Study of cologne production process and improvement proposals to increase the production capacity

Abstract

Air-Val International is a familiar enterprise which is dedicate to the design and production of care-products such as hand-creams, cosmetics, colognes and perfumes. In this project the cologne production of Air-Val International both in the field of organization and production process has been studied. The enterprise works a total of 230 days (2530 h) and the studied products are divided in two main families: - EDT (Eau de Toilette) child: 165 references - EDT adult: 81 references The difference between the two families resides in the maceration process. This activity in the production process is only required in EDT adult due to its higher quantity of essence and the importance of having the cologne stabilized. The timing of each production activity in a 2000 L batch size cologne has been experimentally measured. With the results, the batch time obtained is 240 minutes for an EDT child (the same as occupation time) and an occupation time of 180 min for an EDT adult (without the 6600 minutes of maceration). The equipment that limits the time in the cologne production process are the mixer vessel for an EDT child and the maceration vessels in the case of an EDT adult. As the enterprise works with more than 70 different batch sizes, depending on the orders, a classification of sixteen subgroups has been proposed, in order to find a series of functions that allow to calculate the batch time for each of those. Once obtained the functions and calculated the batch time for each batch size, it has been theoretically calculated the total time required to cover de demand. Once performed this study, it can be seen that with the current situation in which the enterprise works by campaigns, there are delays in the production planification- Summer season: June (88 batches, 110 000 L of cologne), July (88 batches, 140 000 L of cologne). - Autumn season: February (50 batches, 74 000 L of cologne), April (50 batches, 68 000 L of cologne). To solve the problem an improvement in the organization and the methodology of work, which consists in the overlap of some stages in the production process, has been proposed. This offers a decrease in the total production time of 10 %. Moreover, the current production process, which consists of a single mixer vessel, has been studied. As the interval of the batch sizes is between 100 – 3300 L, there are some situations in which the stirring mechanism of the actual mixer vessel (DEM 3000) does not work properly. For this reason, an investment proposal for a new mixer vessel with enough capacities to complement the former vessel has been made. The main improvement will be found in the production of batch sizes smaller than 1000 L, in which the current vessel has stirring issues. The new vessel will have a total volume of 1170 L (1.36 m height and 1.15 m of diameter), build with stainless steel AISI 304 and covered with stainless steel AISI 316L for the areas exposed directly to contact with the product. The stirring mechanism is formed by a double blade mixer (semi-anchor and TRIVAK) with a mixing power of 0.75 kW and two deflectors to improve the mixing of the product. Additionally, the pumps needed for the transfer of the colognes and raw materials have been selected. Finally, a PID (Pipes and instrumentation diagram) has been design in order to represent in a visual form the production process with the improvement proposals both for EDT child and EDT adult production