Alliance Engineering Solutions

Capabilities

The full project lifecycle, or any stage of it

Brought in to run a scheme end to end, to take over one already in flight, or to strengthen a stretched in-house team through a peak.

Feasibility & specification

Masterplan and feasibility studies, user requirement specifications (URS), functional design specifications (FDS), line layout and capacity analysis, RFP preparation and tender evaluation.

Project & programme management

Stage-gate delivery to PRINCE2, programme development, capex forecasting and financial control, multi-site portfolio management, risk registers and FMEA, steering group reporting.

Installation & commissioning

Site management of mechanical, electrical and civil contractors, pre-delivery inspection, site acceptance testing, snagging, vertical start-up and handover to production.

Process & utilities

CIP and pigging product recovery, ESL and aseptic filling, pasteurisation and carbonation, refrigeration and cold store, compressed air, CHP, boilers, water treatment and heat recovery — including complete greenfield packages.

Line performance & NPD

OEE and line efficiency studies, debottlenecking, new product and format introduction, lightweighting, lean implementation, energy and waste reduction.

Commercial & compliance

MF/1 (rev 3) engineering contracts, procurement and supplier negotiation, CDM regulations, CE marking, method statements, risk assessment and BRC audit preparation.

Track record

Selected projects

A sample from four decades. Values are contract or capital value at the time of delivery.

£76m

Arla · Stourton, Leeds · 2010–14

Extension of a white milk facility into value-added products — cottage cheese, fermented creams and custards. Seven pot-filling lines taken from installation through commissioning to final handover at what was then Europe's largest dairy.

£9.5m

Pladis (Jacob's) · Aintree · 2016

New packaging facility for a crispbread launch, delivered as a vertical start-up at 1,400 units per minute. Site taken to BRC grade A+, with automated recipe control retrofitted across three existing bake lines.

£20m

Müller · UK North · 2015

Senior project controller for the full capex portfolio across five sites and six depots with a team of six, reporting to the German PMO — including a £10.5m group lightweight-bottle programme touching every line in the business.

32,000 bph

AB InBev · Chernihiv, Ukraine · 2006–08

Installation and commissioning of a complete PET beer line (Sacmi) — process and blow moulding through filling, capping, labelling and shrink packing to palletising. Commissioned at 96% line efficiency against a 92% target.

40% → 86%

Northern Foods · Biscuits · 2005–06

A new biscuit line recovered from below 40% OEE in six weeks. Introduced Schubert robotics at 96% line efficiency, which became the blueprint for a £25m group manufacturing investment programme.

£1.4m / yr

Arla · Stourton, Leeds · 2010–14

Recurring annual saving from a pigging product-recovery optimisation retrofitted across seven filling lines — alongside an £11m ESL process, tank and CIP project for 1.0L and 500ml PET.

Greenfield

Lidl · Foston · 2022

Site project manager for services, utilities and civils on a new-build factory (via Sidel): storage tanks, process pipework, electrical mains and substations, coordinating GMI Construction, Tetra Pak, Envirogen and specialist subcontractors.

6 lines

PepsiCo · Leuven & Netherlands · 2022–24

Relocation of Lay's bagging lines with new Tronrud case packers, platforms, conveying and civils. Both programmes run 24/7 for several weeks and handed over ahead of schedule — four days and two days respectively.

£7.8m

Arla · Oakthorpe, London · 2017–18

Site utilities upgrade covering refrigeration, cold store, compressors, water treatment and CHP — delivered alongside a £5m HDPE 2.0L milk line (JBT/Stork, Krones, Isoma).

About

Tom Earley

Alliance Engineering Solutions is Tom Earley. He has spent his working life in high-speed filling and packaging — starting as a time-served turner and machinist, then twenty years in the projects department at Krones UK, the world leader in packaging technology, rising to Senior Project Manager.

Before founding the consultancy he ran technical sales at UK and global level, and held senior client-side roles as Project Manager at Arla Foods and Head of Projects at Northern Foods, where he built and led a department of eight project engineers. That combination — the shop floor, the equipment supplier, the sales table and the client's own capital programme — means projects get looked at from every side before the money is committed.

Since 2006 he has worked independently across the UK and Europe, directing site contractor teams of 80 to 120 people and delivering programmes to 24/7 schedules in Belgium, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine, as well as throughout the UK.

BA (Hons) Business Administration
PRINCE2
Higher Mechanical & Production Technician Certificate
City & Guilds Mechanical & Production Engineering
Certificate of Craftsmanship — Turner/Machinist
CDM & MF/1 (rev 3)

Contact

Availability

Available for contract assignments across the UK and Europe. Site-based, including extended periods away from home and 24/7 commissioning schedules. Engaged directly or through an agency, via a VAT-registered limited company carrying its own business insurance.

t.earley@sky.com

Telephone

07906 839742

Based in

Manchester, United Kingdom

Download full CV (PDF)

Registered name: Alliance Engineering Solutions Ltd
Company number: 6546746
VAT number: 932 3469 22
Incorporated: England & Wales
Insurance: Caunce O'Hara & Co Ltd

Packaging and process projects, delivered.