Unlocking the Hidden Capacity of Process Plants
“Every time we release a batch of pharmaceutical ingredients, we have to check through reams of paper to make sure everything was done right. We have almost 300 separate applications and spreadsheets to keep track of all the different stages of manufacture. There has got to be a better way to do this!”
If you’ve ever thought that your manufacturing documentation was a drag on production, you’re probably right, maybe more right than you even guess. An article in Industrial Automation Asia magazine, “Unlocking the Hidden Capacity of Process Plants (356KB PDF),” may point to a solution to this mess. Emerson’s David Marschall and Tieng Ling discuss the benefits of electronic record keeping as a way to streamline reporting efforts. They report on a fermentation manufacturer that reduced WIP from 120 days to 60, achieved a 20 percent reduction in work effort and were also able to extend maintenance periods significantly. Check it out if you’d like to get some extra capacity out of your plant and reduce workload at the same time.
