging
• GMP, quality assurance and control
• health and safety
• environmental protection

MAX-SERV's experts will help you evaluate how technological, environmental, and regulatory developments will affect your business decision-making. Our experts can advise you on packaging, good manufacturing practice, new technologies to improve production efficiencies, safety, disposal of waste and compliance with regulatory authorities and industry voluntary initiatives (ISO 14001, EMAS, Responsible Care). The production of pharmaceuticals, for example, generates wastes that are far more complex than those emanating from process plants that manufacture simple chemicals. The sheer amounts of waste can be staggering. The product can make up no more than a few % of the plant's output. Even small increases in the efficiencies of process technologies could lead to large reductions in the amount of waste produced.

MAX-SERV's suppliers can advise on the design of manufacturing processes to eliminate or reduce operator exposure to chemicals and on equipment that that has a high integrity of containment or high performance ventilation systems.

MAX-SERV benchmarking can help you assess your manufacturing performance in relation to the best practices of companies both within the vertical pharmaceutical sector and in a wider context, horizontally, across all the processing sectors. Our 3 stage assessment provide a baseline analysis of where your company is now. This forms the foundation for an expert consultation that can help you answer the questions: Where is my business versus "best-practice"? What is the gap? How do we close the gap?

MAX-SERV's experts and suppliers will help you answer the following questions:

• How can my company reduce the amount of packaging for products?
• What measures to take to minmise the impact of packaging on the environment and reduce waste?
• What new materials would be suitable for packaging without compromising product quality and efficacy?
• How best to adhere to EU packaging and packaging waste directive (94/62/EC)?
• How to minimize energy utilization in packaging manufacture and distribution?
• How to excel in good manufacturing practice (GMP) to maintain the quality, safety and efficacy of products?
• How to minimize waste through re-use, recycling, recovery and disposal in an environmentally responsible way?
• How to reduce the impacts of primary and secondary pharmaceutical manufacture on health, safety and environment?

A consultation with our MAX-SERV experts can help you achieve performance improvements that match those of your competitors. Experts will advise you on how to take the best practices of top performing companies and apply them to your company's culture and current business. Our suppliers can recommend the latest in new technologies, IT and control systems to employ that will be effective in gaining efficiencies and improved on line times. Superior processes with advanced technology can provide you with a competitive advantage, and the opportunity to meet changing customer needs.