LIFT THE BURDEN. Case Study

Transcription

1 LIFT THE BURDEN Case Study Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd. November 2016

2 LIFT THE BURDEN Context APSEZ Ports have capabilities and infrastructure to handle fertilizers at Mundra, Tuna and Hazira. The fertilizers handled at APSEZ Ports include all types and grades including Granular Urea, Prilled Urea, DAP, DAP Lite, MOP Red, MOP White, NP, NPK etc. APSEZ ports team understands the delicate nature of fertilizer cargo and therefore employs the best method to handle fertilizer cargo, even during the peak season, ensuring full customer satisfaction. Dedicated berths, dedicated fleets of equipment, abundant covered storage facilities and adequate labor are available for handling fertilizer cargo at APSEZ ports. Mundra port has state-ofthe-art dedicated mechanized infrastructure for handling fertilizer cargo which is capable of loading ten rakes daily handling over 3 million MT of fertilizer cargo each year. Problem Fertilizer Cargo Complex (FCC) has a fully automated conveyer based system which ensures movement of the cargo after a complex set of operations to the bagging point where with a minimal human involvement the cargo is packed into 50 Kg bags. There are 44 bagging stations located at a height (Image 1) where the fertilizer gets loaded into empty plastic bags and get sealed by a semiautomatic sewing machine. The bags then come down via a closed duct onto a 15 m long adjustable conveyer belt, situated at a height of 1.5 m above the ground, which can be moved in parallel to the rakes to bring them closer to the gate of the wagons they are feeding into (motion depicted by Image 2). Each conveyer caters to about 2.5 wagons by adjusting its position. It brings the cargo to the point of most extensive involvement of people, the process of picking up the bag from the conveyer (1.5 m above the ground, Image 3) and carrying them all over to the rakes (12 m away for farthest wagon catered) and stacking them on over the other inside the rakes (Image 3). Each loader would carry about 4 bags per min from the conveyer and stack them inside the rakes. There about 900 people who accomplish this task each day. Our aim is to minimize human contact in this process and use technological innovations to increase productivity of the eco-system. 1

3 Objective Objective of this challenge is to design a mechanism to reduce, eliminate or optimize the human involvement in the process of bag transfer and stacking in the rakes. The objective could be achieved at multiple levels of impact: Solution which can increase the productivity of people by introduction of a mechanical/automated support system or through redesigning of the process or both Solution which eliminates the human intervention and ensures a mechanized way of cargo movement from the conveyer to the rake wagons without affecting the productivity Constraints The solution development must take into account the following operational and technical constraints to ensure successful implementation of the solution in existing operating environment: Productivity benchmark: The average rate of bagging at the conveyer is 12 bags per min which should not get reduced. The following could potentially add to the slowing down of the process: a. Time to engage/disengage/shift the system to position it near the wagon door. Currently the conveyer is moved about 5 to 6 times during loading of a single rake as one bagging unit caters 2.5 to 3 wagons b. Difficulty in placing the conveyor when wagon doors come in front of bagging machine/chute structure c. Difficulty in making stacks of bags inside the wagon d. Limited co-ordination between people loading the bags into the wagons and team in the bagging unit e. Presence of surveyor per bagging unit who checks the number of bags that have been loaded in each wagon f. Random sampling that needs to be done to ensure cargo quantities are against standards Work environment: The operations have been streamlined over many years and the people have become molded to work in a certain manner. The introduction of changes must take into account a. Wagons are very suffocating for loaders due to the presence of cement or other dust and hence prolonged presence inside needs to be solved for b. Changes/additions should not increase the complexity of process that cannot be managed by existing set of people 2

4 Technical Specifications: The following sub-systems would need to be integrated with the solution that is developed: a. Bagging Unit: Design of the bagging unit has been attached below (Image 5) which shows the movement of the bags post stitching to the horizontal adjustable conveyer belt via a chute. The new design must be able to integrate with the existing setup at either of the two positions: Option 1: To carry bags from adjustable conveyer belt to the wagon gate and inside Option 2: To redesign the chute and conveyer system and carry bags directly from bagging unit situated 3.5 m high to the wagon and inside b. Wagon: The wagons that we receive are standard Indian Railway wagons BCN/BCNA type Each wagon is stacked with upto 1216 bags with stack heights varying between 9-14 depending on wagon size Bags are filled in three portions side, middle and the gate area each having a different alignment of bags Financial viability: The solution developed must be economically viable for it to justify implementation. The solution must not reduce ongoing productivity levels. Solution The solution needs to be presented in the following format: Concept: Explain in the detail the entire concept including the functional details of the product/solution. Concept note must also explain how all the constraints have been considered and accommodated. Graphical representation is desired. Design: Detailed design of the product/solution including the technical drawing should be provided. Integration with existing systems should be clearly outlined through technical drawings. Cost estimates: A robust cost estimate including the cost of development of solution, material costs and IP costs must be presented together with the solution. 3

5 Images Image 1: Bagging unit with yellow colored fertilizer bags coming down via chute on to the conveyer and people waiting to pickup bags from conveyer Image 2: Adjustable conveyer belt which can be extended or retracted to bring them closer to the mouth of the wagon 4

6 Image 3: Stack of bags inside a BCN/BCNA rail wagon 5

7 Bag movement towards conveyer via chute Adjustable conveyer belt Image 4: Frontal diagram of bagging unit 6