Nishinihon Feed Co., Ltd.
The feed manufacturing industry works hard to ensure both the safety and reliability of foods that go into the production of feed, which underpins the livestock industry. Nishinihon Feed Co., Ltd. manufactures mixed feeds in Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, and it was planning to build a new plant with additional manufacturing lines in order to fully comply with the requirement to separate processes as per the Act on Safety Assurance and Quality Improvement of Feeds set forth by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, in addition to the conventional requirement to separate the manufacturing processes for cattle feeds from those for chicken and pig feeds.
In response, Hitachi Power Solutions proposed supplementing the shortfall of electricity with CGS, helping make it possible for the new plant to operate. We support the development of regional industries as a one-stop partner that steps up to fulfll the vision of our clients.
Nishinihon Feed Co., Ltd. is based in Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture and serves as the center of feed production in the Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kansai regions. The company was planning to build a new plant with more production lines in order to provide safer, more reliable, and high-quality mixed feeds, but the issue of insufficient power was a major obstacle. Operating so many machines at the plant—such as debris removers, crushers, shifters, blenders, mixers, pelletizers and flakers—requires a lot of electricity. In addition to running these, the power supply from the power company alone could not run the new plant as well. Mr. Hiroyuki Kusaba, the Production Section Manager, was responsible for supervising and managing the project as its leader—he looked back on the early days of planning:
“The very first thing brought up when the seven members of the project met was 'Will we have enough power?' It quickly became clear we would need nearly twice as much power as the contract with the power company allowed for, so we decided to look for new ways to secure enough power. We looked at extra-high voltage power service, but decided against it as being too difficult in terms of facilities, engineers, maintenance, and management, as well as the cost. Then our parent company introduced us to Hitachi Power Solutions and we started looking at a proposal for a CGS.”
Mr. Kusaba is also responsible for day-to-day operations of the Production Section, including managing the manufacturing site and meeting with vendors. It must have been a lot of work to take on the role of project leader of new plant construction as well. “I was really starting from scratch, so even just remembering all the terminology I'd never heard before was difficult,” he said. “A representative from Hitachi Power Solutions gave me a detailed explanation about CGS, and it convinced me that CGS was very efficient, and we could use the exhaust heat as well.” Hitachi Power Solutions has an extensive record of delivering CGS to the food industry, so we leveraged that knowhow to provide quick, thorough support.
