Project
- Critical Chiller Replacement and Temporary
Redundancy Infrastructure Project
Key Challenges
- Maintaining uninterrupted cooling to a live pharmaceutical manufacturing facility.
- Delivering critical infrastructure replacement with virtually no available shutdown periods.
- Completing complex crane and replacement works ahead of an approaching summer heatwave.
Outcomes
Complete chiller replacement delivered within six weeks of failure
Only six hours of total downtime across the entire project
Improved site resilience through temporary chiller connection infrastructure
The Client
Slade Health is one of Australia’s leading providers of pharmaceutical manufacturing and compounding services, supporting hospitals, healthcare providers, and patients through the delivery of critical pharmaceutical products. Operating within a highly regulated environment, the organisation maintains stringent requirements for quality, environmental control, and operational reliability across its manufacturing facilities.
The Melbourne facility operates continuously to support pharmaceutical production activities, making the reliability of building services infrastructure essential to maintaining operational continuity and compliance requirements. Consistent environmental conditions are critical to supporting manufacturing processes, product quality, and facility performance.
AE Smith has developed a long-standing relationship with Slade Health through the delivery of ongoing mechanical services and infrastructure support across the site. This established partnership has provided a strong understanding of the facility’s operational requirements, enabling solutions to be developed and delivered with minimal disruption to critical manufacturing activities.
What we achieved with our Customer
The project commenced following the unexpected failure of the site’s existing air-cooled chiller during summer operations. Immediate temporary repair works were completed to restore partial operation while a long-term replacement strategy was developed. Following technical assessment of the site requirements, a replacement Trane air-cooled chiller was identified and proposed as a like-for-like upgrade solution capable of supporting the facility’s critical operational requirements.
A significant project challenge was the site’s operational constraints, with the pharmaceutical manufacturing facility operating continuously without existing chiller redundancy. The client could only provide approximately four hours of downtime per month, creating substantial delivery and coordination complexities. Leveraging strong relationships with key stakeholders, our team developed a staged temporary redundancy strategy designed to maintain uninterrupted cooling capability throughout the replacement process.
The project included the installation of chilled water pipework, isolation valves, and temporary electrical switchboard infrastructure to support the deployment and commissioning of a temporary chiller system. This temporary arrangement enabled the removal and replacement of the failed chiller while maintaining continuous support for live manufacturing operations. The new Trane air-cooled chiller was subsequently integrated into the site Building Management System (BMS), followed by the final cutover from the temporary system to the permanent installation.
The works were managed end-to-end, including technical assessment, equipment selection, replacement strategy development, subcontractor coordination, crane lift management, and overall project delivery. Close collaboration between all project stakeholders ensured the replacement was completed within six weeks of the original failure, with only six hours of total downtime recorded across the entire project. The completed infrastructure now also provides the client with the ability to rapidly connect temporary chiller equipment in future emergency situations, significantly improving operational resilience despite the limitations of the existing plant space.
