Step 2 - Assessment

Task 2b: Prepare process flow charts for focus areas

ITC Ltd PSPD (Pulp & paper, India)

• This company is a large and integrated mill. Because of this, a production flow chart was not drawn for the entire plant, but only for the selected focus areas.
  Lesson learnt: Adjust the drawing of the process flow chart depending on company size and complexity.

PT Semen Cibinong (Cement, Indonesia)

• Many observations were made at this company during the walkthrough of the focus areas that the Team could not have found out from data alone. High energy consumption and inefficient operations were observed at all focus areas. For example, low loading and unloading of compressors (requiring immediate attention), leakages leading to false air (at the kiln, pre-heater, man holes, pipelines, flap gate and roof), and frequent replacement of fire brick lining (4 times per year). For the compressed air system, there appeared to be no flow meters, which made it impossible to quantify compressed air losses. Several leaks could be seen and heard, resulting in the Team recommending a detailed compressed air leak survey.
  Lesson learnt: The walkthrough of focus areas is an effective way to make observations on energy losses that are no readily visible in the reading of data.

Holcim Lanka Cement (Cement, Sri Lanka)

• One of the focus areas selected for this company was “fans and motors”. Because these are distributed throughout the plant, it was not applicable to prepare a process flow chart for this focus area. Instead of this an inventory of fans and motors at the plant and their characteristics (location, capacity, energy use etc) was made
  Lesson learnt: The process flow chart is not always applicable to cover the main characteristics of a focus area.

Other lessons learnt:

• Gather as much information on the quantities of inputs and outputs as possible, but don’t spend too much time on exact figures at this stage (this will be part of step 2d)
• Check if existing drawings of focus areas still reflect the current situation as process modifications may have been made
• If the filing / administrative system of the company is not good it may be difficult to obtain the drawings / flow diagrams for the focus areas. Sometimes it is therefore easier to make a flow diagram from scratch
• Additional information about process flow chart could be obtained from the secondary data (literature, etc.
• Sometimes companies developed their own production process and therefore flow charts for focus areas may be considered confidential and cannot be given to external facilitators. In this case try to obtain a high level flow chart that does not give the confidential details
• Flow charts for focus areas that are production processes should also pay attention to auxiliary activities and equipments such as boilers, air compressors, cooling towers
• It is very useful if the Team prepares the flow chart with the assistance of external facilitators or consultants to get a complete picture