STUDY OF THE PRODUCTION SYSTEM OF RED AND WHITE WINE AND PROPOSALS FOR IMPROVEMENT IN A WINE COMPANY

Abstract

A wine company in the province of Albacete has a daily production of between 500000 and 1.5 million kg of grape. The increase of the raw material in the last campaigns has caused an imbalance between the production speed and the intake speed of raw material, especially when production spikes (of 1 million kg red/day or 1.5 million kg white/day) occur. This situation causes that part of the grape received cannot be processed in the pneumatic presses for its transformation in must, having to store it in pools or sell it. By studying the production process and the machinery used, two problems are identified: the continuous failure and stop of the scraping conveyor belts, and the insufficient capacity of pneumatic presses to process raw material tip flows. After the study of several alternatives, the following solutions are proposed: the implementation of a chain elevator and overhead conveyor belts together with the improvement of preventive maintenance for the transport of scrapper, and the increase in the number of pneumatic presses with the redistribution of plant space, reducing the risk of process shutdown and the increase of the pressing capacity of the plant, allowing to company to keep on growing.