Question

Completely and thoroughly explain how a Plant Layout was designed by any company that makes any type of Steel Product to optimize their entire manufacturing process. The finished product must contain at least 50% or more Steel.

Answer 1

First we need to understand what is mean by Plant layout?

Plant layout is the arrangement of machines, work areas and service areas within a factory. Plant layout involves the development of physical relationship among building, equipment and production operations, which will enable the manufacturing process to be carried on efficiently.

Objectives of Plant Layout
The primary goal of the plant layout is to maximize the profit by arrangement of all the plant facilities to the best advantage of total manufacturing of the product. The objectives of plant layout are:

1. Streamline the flow of materials through the plant.
2. Facilitate the manufacturing process.
3. Maintain high turnover of in-process inventory.
4. Minimize materials handling and cost.
5. Effective utilization of men, equipment and space.
6. Make effective utilization of cubic space.
7. Flexibility of manufacturing operations and arrangements.
8. Provide for employee convenience, safety and comfort.
9. Minimize investment in equipment.
10. Minimize overall production time.
11. Maintain flexibility of arrangement and operation.
12. Facilitate the organizational structure

The design requirements of the major operating units for steel product to optimize their entire manufacturing process.

(1) Production areas (plant): iron and steel plant production area is the main part of the overall layout, should give priority to select the appropriate location. According to the nature of the steel production plant, A larger percentage of transportation outside the factory, so should close to interface points of the main mode of transportation outside the factory: stations, terminals, roads in the vicinity; production area is large consumption of water and electricity facilities, should close to the water supply and Power supply; Production areas are also produced pollution venue, should be installed in the minimum space required frequency of clean wind upwind side; around the production area may be set aside for the development of room for expansion.

(2) Transport Facilities Location: When using the waterway transport outside the factory, we must select the appropriate to the domestic terminal building sites, particularly the use of raw materials for large ships dock, to be near the production area, and a reasonable convergence conditions. As much as possible make the unloading of materials directly to the production areas, finished packing can be directly transported to the terminal. When use the rail transportation, Should on the basis of convergence conditions, logistics direction, working conditions of the transfer, to select a similar size of the marshalling factories, should leaves the factory to the possible expansion of the scale synchronization. Production areas and cities, terminals, stations, water sources, sewage treatment plants, substations, residue field, construction site, residential sites and adjacent areas such as enterprise collaboration should be roads.

(3) Water and power facilities: the water sources of iron and steel plants are mainly come from the natural water sources such as river or sea . Either surface or groundwater sources, if used as domestic water, should leaves health protection regulations required distance to prevent pollution. Sewage treatment plant should layout in the direction of water discharge, close to the water into point. Treated sewage discharge outlet should be located downstream of water points, and has more than 100m from the health protection.

(4) Health Protection belt: between steel mill plant and other sites or adjacent enterprises, according to the concentration of pollutants emitted by factories, according to local environmental assessment requirements set a certain width of the area of health protection. In the zone, according to functional requirements for green, light pollution, the facilities can be arranged, but not often live in housing arranged.

(5) Java games: slag and industrial waste disposal sites should be selected in the main plant slag and industrial waste discharge direction, make full use of low-lying land, wasteland, valley and beach land. Stockpiling sites may require unified planning, acquisition phases, the stockpiles of the early stage generally not less than 10 years. Slag and industrial waste should be fully comprehensive utilization, save resources, reduce the impact of keeping occupied land, which is the trend of development.

(6) Residential area: subject to health protection standards and does not affect plant development, should close the factory layout. Between residential areas and the plant should not be arranged the railway and busy highways, residential roads across the region can not be transited, between neighboring cities, passenger stations, terminals and the plant should be roads.

(7) Construction Site: construction site set up for the construction of various facilities. Therefore, its location should choose the fixed end of the factory building, and plant a certain distance between the left does not affect plant development. To facilitate the use of permanent rail, road, water, electricity and other facilities.[2] Based on the above basic principles and general layout of the design requirements of the major operating units, combined with Baosteel Zhanjiang New Area in the special conditions and the geographical situation of the factory location, environmental factors, to determine the overall layout.

Types of Processes: Basically, processes can be categorised as:

(iii) Conversion processes, i.e., converting the raw materials into finished products (for example, converting iron ore into iron and then to steel). The conversion processes could be metallurgical or chemical or manufacturing or construction processes.

(ii) Manufacturing processes can be categorised into (a) Forming processes, (b) Machining processes and (c) Assembly processes.

(iii) Testing processes which involve inspection and testing of products (sometimes considered as part of the manufacturing processes). Forming processes include foundry processes (to produce castings) and other processes such as forging, stamping, embossing and spinning. These processes change the shape of the raw material (a metal) into the shape of the workpiece without removing or adding material. Machining processes comprise metal removal operations such as turning, milling, drilling, grinding, shaping, planning, boring etc.

(iii) Capital intensity is the mix of equipment and human skills in a production process. Capital intensity will be high if the relative cost of equipment is high when compared to the cost of human labour. Capital intensity means the predominant resource used in manufacturing, i.e., capital equipments and machines rather than labour. Decision regarding the amount of capital investment needed for equipments and machines is important for the design of a new process or the redesign of an existing one. As the capabilities of technology increase (for example automation), costs also will increase and managers have to decide about the extent of automation needed. While one advantage of adding capital intensity is significant increase in product quality and productivity, one big disadvantage can be high investment cost for low-volume operations.

