Process Industry General

Process Industry - Continuous Flow Operations
Sean Wang
LEAN EPC Process Industry
Course Agenda
• What is a Continuous Flow Operation?

• What considerations are critical to the business?
• How does LEAN apply to a Continuous Flow
Operation?
LEAN EPC Process Industry 3
What is the Process Industries?
• The process industries are those industries where the

primary production processes are either continuous, or
occur on a batch of materials that is indistinguishable
• Example: Chemicals, Oil Refinery, Food processing,
Fertilizer Manufacturing
Continuous Process Flow Operations

• The ability to maintain steady state conditions in flow
and concentration through the modules of the system
• Examples include:
• Chemical synthesis
• Some food manufacturing (chocolate, beer)
• Water processing
• Energy Plant – Power, Oil Refinery
• Information technology
Characters for Continuous Flow

• High product volume
• Special purpose equipment (low flexibility)
• Uninterrupted product flow
• Few schedule changes
• Low number of standardized products
• Low variable cost (up to capacity level)
• Low labor skill (operators) during regular operations
Characters for Continuous Flow

• Capital intensive (start-up)
• Storage of in-process and finished goods
• Material waste or loss
• Maintenance costs
• Fluctuations in demand
• Supply of finished goods is usually constant
• Products often become commodities
• Economies of scale (usually bigger is better)
Typical Supply vs. Demand for Continuous Flow
Variability of demand is the challenge in continuous flow operations

Continuous Flow Operations – Lean Parameters

• Initial engineering design is critical
 Change in production quantity
 Introducing additional equipment
• In-line sensing
• Preventative Maintenance
• Overall Equipment Effectiveness
• Equalization of Takt times (Line balance)
• Accurate forecasting of demand
Initial design and sensing concerns

• Initial design should take into account:
 Ease of maintenance
 Ability to expand/reduce production
 Changing input costs
 Preventative maintenance
• Sensing:
 Can evaluate qualitative factors with quantitative information
 Helps drive process improvement
 Can detect equipment problems in un-viewable areas
Chocolate Production Flow

Questions?
• What is the maximum flow?
 25 g/m
• Where is the bottleneck?
 Tempering
• What are other limiting
factors?
 Conching
• How can we fix the system?
Overall Equipment Effectiveness

• OEE = Availability x Performance Rate x Quality Rate
• Δ between capability and real output
• Options:
 Inspect equipment for flaws, repair
 Test equipment
 Check original design document (original specifications)
 Add inline tempering/conching unit (additional capacity)
Availability (operating time/net available time) X Performance

((ideal cycle time x total parts run)/operating time) X Quality
((total parts run -total defects)/total parts run)
Disconnects
Technical Factors Social Factors

• Supply is typically constant, hard to • Demand is typically variable
change in a Brownfield operation • Operators typically have little
• Initial design might not account for input (chemical reactors,
later improvement generators), so harder to get
• Maintenance more difficult continuous improvement
(downtimes may not exist) • High competition for lowest
• High cost of production step- cost, commodity game
function
Measurable
• OEE = Availability x Performance Rate x Quality Rate

• Improved forecasting of demand can lead to more
narrow control limits (σ)
• Statistical data from sensing to improve quality
Bottleneck in Process Plants

Bottlenecks tend to have different causes and to have more severe
implications in the process industries
• In process plants, throughput in most manufacturing steps is limited by
equipment capability, not by labor, therefore throughput limitations can’t
be resolved by bringing in additional labor or by scheduling overtime
• Equipment is expensive and relatively inflexible, replacing or upgrading
equipment is not often a viable option. Managing the bottleneck is a
matter of optimizing the performance of the bottleneck resource itself,
protecting the bottleneck from upstream and downstream problems, and
optimizing bottleneck scheduling
Characters for Process Plant Bottleneck

• The root cause is generally in equipment capacity and performance, not
labor staffing
• Root causes include yield losses and reliability problems as well as
inherent capacity
• Non-bottlenecks can become bottlenecks due to variability in OEE factors
• Plants often run around the clock, so additional shifts are not a feasible
solution
• Bottlenecks can move with product mix
• Bottlenecks may not be obvious – the resulting inventory and other waste
is frequently hidden from sight
Characters for Process Plant Bottleneck
The most common reasons in many process plants will

include
• Inherent equipment capacity limitations
• Long changeovers
• Mechanical reliability problems
• Yield losses
• Inappropriate scheduling
Capacity Constraint Resource
• Any resource which, if not properly scheduled and

managed, is likely to cause the actual flow of product
through the plant to deviate from the planned
product flow
Bottleneck Identification
• One way to find bottlenecks is to look for locations

where inventory tends to build up.
• An accurate Value Stream Map (VSM) will clearly
define any static bottlenecks
Bottleneck Management
1. Identify the bottleneck
2. Exploit the bottleneck – make sure that the bottleneck is running at maximum
capacity, and not wasting time on non-critical tasks.
3. Use SMED techniques to reduce changeover times to the minimum possible.
Focus not only on mechanical tasks but also on cleaning, and on getting to
specified conditions and properties quickly after the changeover
4. If the bottleneck is also a CCR, make sure that scheduling processes are
coordinated and synchronized to eliminate that portion of the limitation.
5. Subordinate everything else to the bottleneck – all upstream and downstream
processes should operate in a way that maximizes bottleneck throughput as
described above.
Bottleneck Management
6. Elevate the bottleneck capacity – try to increase the capacity of the
bottleneck
7. Diagnose yield losses; consider improved process control techniques,
both electronic controls (5) and Statistical Process Control (SPC). Six
Sigma can also be particularly effective in these situations.
8. If the bottleneck is due to capacity limitations inherent in equipment
design, structured brainstorming workshops with mechanical and/or
chemical experts can often point to cost-effective remedies.
9. If equipment reliability is the core issue, implement TPM.
10. Once the bottleneck is broken, find the next bottleneck and repeat
Concluding Comments
• Typical situations are Brownfield operations where initial design is sub-
optimal. In these cases capital improvements may be difficult based on
earlier designs
• Cost of changing capacity can also be high because of similar Brownfield
considerations. (Ex. Power plant)
• RAM (Reliability Availability Maintainability )model is a very useful tool
to simulate the value stream for continuous flow operation
• Important tools include the OEE for establishing line balance and reducing
bottlenecks.

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Process Industry - Continuous Flow Operations

• What is a Continuous Flow Operation?

What is the Process Industries?

• The process industries are those industries where the

Continuous Process Flow Operations

Characters for Continuous Flow

Characters for Continuous Flow

Typical Supply vs. Demand for Continuous Flow

Variability of demand is the challenge in continuous flow operations

Continuous Flow Operations – Lean Parameters

Initial design and sensing concerns

Chocolate Production Flow

Overall Equipment Effectiveness

Availability (operating time/net available time) X Performance

Technical Factors Social Factors

• OEE = Availability x Performance Rate x Quality Rate

Bottleneck in Process Plants

Characters for Process Plant Bottleneck

Characters for Process Plant Bottleneck

The most common reasons in many process plants will

Capacity Constraint Resource

• Any resource which, if not properly scheduled and

• One way to find bottlenecks is to look for locations

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