Process Control and Improvement - Assignment Example

?PROCESS CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT – A CASE STUDY STAPLE FOODS LIMITED TABLE OF CONTENTS 0 Executive Summary 2.0 Company profile 3.0 Existing Production Process Conditions 4.0 Process Problems faced by the Management 5.0 Identification of Improvements 6.0 The Solutions 6.1 Recipe creation 6.2 Batch processing 6.3 Lean management 6.4 Point of Sale 6.5 RFID 6.6 MES 6.7 Resource Transfer and Tracing 7.0 Operation Advantages 8.0 Financial benefits 9.0 Conclusion 10. References 1.0 Executive Summary A number of operations and processes are involved in the production routine of a conventional manufacturing unit. There exist various production lines that are engaged in production of smaller parts or elements within the same time frame. Several other issues like logistics, scheduling, procurement, raw material handling, human resource management, are also involved in the process and contribute significantly to the efficiency of the system and the final cost and quality of the product. Since these processes are ongoing and cyclic in nature, any company involved in these activities should be able to effectively control these activities in order to boost its performance and business profits. The paper studies the case of Staple Foods, one of the largest foodservice companies in the world and major food caterers in the region. The problems faced by the company in its daily operations and use of process control systems for improvement and efficiency will be the subject of interest in this study. Staple Foods is well known for its assurance to quality services to the clients and its strong focus upon the growth and expansion of its business portfolio. In the food service sector, it is important to maintain efficient operations in production and marketing in order to survive and remain competitive in the industry. In order to achieve the targets, the company decided to integrate three plants into one and implement batch process control in its production line. This helped the company to limit the variances that existed in the production line, control the inventories, and increase its profits, (Goldsmith, 1995). 2.0 Company profile The Company – Staple Foods has been the carrier of a number of brands in the food market. The company offers some excellent food products to its customers and is well appreciated for its consistency in its quality standards. The company was formed in the year 1975 and has built a strong tradition of hard work and faith. The company specializes mainly in the oil products, sauces, soups and flavor bases that are marketed under a number of brand names. With more than 7 production units in the region, Staple foods Ltd. are trying hard to make higher margin profits for itself. 3.0 Existing Production Process Conditions The procedure utilized in the production unit of Staple Foods is relatively complex and multifaceted which is distributed across a number of production units. The main steps that compose the production plan are – The first step consists of a detailed schedule planning done by the managers of Staple foods, in order to reduce the down time for the participant production lines. The scheduling done during this phase is mainly manual in nature. This is followed by the procurement of resources that are required by each production line in an efficient manner. The quantity, quality and time of resource procurement are very important at this point in order to maintain a steady flow of production and product quality. More often, the resources need to be shared by multiple production lines and the managers are required to plan upon this sharing aspect closely so that no shortage problems arise in case. Variability and wastage can be significantly eliminated in this operation step. The production takes place in batches or continuously, depending upon the market demands. The last step involved in the production is the cleaning and preparing the line of a new batch of production cycle. 4.0 Process Problems faced by the Management Controlling the processes involved in the production line of Staple foods was becoming highly complex and difficult as it required a number of concerns to be looked after. Inefficient manual regulation of raw materials that were required by a production line during a given time There was no management of quality of material that should be utilized and is being utilized in the production line High Waiting time, and down time for each production line Slow cleaning up of the production time for the next production cycle No list of subsequent tasks / activities that were required to be followed by each production line Inconsistent batching process followed All these problems led to the production of unreliable end products being manufactured by the company. 5.0 Identification of Improvements In order to remove the above discussed problems and add more value to the product and the customers, the management at Staples Food identified some process improvements that could be made to improve efficiency. The management realized that to reduce costs and increase efficiency, three operations were needed to be consolidated into one process and introduce process control automation procedures into the production lines. The reason behind this was that the three facilities were incapable of handling the growth and business expansion targets. Staples food limited could easily prioritize and diminish the existing clashes and errors that occur in the inventories and resource flow across the production unit. This could be done by producing the products in small and controlled batches, in inventories and in the flow of raw materials, produce products in controlled batches, increase consistency of the end product, and better manage the food recipes and formulas among all products, (Kadiri, et.al 2008). Moreover, the resource usage percentage, manual labor costs, and raw materials transportation costs could also be condensed and operational management would be cut down by a consolidation. With the above mentioned challenges in mind, the company management defined strategies related to identifying of these goals. 