Production planning and optimization

SMEs manufacturing chemical products often have to deal with fluctuations in overall demand from customers as well as the type of product. This leads to higher inventory costs, waste material due to change-overs and loss of productive capacity due to change-overs.

The reader will learn about typical challenges in production planning and key features of planning the production of different chemical products in a fixed facility. The reader will learn how to optimize production scheduling, sequencing and levelling of inventory in order to reduce waste and improve overall plant utilization.

Key Messages

SMEs manufacturing chemical products often have to deal with fluctuations in overall demand from customers as well as the type of product. This leads to higher inventory costs, waste material due to change-overs and loss of productive capacity due to change-overs.
Causes of chemical inflexibility include chemical contamination and unintended chemical conversions.
Consequences of waste include waste material, loss of productive capacity, extra costs related to cleaning and changeover activities
The product wheel is a management technique to minimize waste resulting from chemical transitions by production planning and scheduling (optimization).

Content

Challenges in operations management
- Product demand variation
- The optimum production sequence
- The optimum cycle time
Causes of chemical inflexibility
- Chemical contamination
- Unintended conversions
Consequences of chemical inflexibility
The product wheel
- Introduction
- Concept
- Applicability
- Terminology
- Operating problems
- Operating modes
- Categories of chemical transitions
- Prerequisites
Example: polypropylene fixed sequence
Product wheel design and implementation
- Components
- Process overview
- Key steps
Key messages