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Food and drink engineer - Mechanical food and drink engineer

Food and drink engineer - Mechanical food and drink engineer

Engineering and manufacturing

Level 5 - Higher Technical Occupation

Maintaining, managing and installing a diverse range of specialist equipment and technology used in the manufacture of food and drink products.

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Reference: OCC0624B

Status: assignment_turned_inApproved occupation

Average (median) salary: £42,362 per year

SOC 2020 code: 2129 Engineering professionals n.e.c.

SOC 2020 sub unit groups:

  • 2129/06 Food technologists
  • 2122/03 Mechanical design engineers

Technical Education Products

ST0624:

Food and drink engineer - Mechanical food and drink engineer

(Level 5)

Approved for delivery

Employers involved in creating the standard:

ABP Foods, Champion Reeves, Faccenda, KP Foods, Kraft Heinz, Muller, Nestlé, OAL, Pladis, Premier Foods, Princes

Summary

Food and drink is one of the largest, most dynamic and fastest growing sectors of industry. Food and drink engineers maintain, manage and install a diverse range of specialist equipment and technology used in the manufacture of food and drink products. Combining engineering competence with an understanding of the principles of food safety, science and technology, their focus is on managing, maintaining and continuously improving existing assets. They operate within the confines and unique challenges of the sector. These include the variability of the product itself, the legal and regulatory framework, environment factors and customer and consumer expectations and standards.

They fulfil a variety of functions within food businesses, dealing with mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, process development and project engineering.

They usually work as part of a team including other engineers and will interact with other functions and teams within their own company, such as manufacturing, production planning, health and safety and quality. They are responsible for their own work and may be responsible for teams.

This is a core and options apprenticeship. Apprentices must complete the core and one option relevant to their role. There are two options:

  • mechanical
  • electrical

Employers involved in creating the standard:

ABP Foods, Champion Reeves, Faccenda, KP Foods, Kraft Heinz, Muller, Nestlé, OAL, Pladis, Premier Foods, Princes

eco

Mid Green occupation

Typical job titles include:

Continuous improvement food and drink engineer
Food and drink electrical engineer
Food and drink mechanical engineer
Food and drink reliability engineer

Keywords:

Food And Drink Production
Food Businesses
Food Industry
Food Safety
Manufacturing

Knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs)

K1: Legislative, regulatory and ethical requirements, such as Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres (DSEAR) and Atmospheres and Explosives (ATEX) regulations, and their application to food engineering processes; food safety, hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP), health & safety and environmental considerations.
K2: Food science and technology; how engineering is used in food and drink production: heating processing, packaging, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), preservation, chilling, freezing, sterilisation.
K3: Engineering processes and equipment including automation and controls to make and deliver products to market: shaping forming equipment, ovens, chillers, freezers, sterilisers, MAP packing machines, check weighers, temperers, washing/cleaning, fillers, extruders, bulk solid handling & distribution and liquid systems process validation, sieving, filtration, metal detection, bar code verification metal detection wrapping and palletising.
K4: Engineering theory and techniques to develop processes i.e. thermodynamic and thermo-fluid analysis heat transfer can be applied to design of baking, cooling, preserving, freezing, chilling systems.
K5: Hygienic engineering principles relating to type of material, machine assembly, design and practice; and their importance to delivering food hygiene and safety and employee health and safety requirements in a food and drink process.
K6: Packing materials in food; inter-relationships with food ingredients, final product and their effects on safety, quality and performance through the supply chain i.e. how to engineer correct seals on film, cardboard, tins, stable transportation, moisture barriers.
K7: Problem solving tools to analyse e.g. Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve Control (DMAIC) principles.
K8: Interpretation and evaluation techniques.
K9: Overall Equipment Efficiencies (OEE), for example Smart Reliability Driven Maintenance approaches including Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM)/ Failure mode, effects, and critical analysis (FMECA), Condition Monitoring Techniques and applications, Single minute change of Die (SMED), Line balance.
K10: Risk management techniques, reliability/criticality tools and how they are used to reduce operational losses/wastage operations.
K11: Life Cycle Asset Management (LCAM), Criticality Analysis & Technology Selection (CATS), Intelligent Maintenance, Repair and Operations (inventory) (MRO) Optimisation.
K12: Product, machinery specifications: how they are used to set capability measurement, performance testing and maintenance requirements to deliver a standard set of operating conditions for consistent product delivery.
K13: Effective planning and scheduling, including effective communication, team working and project management techniques.
K14: Customer/food trade association standards, such as British Retail Consortium, Retailer and Engineering standards.
K15: General manufacturing services: steam, pneumatics and hydraulics, electrical supply, refrigeration, water supply and effluent.
K16: Manufacturing services specific to food: air filtration, oil free compressors, cleanliness of steam for food, sieving of materials, use of food grade lubricant, primary secondary cooling chemicals for food, MAP gases and generation i.e. Nitrogen.
K17: Factory digitisation/optimisation (Iot, Factory 2020 principles), for example principles of control engineering, logic controllers and data communication systems, sensors and devices, drives and transmissions, pumps and distribution systems, safety circuit systems, computer aided design, shop floor data gathering, PC use and computerised maintenance.
K18: Digitisation: 4.0, modelling of lines/process, 3d modelling scanning and printing, product dimensional measurement, rheology measurement.
K19: Mechanical design, mechanical analysis (static) performance of components, mechanisms and systems; study of friction wear; the science of interacting surfaces in relative motion (tribology).
K20: Laws of thermodynamics and its applications within a hygienic food and drink environment: the fundamentals of heat transfer, thermo-fluid analysis, entropy, energy efficiency; conservation and sustainability.
K21: Steam fundamentals such as fuel types, combustion, feedwater, boiler controls and instrumentation, operation of boilers, safety and legal requirements and boiler efficiency.
K22: Heat recovery systems and energy management including the requirements of efficient best practice.