6.0 The Solutions The first responsibility was to select a good and professional automatic systems vendor who could establish the required systems within the company production line. A small batching process was first installed and implemented in a production line to check the viability of the proposed scheme. Also, the complexity in consolidating the production lines was to be taken into account. This required eliminating some old lines, adding new ones and executing process control and automation strategies across the whole line. The new batching system intended at the following – Maximizing the availability of tools and equipments and resources Increasing the efficiency of the production line Maximizing quality and its consistency Reduce the manual errors done by the production line operators Script each batch as per the pre-configuration of recipes Allow integration of an automatic user interface for the ease of production line operators The managers worked on which elements were to be removed and retained in the new system. The managers had to work closely to design the scope of the new system, and establish efficient communication practices within the production units and lines, (Rehg and Kraebber, 2005). During the scope management phase, it was realized that multiple users will be using the system simultaneously which would require concurrent information systems to work in parallel without loosing data and affecting the integrity of the system, (Olhager and Persson, 2007). With the help of a detailed evaluation and discussion of the system requirements, the process control vendor and the Staples food management was able to design a latest technological system and reached an innovative arrangement. This arrangement became a hybrid form as it allowed the production line operator to select the product for production and allow him to automatically control the flow of resources and addition of resources to ensure consistency of the product quality, (Skjoldebrand, 2000). This section will study the various types of process control improvement techniques that were deployed by the Staples food management. 6.1 Recipe creation - Also, the idea of recipe creation in food product production lines was integrated as it allowed the management to diminish inconsistency amongst the food product production. This method of controlled recipe creation helps to control the recipes for the entire process order and also customize the recipes based on client requests related to some particular order batch. The process control of recipe creation method combines the process instruction of the phases of the recipe creation into one single control recipe. Recipe control is basically a new technique in process control automation. It is the data that is associated with each production step / phase. Collecting, controlling and using the information that is required to create a task request regardless of which production line will utilize the information. This information consist of approved operations for the production of a particular product, list of materials and equipments that is required, and the final product that is desired. This way there is consistency in the quality of the final product, (Skjoldebrand, 20001). 6.2 Batch processing - Another method that was employed was of batch processing. In the case of Staples Food, normally the batch sizes are large and the full batch is processed in one time before it is transferred for further processing. As a result of this, the total performance of the system, especially through put time and job completion suffers due to which product quality degraded. In order to remove these problems, batch overlapping and batch splitting were used. For the use of batch splitting, smaller batches were used for product production. This reduced the flow time of the production line as smaller batches utilized lesser time frame to complete the line. However, batch set up times, i.e., that is preparing for each batch increased the total time of production. Batch splitting was used in continuous production lines, however, units where production was done in parts or segments, the company opted for batch overlapping. Batch overlapping is linked with batch streaming / transfer, (Curran, 2009). In this method, each transfer batch was required to be sent into its next mode of operation immediately it was finished. This helped to concurrently process a number of batches in different production lines. This technique for process control improved the through put time, enhanced delivery and fewer inventories. 6.3 Lean management - An added approach that was adopted by the Food company management was lean production and management techniques. Lean management is basically defined as the improvement of the operations process to diminish the waste and time spent on the production line. Also faster replenishment rate and better product delivery schedules are a result of lean operations. In case of Staples food, it was important to meet the time limitations and product accuracy as per client demands.  A lean operations strategy was developed by the Staples managers to get rid of all the waste activities, synchronize activities, and perform better communication and downstream flow of both product and information. Application of lean management helped to improve the end value of the product both for the company and the end users. Information technology was identified as the main driver behind these innovations at Staples. Real time information management improved logistics and delivery information are some examples. IT techniques emerged as the most significant element of the lean process chain for Staples which helped to increase its logistics, delivery and real time information through the supply chain.  