LEARININGS FROM SIP

The main purpose of this project is to optimize the current plant capacity utilization of Visakha LPG terminal. In this plant 4 activities takes place 1) Loading of LPG in Tank Trucks and Tank Wagons 2) Bottling of LPG in Cylinders 3) Loading of Auto LPG & Propylene in Tank Trucks 4) LPG Cylinders - Pressure Testing Facility. The main focus is on Bottling of LPG terminal where the entire cylinders are unloaded, filled and then loaded in the trucks, this process goes on continuously. So in this process the each cylinder undergoes 16 different units and at last reaches its destination point that is loading into the trucks. Presently the plant is producing 1400 to 1450 cylinders/hour. The main study in my project is to optimize the plant capacity utilization by implementing some new idea to the plant irrespective of the present ongoing operations in the terminal. So I have given some ideas and some suggestions with help of the data and shown the calculations which show profits if the plant makes few changes. Presently Viskha LPG terminal is following 3 carousal shift but suggestion is to follow 2 carousal general shift. Study is done in comparison with the 3 carousal shift Vs. 2 carousal general shift, also shown the profit if the plant follows the 2 carousal general shift. The capacity utilization of the plant is calculated for previous years production data and found that the plant is underutilized in the months of April to September and over utilized in the months of October to march .The supply and demand variation is calculated based on the data provided by cylinder production and sales team. The variation is due to seasonal change in the demand .The estimation of cost savings if the current plant three carousal shift operation is converted to two carousal general shift is done. The seasonal demand variation factor is taken into consideration and total yearly gain for the general shift operation is calculated to approximately 60 lakhs per annum. In order to meet demand there is requirement of optimum rate of 1550 cylinders per hour. Hence the bottle necks and interruptions in the plant are identified and solutions for provided for standardizing the production at 1550 cyls per hour. In this study some recommendations are also given to the Visakha LPG terminal so that if the plant implements those suggestions like 1) Implementation of integrated management system

2) Proper maintainence of the machinery in thr terminal From the overall study the plant works in planned structured way but few changes and recommendations are given to make plant more efficient.