Dulux Merrifield is a $165M greenfield site in North Melbourne, currently considered one of the world's most advanced Industry 4.0 sites.

DuluxGroup wanted to produce more advanced paint products using evolving technology in resins with even greater levels of quality and consistency. They were looking for a solution to help them step into the next generation of paint technology and innovation—and it needed to be groundbreaking.

They looked to the food and dairy industries for inspiration, and after inviting key FMCG/dairy integrators to tender, they partnered with Foodmach.

The challenge

Paint is batch-made rather than continuously produced.

The project required 300-400 recipes (and growing) to be accommodated, involving 200 raw materials and up to 1400 SKUs (individual products), with a total capacity of 50M-80M litres per annum. The new high-volume plant would need to package product in 1–5L steel and plastic containers.

The solution

Foodmach provided all filling line integration, the design and manufacture of depalletising, conveying, and robotic orientation systems, and a line control system to link all Foodmach and OEM equipment and put operators in the driver's seat of a powerful production line. 

The plant is operated by 60 staff on two shifts over five days—newly-appointed staff with no specialisation or paint manufacturing expertise—made possible by automated changeovers, limited raw material handling and the speed, safety and accuracy of the line.

Minimum batch sizes are 1/50th (0.02%) of the old Dulux plant’s requirements, and production time per batch has been reduced by 7/8ths (87.5%). 

Best of all, Dulux will lead the way in customised mass production in its market.

'Industry 4.0 is the future. Foodmach are right at the cutting edge... a great partner to take you on that journey... I would endorse Foodmach to any organisation considering a technically challenging project. Collaboration and early engagement allow the Foodmach knowledge base to be used to generate the best-fit solution.’ 

Project Manager, Dulux.  

Interested in this project? Read the full case study or

Have a chat to us!