S1: Use engineering principles to deliver products/packaged food.
S2: Comply with standard operating procedures, company, legal and regulatory requirements and customer/consumer and engineering standards.
S3: Plan, for example labour and engineering materials.
S4: Influence and communicate with colleagues and others, such as engineers, other functions and teams.
S5: Assess team and individual performance, provide feedback to improve; coach and mentor.
S6: Use continuous improvement techniques, for example apply quality management principles, participate in failure investigations and contribute to and implement practical engineering solutions for efficiency and/or profitability.
S7: Use IT, digitisation and manual methods to collect data from systems to support engineering activity within the business.
S8: Use and develop planned preventative maintenance (PPM) strategies, incorporate appropriate proactive maintenance routines, such as vibration analysis, thermography, simple visual/part measurement.
S9: Analyse operational performance, specification and data.
S10: Evaluate possible failure modes and identify strategy, for example technical risk assessment methods, PPM to RCM techniques.
S11: Contribute to the construction and commissioning of equipment and machinery used for producing preserved/fresh and safe food and drink products.
S12: Design, produce, and operate mechanical machinery.
S13: Design power circuits, utilising software and calculation.
S14: Apply specialist reliability engineering techniques to prevent or reduce the likelihood or frequency of failures i.e. vibration analysis, oil sampling, heat mapping, non-destructive testing.
S15: Apply thermodynamic theory to more complex engineering systems, for example tempering chocolate, cleaning systems, sterilisation, vacuum cooling.
S16: Design and improve systems, for example steam, water or air.

B1: Safe working, for example promotes a culture of food safety and safe working practices.
B2: Takes ownership of work, for example takes responsibility and ownership of decision making for good food practice; is proactive, and demonstrates initiative; plans work: dependable; works autonomously within own sphere of responsibility.
B3: Shows pride in work, for example strong work ethic; displays a positive mind set; pays attention to detail; looks for new ways of working that improve outcomes and results.
B4: Committed to self-development, for example seeks learning, drives the development of self and others; maintains and enhances own practice through continuing professional development activity.
B5: Shows integrity and respect, for example promotes integrity in process and site standards, respects others, promotes good communication at all levels, adapts personal style to meet work needs.
B6: Team player, for example drives good relationships with others, works collaboratively, contributes ideas and challenges appropriately.
B7: Responsive to change, for example flexible to changing working environment and demands; resilient under pressure.
B8: Shows company/industry perspective, for example promotes the position of the business in relation to market and competition, keeps up to date with industry and market advancement, commercially aware.

Duties

Duty D1

Co-ordinate site-based engineering activities using site standards.

Duty D2

Implement and operate engineering activities within regulatory requirements.

Duty D3

Assist the site/company to deliver operational targets, achieving optimal operational efficiency at the lowest cost.

Duty D4

Support the transition from a reactive to proactive approach to engineering.

Duty D5

Maintain and optimise the performance of current food and drink manufacturing equipment and machinery.

Duty D6

Design and install new process lines to meet emerging business needs.

Duty D7

Embed reliability centred maintenance strategies and techniques.

Duty D8

Identify the root causes of process and equipment failure and addressing through the implementation of continuous improvement techniques.

Duty D9

Lead the development of systems to drive planning and control focussed improvements.

Duty D10

Lead the efficient and effective delivery of asset care.

Duty D11

Option 1.

Occupational Progression

This occupational progression map shows technical occupations that have transferable knowledge and skills.

In this map, the focused occupation is highlighted in yellow. The arrows indicate where transferable knowledge and skills exist between two occupations. This map shows some of the strongest progression links between the focused occupation and other occupations.

It is anticipated that individuals would be required to undertake further learning or training to progress to and from occupations. To find out more about an occupation featured in the progression map, including the learning options available, click the occupation.

Progression decisions have been reached by comparing the knowledge and skills statements between occupational standards, combined with individualised learner movement data.

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Level 6

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Engineering and manufacturing

Health and science