Grant Muir

Production & Automation Engineer - Christchurch ยท New Zealand

Dairy and food manufacturing leader with deep process, automation and commissioning expertise and a real passion for continuous improvement. Production and quality management background, with a track record of leading commissioning teams in dairy plants and developing people through mentoring, two-way communication and devolved responsibility. Strong commercial awareness from 30+ years running a specialist automation and instrumentation business. Also aims to keep improving by taking a forward-looking approach to technology and applying AI tools to work smarter.

Experience

Managing Director

Analysing and Automation

Running a business with 4 staff. Managing all aspects of automation including running complete projects with many subcontractors. Managing a sales and service organisation supplying and servicing analysing equipment ranging from environmental monitoring to nutrient analysis. Led Tetra Pak commissioning and installation teams on NZ dairy projects on contract, including a team of eight through 2015 commissioning the anhydrous milk fat (AMF) plant at Oceania Dairy, Glenavy. Mentored commissioning engineers at Tetra Pak (Stanhope cheese factory) and Christchurch City Council (wastewater laboratory).

1992 - Present

Senior Quality Manager

Tetra Pak

Final role with the company (Tetra Pak, which had acquired Alfa Laval). Introduced and ran ISO 9000 quality systems and continuous improvement, building a quality culture across the organisation through two-way communication and devolved responsibility.

1991 - 1992

Senior Automation Engineer

Alfa Laval

Producing electrical drawings and function descriptions, programming and commissioning for jobs of all sizes in the food industry ranging up to complete factories such as cheese factories and cultured food (e.g. yoghurt) factories.

1987 - 1991

Production Manager

Southland Dairy Co-op

Managing a factory producing lactose and whey cheese, ensuring production ran efficiently and to high food standards. Developing the process, controlling budgets, evaluating outputs, managing shipping, developing employees, and making sure the evaporation, drying, milling, crystallization, packing and load-out all ran smoothly. Managing the supervisor and foreman; liaising with engineering staff; developing the process and automation.

1985 - 1987

Automation Engineer

Southland Dairy Co-op

Design and Build a Cheese Factory Control System based on a single board computer, including design and build of all IO and display circuits and programming in 6502 machine code.

Winter 1985

Production Supervisor

Southland Dairy Co-op

Supervising a team of 20 to maximise the productivity and efficiency of our lactose and whey cheese plant: evaporation, drying, milling, crystallization, packing and shipping. I came to know the evaporation plant intimately, and studied Oliver Lyle's "The Efficient Use of Steam" for a deep grounding in the production and use of steam. I designed two upgrades to the evaporator automation, doing the budget proposal, design, programming and commissioning myself, which increased evaporator runtime by at least 40% and lifted in-spec output from 80% to over 95%. The position was formerly an industrial-chemist role, renamed Production Supervisor to put more weight on its management side.

1980 - 1985

Education

University of Otago

Bachelor of Science
Physics

1975 - 1978

AI Training

Using AI to Build a Marketing Website Using Django

2025

Python Training

2024

Siemens Training

2023

Rockwell training course

1990

Supervision Certificate - Basics of Management

1984

Supervision Certificate - Principles of Marketing

1983

Machine code programming for 8088

1982

Modicon training course

PLC3

1981

Skills

General Skills
  • Ideation and strategy
  • Leadership
  • Project Management
  • Management
  • Budget Control
  • Mentoring
  • Training
  • Programming
  • Function Description
  • Device Design
  • Circuit Design
  • Commissioning
  • Electronic Repair
  • Calibration (NIR AA)
  • Systems Analysis
  • AI Tools
  • Flying
    • Programming Languages
  • Python
  • Visual Basic
  • SQL
  • Pascal
  • Basic
  • Fred
  • Lisp
  • PL/1
  • 6502 Machine Code
  • 8088 Machine Code
  • Ladder Logic
  • SFC
  • Statement List
    • Workflow
  • Continuous improvement through team leadership
  • Full circle design - starting with effective systems analysis
  • Complete project implementation - from design to commissioning
  • Understanding and working with teams and contractors
  • Ability to take up new technologies and languages

    • Interests

    Apart from programming, automation and working with laboratories I enjoy time with my family, singing with a chorus and flying a small plane.

    I take part in many social activities including leading a team of people to put on music concerts. I help a number of people with their everyday technology problems and enjoy making domestic electronic gadgets.

    Significant Projects

      Recommissioning a UHT Plant

      After it had been left idle for 10 years
      Involving investigating communications between 3 PLC's
      IO Checking
      Rewriting some lost code
      Working out all the parameters on one of the PLC's

      2025

      Commissioning Atomic Absorption Spectrometer for NOS

      Mentoring
      Sourcing Calibration Standards
      Building Calibrations
      Training

      2023

      Commissioning Greensite Cheese Factory

      Large Team of Commissioning Engineers
      Interfacing between old Plant and New Plant
      Tuning pasteuriser
      IO Checking
      Mentoring

      2017

      Programming Analysing Instrument to Emulate Old Instrument

      Trap events from serial port and files
      New instrument interfaces with plant just as if it were the old instrument
      Systems Analysis
      Visual Basic

      2005

      Convert UHT Plant from Sattcontrol to Rockwell

      Using programming to analyse original program
      Old program broken down exhaustively to function description
      FD converted to modern easy to understand format
      PLC program generated automatically for zero errors
      Commissioning in only a few days
      Resulting in an easy to maintain program with support for the future

      2008

      Programming Operator Interface Zymate Robot

      Program provides intelligence to robot movements
      Gives window to how the robot thinks
      Systems Analysis
      Visual Basic
      Database design

      2002

      Programming Batch Plant

      Program allows any of 7 processes to be chosen in any order
      Allows user to create new process recipes
      FD Writing
      HMI Design
      Programming Schneider PLC
      Mentoring

      2000

      Alpine Cheese Plant Upgrade

      Expanded Moulding Plant
      Allowed for new moulding lines using existing PLC
      Create exhaustive visual representation of existing code
      FD Writing
      HMI Design
      Programming Alfa Laval PLC 5

      1995