We can recall there was an era in manufacturing. When product was the priority and focus on manufacturing cost was secondary. We were not bothered about the raw material norms, utility norms and other overhead cost of the product. Because, that was the time of supplier’s market. That was the time when most of production was in batch plants and production capacities were low. Therefore, whatever you produced it was sold into the market and your profit margin was also intact. However, in present scenario market competition has increased, which is decreasing profit margins continuously. So, to make our business economically viable and sustainable, we need to focus on reducing waste generation from our process.
If we go in past we can see time to time many industrial revolutions took place. After 18th century manufacturing shifted from batch mode to continuous mode. Now, there was abundance of product in the market. Moreover, continuous process was superior over batch process in terms of lower production cost and better consistent quality. Therefore, advent of continuous process in chemical manufacturing started stiff competition in the market. So, in the changed market scenario customer is the boss. Today customer has options to go to that supplier who can provide the material of best quality with lowest cost.
Same thing happened in case of fine & specialty chemical business also. Here, coming of too many manufacturers created market competition. So, those manufacturers who can make product with minimum cost and best quality. They will capture lion share in the markets. While, others will be losing their business because of non-cost competitiveness.
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Relationship between Profit and Waste
For both type of processes, whether continuous or batch below is the model which shows cost and profit relationship.
From above model it is evident that Product Price is fixed by stiff market competition. Moreover, Raw Material and Energy cost is also governed by the market. In case of energy we can see the cost of power, coal, natural gas or fuel oil is not in our hands. Therefore, for any industry to beat this competition remaining focus area is Waste reduction.
So, what is waste? In a process any excess consumption of material, efforts and other services for which our customer does not pay we are not paid or we don’t get any value addition is a waste. In other words, we can say, our product cost is bearing the cost of waste also, which is a loss for us. So, reducing waste from process will increase our profit, which we can see in above generalize relationship also.
Sources and Type of Wastes
In chemical plants first main source of waste generation is the Reactor. You just imagine a theoretical process where you can achieve 100% conversion, 100% selectivity and 100% recovery. This will give you 100% yield without recovery and recycles involved in the process. Moreover, no by-products and residue will be generated.
When we talk about this ideal process, our energy consumption is lowest possible which will eliminate the waste of different fuels consumed. Moreover, it will reduce environment pollution and will make our Blue Planet more beautiful and safer for future generations.
In actual our reactors are operating at lower conversion and yield. For batch plants yield can be somewhere in the range of 55 to 80%, while for continuous plant it can be around between 70 to 95%.
So, it is very important for us to look into the area of efficient and innovative reaction technologies. Like micro-reactors, advanced flow reactors and use of membrane technologies in reactors. In these type of reactors very precise control of operating parameters is possible. This efficient control can give us highest possible conversion and yield.
In those processes, where we are operating with batch reactors should be replaced with flow reactors. This will improve the yield and reduce wastage of input material and energy consumption as well.
Second source of waste generation is the neutralization process in chemical plants. This process generates huge amount of aqueous waste. This aqueous effluent contains inorganic salts or organic chemicals, many times it can be mixture or both also. This effluent waste is very harmful for the environmental sustainability. Therefore, we need to treat this effluent in incinerators or spray dryers. These effluent treatment setups are the huge consumers of energy, which is again the source of fossil fuel wastage and environment pollution.
Types of Wastes in our Processes
There are many other forms of wastes in chemical plants. We can categorize them in seven types as per the LEAN methodology. These are Defects, Overproduction, Transportation, Waiting, Inventory, Motion and Over Processing.
Defects
in any process are the results of variation in parameters beyond the specified limits. In a process there are three types of variations. (1) Input variable variation, (2) Process variable variations, and (3) Output variable variation. Out of these, input and process variable variation are independent, while output variable variation depends on previous two. Therefore, to minimize the defects in our process we need precise control over input and process variables.
For example, in a batch reactor process we can understand these different types of variables as below:
Input Variables
Examples for input variables can be such as, variation in quantities added and purity of input raw materials. Variation in heat addition or heat removal rate to and from the reactor. Variation in the addition rate of the input materials into the reactor. There is variation in stage wise batch cycle time, etc.