(iv) Principles of Total Quality:  Focus on the customer (Both internal & external)  Participation and team work  Employee involvement and empowerment  Continuous improvement and learning.

(v) Predictive Maintenance: One of the newer types of maintenance that may be anticipated to gain increasing attention is called predictive maintenance. In this, sensitive instruments (e.g., vibration analysers, amplitude meters, audio gauges, optical tooling, pressure, temperature and resistance gauges) are used to predict trouble. Conditions can be measured periodically or on a continuous basis and this enables the maintenance people to plan for overhaul. This will allow an extension to the service life without fear of failure.

(vi) Diffusion: Diffusion is relevant to both process and product change. Process diffusion takes place when the overtime use of the process is diffused to other firms. Product diffusion refers primarily to the widespread use of the product among consumers rather than among firms. The rate of diffusion depends upon several factors and has many implications, particularly with respect to patents and monopoly.

(vii) Six Sigma is a very rigorous approach to improving quality within products and services. Processes that are critical to products and services must be analyzed in detail. Generally, Six Sigma will follow a four phase approach: 1. Measure – Determine the error or defect rate

2. Analyze – Understand the process

3. Improve – Reach for a higher Sigma

4. Control – Monitor through measurement

Industry organization. The steel industry consists of EAFs and integrated mills that produce iron and steel from scrap or iron ore. Most of these mills also have finishing mills on site that convert iron and steel into both finished and unfinished products. Some of the goods produced in finishing mills are steel wire, pipe, bars, rods, and sheets. In these finishing mills, products also may be coated with chemicals, paints, or other metals that give the steel desired characteristics for various industries and consumers.

While wire, steel reinforcing bars, and pipes are considered finished products, rolled steel is unfinished, meaning it is normally shipped to companies, such as automotive plants, that stamp, shape, and machine the rolled steel into car parts. Finished products also are manufactured by other companies in this industry that make pipe and tubing, plate, strip, rod, bar, and wire from purchased steel. Competition from all these mills has resulted in increasing specialization of steel production, as various mills attempt to capture different niches in the market.

Also included in the steel manufacturing industry are firms that produce alloys by adding materials such as silicon and manganese to the steel. Varying the amounts of carbon and other elements contained in the final product can yield thousands of different types of steel, each with specific properties suited for a particular use.

Recent developments. Steel manufacturing is an intensely competitive global industry. By continually improving its manufacturing processes and consolidating businesses, the U.S. steel industry has increased productivity sufficiently to remain competitive in the global market for steel. Investment in modern equipment and worker training transformed the industry. Over the past 25-30 years, steel producers have, in some cases, reduced the number of work-hours required to produce a ton of steel by 90 percent.

To achieve these productivity improvements as well as product improvements, steel mills employ some of the most sophisticated technology available. Computers have been essential to many of these advancements, from production scheduling and machine control to metallurgical analysis. For workers, modernization of integrated, EAF, and finishing mills often has meant learning new skills to operate sophisticated equipment.

As countries around the world attempt to reduce emissions and produce cleaner energy, the need for structural steel will increase. Steel will be needed for support towers as well as reinforcing rebar toward the construction of new power generation facilities. In addition, the transmission infrastructure needed to transport electricity also will result in greater demand for steel. The expansion of clean energy production is expected to result in demand for many types of steel products.

Material-moving and production occupations. At integrated mills, production begins when material-moving workers use robots and cranes to load iron ore, coke, and limestone into the top of a blast furnace. As the materials are heated, a chemical reaction frees the iron from other elements in the ore. Metal-refining furnace operators and tenders, also known as blowers and melters, use automated and computer controls to manage the overall operation of the furnace to melt and refine metal before casting or to produce specific types of steel. They gather information on the characteristics of the raw materials they will use and the type and quality of steel they are expected to produce. They oversee loading the furnace with raw materials and supervise taking test samples to ensure that the steel has the desired qualities. They may also coordinate the loading and melting of raw materials with the steel molding or casting operation to avoid delays in production.

Generally, either a basic oxygen or an electric arc furnace is used to make steel. Operators and tenders use controls to tilt the furnace to receive the raw materials. Once they have righted the furnace, they use levers and buttons to control the flow of oxygen and other materials into the furnace. During the production process, testers routinely take samples to be analyzed. Based on this analysis, operators determine how much longer they must process the steel or what materials they must add to meet specifications. Operators also pay close attention to conditions within the furnace and correct any problems that arise during the production process.

Metal pourers and casters tend machines that release the molten steel from the ladle at a controlled rate into water-cooled molds, where it solidifies into semifinished shapes. This process is called "continuous casting." These shapes are then cut to desired lengths as they emerge from the caster. During this process, operators monitor the flow of raw steel and the supply of water to the mold.

The "rolling" method is used to shape most steel processed in steel mills. In this method, hot steel is squeezed between two cylinders, or "rollers," which flatten or shape the steel. This process is repeated through a series of rollers until the steel reaches the desired thickness. Rolling machine operators operate the rolling mills that produce the finished product; the quality of the product and the speed at which the work is completed depend on the operator's skills. Placing the steel and positioning the rollers are very important, for they control the product's final shape. Improperly adjusted equipment may damage the rolling mill or gears.