Clover Place a High Premium on Productivity & Quality

C lover, one of South Africa's largest food companies placed their way of transporting milk under the magnifying glass, mainly to improve productivity. "With the continuous growth in milk production per farm, as well as the recent diesel price increases, the need to look for vehicles with a bigger capacity became an economical necessity", says Tobie de Villiers, general manager Milk Procurement for Clover.

A team representing the Milk Procurement, Engineers and Production divisions of Clover, as well as the Transport and Manufacturing departments of Imperial began their research project two (2) years ago. The manufacturing division of Clover (now part of the Imperial Group of companies) made use of the knowledge, skills and inputs of external engineers, during the designing process. At first four inter-links, each with a capacity of 33 000 litres, were built mainly to transport milk between KZN and Gauteng. This was followed up with a few 24 000 litre collection vehicles, which can carry 34 000 litres if a drawbar trailer is added.

The topography in some areas, like KZN, forced Clover to look for other collection options. In these mountainous areas, collection capacity is limited to 11 000 litre rigid vehicles. As milk volumes per pickup grew it became evident that these vehicles were just not good enough. The answer was to design a new 23 000 litre drawbar trailer, which was constructed with the aid of specialized software to simulate extreme road conditions in South Africa. This process assisted the design team to identify possible stress points and the end design was adapted to ensure optimal features. Stability was also an important aspect of the design process, which required a design change of the standard cylindrical, to a double conical design. A South African Bureau of Standards certification was obtained for aspects to validate legality and compliance with the Road Traffic Act.

The first manufactured vehicle has been in operation since December 2004 and has proven to be justifiably useful. A further three such vehicles were added to the fleet and three more being manufactured by Imperial in Heilbron, says Riaan Naude, national manager Milk Procurement Logistics for Clover.