Process Variables
In a batch reactor, process variable are its parameters like temperature, pressure, agitator RPM, pH levels, conversion rate, etc.
Output Variables
The examples of output variable in a batch reactor are such as, yield, product quality, batch cycle time, etc.
Overproduction
In an industry overproduction is a type of waste, which is the result of poor coordination and wrong demand forecasting. Overproduction increases the finished good inventory which is a source of negative cash flow for any organization.
Transportation
This loss occurs during material and energy transfer from one equipment to another equipment. To understand this, we can visualize the leakages from pipeline and fittings this will increase wastage of material. Moreover, in case of steam transfer from boiler to plant heat loss to the surrounding is wastage of energy.
Waiting
An example of waiting loss inside plant can be the delay of raw materials supply. Everything is ready but absence of input material is a wastage of time and production capacity. This can be because of poor co-ordination and planning. Other case of waiting can be the holding of batch for quality control lab clearance. There is common inconsistency in the reporting time for QC lab report. So, this is the wastage of time and unnecessarily increase in overall batch cycle time and lower production per batch.
Inventory
This type of waste is very common in plants. We can see excess inventory of consumables, raw material, work in process and finished good in most of the plants. This excess inventory generates because of non-availability of data in time and poor decision making. This inventory carrying cost is big waste for our industries.
Motion
Unnecessary movement of man, machine and material is a type of waste for which we do not receive any money from customer or any other value addition to the product. The major source of this waste is absence of timely & effective information sharing among the team members. Like, wrong information will cause for the supply of wrong material. And then it will be return back and in second time we will receive desired material. This is the example of motion waste for efforts, material & machinery.
Over processing
This is the type of waste, where we are putting additional material, energy and efforts. For which we are not going to receive any additional value. Suppose if customer need 95% purity of a product. And, we are giving him 99% purity material. Here we are generating waste in our process in terms of material, energy and efforts.
Possible Strategies to Reduce Waste
Therefore, we can see in our plants above all types of wastes are there. And, which is eating away our profit knowingly or unknowingly. So, to increase our cost competitiveness and robust quality, elimination of this waste from the process is most important. To do this I thing following strategies should be implemented: –
Process innovation and intensification
This is most important action on which we must focus on priority. Because, we can see in most of the industries we are still using batch processes and old technologies for reaction and separation. We should use efficient and low waste generating technologies. Such as, advance flow reactors, membranes, etc. Industries should collaborate with research institutes and academic establishments to facilitate this objective. For long term success, investment in this area should not be looked from the immediate return perspective.
Automation and Robotics
We must look into make our plants fully auto control. Using instruments and control systems can minimize human intervention in our process. Moreover, wherever manual operation is there possibilities of using robots should be look into. For example, solid loading into the reactor, solid waste handling, product packaging and staking can use robots. Full automation and use of robotics in our process will reduce the human intervention. This will further reduce the variations in our process. And, plant operation will be more consistent and robust. In result defect and waste generation from plant will reduce significantly.
Digital Transformation
For quick, efficient and effective decision-making digital transformation will be very helpful. After getting real-time data form the value chain an analytical platform can be developed. This platform will have machine learning algorithms to give intelligent insight. These machine learning algorithms will provide artificial intelligence to us, which will enable to take quick and efficient decisions. This will help us to eliminate those types of wastes, which generates because of poor and untimely decision making. Digitalization will empower us to do better demand forecasting, efficient production planning, timely availability of material with required quantity and timely logistics management. Moreover, process control will become smarter and more intelligent with the use of artificial intelligence. This smart control will reduce raw material and energy consumption norms and as well as minimize the waste generation from plant also.
Conclusions
In this article we discussed about waste and the value of waste which we are losing every moment. This waste can be material, energy, efforts and machine occupancy times. Afterwards, we discussed all types of wastes in our plant and their sources. And, finally we chalked out a strategy to reducing waste from our processes. It is very necessary to understand reducing waste is not only important from the profitability point of view. But also, it is required to save our blue planet and this is a top most responsibility for all of us.
For our earth and Industries elimination of the waste is more beneficiary than its treatment, recycle and reuse.
Thanks,