Decarbonisation Whisky Distilleries
Project Management
Methodology
After setting out the objectives and project controls the project followed the path laid out on the right. This started with a literature review of technologies and current state of the industry. After this data gathering, which included speaking to suppliers, as well as site visits to a distillery and anaerobic digestion plant was conducted.
Once all data had been collected the tool building could be begin. The data was then validated before a case study was carried out on a highland malt distillery.
The information found during the project was then collected and displayed on this website and a presentation was done to peers and industry.
Scope of Work
At the beginning of the project the team deicide on the topic title “A Comparison of Anaerobic Digestion vs Hydrogen vs Electrification as A Route to A Net Zero Distillation Process in The Whisky Industry”. From this a set of objectives that the project wanted to achieve were created. This was documented in a scope of Work (SOW) along with methods of working for the project team.
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The objectives were met with only slight changes to the the cost comparison of AD and Hydrogen as well as to the creation of the tool. For objective 4 data from only one distillery was able to be sourced. From the successful completion of these objectives the project was able to satisfy its deliverables at the required due date.
Work Package
Once the SOW was written the tasks required to meet the objectives were broken down. This allowed for a Workpackage to be created. This work package assigned each task an estimated completion time in hours. This enabled the project to breakdown the work into easy to achieve tasks as well as allowing for the easy creation of a schedule.
Schedule
The schedule was used to plan and track team members progress throughout the project; with each member been given a set of tasks to complete within a given time frame. This enabled the project to estimate if it would be able to meet objectives on time and how to plan around not meeting them. This only occurred for objectives 5 & 6; for objective 5 this was due to a lack of industry engagement on costings and for objective 6 this was due to a steep learning curve for the use of VBA coding language.
Action Tracker
The project held two regular meetings: one with team members and one with the project supervisor. At the team members meeting, actions were tracked from previous meetings using an action tracker which allowed members to easily track progress from week to week. This method was effective and enabled the completion of tasks. At the supervisor’s meetings the project updated on progress and was steered in the right direction when researching new technology areas so that the project remained within scope and ensuring on time delivery of the DEFA tool.
