1. BACKGROUND
A modern factory to manufacture confectionery in Yangon, Myanmar was long overdue. A country with immense potential for growth and progress was looking forward to the same for a long time eagerly. When two giants in business like CDSG Capital Diamond Star Group of Myanmar and Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan come together to form a project like this one the expectations out of them reach a new peak.
Precisely this was the case when LLUVIA Confectionery was formed- a joint venture project between CDSG of Yangon and MC of Japan.
The ground-breaking ceremony of this project took place in 2017 with a stiff dead line to complete the civil, mechanical, electrical work as well as plant & machinery selection, assembly, installation and commissioning within a span of two years including lined up products after thorough market research and in ready to launch state.
2. INTERVENTION
Design team, and project management team with global experience, civil contractors, local contractors and highly skilled and experienced project management teams and suppliers of plant & machinery from across the world were chosen amidst stiff competition.
The designing of the whole project was handled by a team from New Zealand. They were too glad to work with local Myanmar architects. This proved to be a blessing as it helped as training ground for the local team.
Singapore based Project Management team was chosen for the whole project management activity. They obviously brought in Singapore Standards for each and every facet of Civil and Construction activities.
A veteran Malaysian Engineer assumed the role of Project Manager and developed two local Engineers who had previous work experience in Singapore to manage the day-to-day work at site.
Two Technical Specialists from India joined the team for Manufacturing Operation and Product Development which were taking place simultaneously. They had the role of overseeing project, utility, plant & machinery installation, layout as well as training local team on a day today factory operation while installation of the machines.
Major structural support for the factory was sourced from a local party who were head quartered in Vietnam. Their operation in Myanmar was headed by an Egyptian Engineer and a person of Jordan origin was the point of first contact from Sales & Marketing point of view.
Plant & machineries were sourced from Korea, India, China. A team of experienced specialists visited these suppliers sites to evaluate them and their capability to timely deliver plant & machinery. A competitive bidding process was followed before negotiation and placement of orders.
All Utilities like LPG plant, ETP, Water Treatment plant, air compressors, generators were also sourced in the same manner from Japan and the USA
3. CONTROL & MONITORING
Work Safety was of great importance at the site. Before start of the day this was enforced through daily TOOL BOX meetings in the morning for all the groups covering both staff and workmen. The site was equipped with first aid kits, ambulance and a health worker with a doctor on call. All the safety warnings were displayed at various places depending on the safety protocols.
THREE step project progress monitoring system was put in place
- “Weekly Project Progress Review & compliance meeting”: This was held with all contractors & their subcontractors and their team at the site. .
- Monthly Executive Committee meeting with the Group Managing Director and Directors to assess the project progress and take on-time critical decisions, if any from time to time to keep the project on course.
- Quarterly Board of Director’s meeting and followed by walk through by the team from Japan and their recommendation.
4. COMPLEXITY OF THE MISSION
The project was a path breaking one because the site was a pond inside an industrial area prior to this project and hence the water table was high which posed some challenges in civil construction.
The location is in seismic zone 3 and is prone for seismic activities and hence, all structures to follow Seismic zone 3 standards and above for safety.
In Myanmar this is the first project to use LPG as the fuel for running bakery oven and hence, the project faced some challenges in regulatory approval process. We supported the approving authorities with all the relevant international standards, required documentation, drawings etc for the approval and it became the new provisions in the law.
We could convince the management and built in 3X expansion provisions for the future.
Operational challenges due to multi-cultural, ethnicity and language was visualized at the beginning of the project. A list of translators was prepared and contract was signed. Depending on the requirement at various stages these translators were put at the site for better control of Work Safety and smooth progress of the project. Translators used were Chinese to English to Burmese, and Pilipino to English to Burmese and vice a versa.
5. END RESULT
The project was completed in 26 months against 24 months of targets in spite many unforeseeable challenges at the site and with ZERO loss time accident. At the end of 26 months the plant had well trained local staff. Targeted 12 SKUS were ready and commissioned with successful commercial trials and desired yield. All required state and FDA approvals were obtained on time.
