Plant Analysis 1

[MAEC]

Hello to all. This is the first time I post on this forum. I need some guidance on a few things since my engineering degrees aren't in the Industrial area.

1. In a plastic processing plant (injection, blow molding and extrusion) we have some indexes that are supposed to show us the performance of the plant, mainly: times, parts produced, efficiency, availability, energy consumption efficiency, etc. I have done many studies on sugar mill analysis from energy and mass analysis and balances to exergy analysis but I have to be honest, I have no experience on a process that can be counted as units produced, for instance. From my point of view we lack of good and reliable indexes. If someone could please tell me what indexes should I have in order to have the plant's performance well described, I'd be more than greatfull.

2. In electrical engineering, there is a thing called per unit value (p.u.) that helps us to better calculate things. This is a percentage value and has a common base (like nominal voltage and amperage) so when we need to make a calculation whe need to first transform our real value into a p.u. one and then calculate (if the voltage value is 90 and the base is 110, the p.u. value is 90/110, in decimals). Now, if I have lets say 4 indexes that multiplied they give me an overall index (lets call this general plant performance) and of those I have 3 high values and one low, the low one will affect seriously my final outcome. For me this is a way to punish other indexes because one is not ok. I see it like this, and please correct me if I am wrong: lets transform each index into a common base and we multiply each one to obtain an overall one. The base could be, for instance, the goal pursued for each index in a certain period of time.

3. I could really use some good links or books to stuff like this, so please let me know of some I could go to. =)

I thank you all in advance for your interest and for taking time to read this. You can contact me directly to the email address I provide in my signature if you wish.

Thanks to all again,

Regards,



Manuel A. Escamilla
Plant Supervisor
Inyectores de Plástico, S.A.

http://www.grupoindustrialeec.com.gt

 

[jck26]

Manuel, there are many good reference books that give systems to measure operational performance and specific features, I would start with the Industrial Engineering Handbook or a book on Activity Based Costing.

Basic measures are the best when getting started in this type of assessment. The reason why these measures are key is because they can be the basis for cost control and estimation of the total process from materials, equipment, labor and plant overhead costs.

Some of the basic measures are:
Setup Time: the time to get the machine operational for a specific job
Cycle time: the time to make one part
Material utilization: amount of matertial to make one part all allowances included
Cost of expendables: the cost for all of the wear items - tools, coolant, molds, filters, etc - it takes to run the job.

You get the basic idea. If you are running multiple plants and/or have some industry standard measurement you should use that as a way to do comparitive analysis.

Lastly, it is the sum total of the measurements that counts, in that, it is no good to have great (fast) cycle time but yet have poor material utilization. So you as plant manager need to come up with a set of metrics that define you process but are not overly complex or numerious in scope. I worked for a VP of operations that had 25 plant metrics that he reviewed each week. I thought that this was way too much to focus on.

Good Luck!