6.4 Point of Sale - Staples also worked upon its capability to predict short term visibility of customer demand within each period with highest possible accuracy by setting up the demand-driven supply chain which looks out for real time client orders. This system helped to transmit the point-of-sale (POS) data from the cash registers at the outlets back to company headquarters many times a day. This information related to the demand by the customer, helped to queue shipments to the various store distribution centers.  This way a superior inventory positioning facilitated in lowering costs and accurate forecasting of demands. 6.5 RFID – Application of RFID in the production process line added improvement and benefits to the products. RFID elements like tags, tracking antennas were installed in the operations chain of Staples which helped to gather and send the data to a control panel where it is compared to the ideal standards or the recipe creation control standards, (Wallins, 1995). 6.6 MES – The company management also employed the manufacturing executing technique on teach of the production line. In this system, a data card was installed both at the start and the end of the production line. All the data related to the resources used by the production, output, time taken, quality of the product were stored in the data card. This data was collected at regular intervals and compared with the ideal performance standards set by the management. 6.7 Resource Transfer and Tracing - The use of process control technology (process line manager software) in the case of controlling the resources for each production line, assisted the management to ensure that the resources are reached on time, in the right quantity for production use, (Tinham, 1996). For this purpose, route control systems and pipe check systems were also involved as many of the input resources used in the production line were fluid in nature. This ensured that efficient tracing of resources was done at regular intervals. Also, along with the process line manager system, an information system was coupled which monitored al the information related to the physical parameters of the resources and their status. It also helped to plan if a new job could be taken up in the line or not, (Hammerhead systems, online). 7.0 Operation Advantages The process control methods helped Staples management to achieve the following benefits in its operations chain – Eradicate any variances and unpredictability Easier Recipe / formula creation (which was initially a complex task done manually) with the help of codes and predefined phase programming With controlled recipe programming and batching process, no deviation in product quality Efficient material handling and low running times for production lines Easier controlling, monitoring of resources in the production line and new combinations of recipes are tried easily with the help of recipe creation system 8.0 Financial benefits Consolidating three plants into a single unit and implementing process control systems within the production line were tightly integrated and complex for the management. However, after the execution, the management soon realized that the company is certainly enjoying the returns and benefits. Along with the improvement in the product quality, higher satisfaction levels experienced by the end users, the best benefit gained through process control was the inventory control. As the company mainly deals into oil products, the automated control methods helped to measure the levels of oil inventory and there was no shortage of down time due to lack of production. Earlier, it was impossible to manually measure the oil inventories correctly. 9.0 Conclusion Realization of automatic control systems allowed the operators to maintain multi-shift operations and maintain constant running operations. The implementation of process control systems and the advanced technology helped the company to strongly reposition n itself in the food market. The end results of implementing different forms of process control was a completely integrated production unit that has saved production times and has a room for further expansion of its facilities, recipe control based systems with optimized batching, improved procurement - logistics and more efficient supervisory and data control. Higher flexibility to incorporate untimely demands was made easier than before. 10. References Goldsmith, P. (1995). Tasteful art of competing. Processing Engineering, Aug, 27-28 Skjoldebrand, C. (1991). Moving from art to science in food processing. Food Technology International Europe, 115-118 Skjiildebrand, C. (1995). The future for on-line quality control in the food industry. Food Technology International Europe, 1 I5- 118. Tinham, B. (1996). Much, much more than SCADA power. Control and Instrumentation, Jan, 31-32 Wallins, P. (1995). Advanced food manufacturing technology. Food Technology Intern&mu1 Europe, 112-I 14 Curran, R. (2009). Collaborative Product and Service Life Cycle Management for a Sustainable World: Proceedings of the 15th ISPE International Conference on Concurrent Engineering (CE2008), Springer, US “Hammerhead Systems.” (n.d.). An Arena Solutions case study, available at: http://www.arenasolutions.com/images/pdf/rc_docs/case_studies/Arena_Case_Study_Hammerhead.pdf Kadiri, S, Pernelle, P, Delattre, M, Bouras, A. (March, 2008). An approach to control collaborative processes in PLM systems. Extended Product and Process Analysis and Design, available at: http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0803/0803.0666.pdf (Accessed on June 13, 2009). Olhager, J, Persson, F. (2007). Advances in Production Management Systems: International IFIP TC 5, WG 5.7 Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems (APMS 2007), September 17-19, Linkoping, Sweden, Springer, Texas, US Rehg, J, Kraebber, H. (2005). Computer-integrated manufacturing, Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey, US Read More