Increasing production volume of the equipment in the context of centralized procurement

In the context of centralized procurement, the production volume of several winning varieties in our factory has greatly increased. Taking the example of a winning variety currently produced in our workshop, the monthly production volume has increased from 30 million pieces to nearly 100 million pieces. Although the production has increased, the profit has not significantly improved. It is almost the same as before we won the bid. Currently, the workshop is operating at full capacity, and almost all positions are running at full load. There is no room for improvement.

The current status of our production equipment in the workshop is that all the equipment was purchased more than a decade ago and officially put into operation ten years ago. At that time, the equipment was relatively efficient and fully imported. However, before the centralized procurement, we did not operate the equipment at full capacity to meet the annual production tasks. But now, the production tasks of only two winning varieties have made our equipment operate continuously throughout the year, and there is no time even for major maintenance. The so-called major maintenance is not repairing when it breaks down, but preventive maintenance. When the running time of the equipment reaches the point where maintenance and replacement of worn parts are needed, we used to have a planned major maintenance for some equipment every year. It involves systematic inspection, testing, and replacement of spare parts to prevent functional failures and maintain the equipment's condition. Therefore, major maintenance of the equipment definitely takes time, which inevitably affects the production volume. However, if we never conduct major maintenance, the consequences of sudden equipment failure cannot be estimated. So, this situation is not a sustainable solution.

To ensure production volume, we can only start by increasing the capacity of the equipment. The leader responsible for our factory's equipment has come up with the idea of replacing a more efficient production equipment to see if further improvement is possible. They require us to quickly optimize the product line and equipment utilization rate to identify which process is causing the stagnation of production capacity and focus on improving that specific area.

The main production processes in our workshop can be divided into weighing and preprocessing, batching, tablet compression, coating (capsule filling), primary packaging, and secondary packaging. Let's analyze each process individually.

The weighing and preprocessing position fulfills the demand of subsequent positions by weighing batches every day. The most time-consuming process is crushing, but currently, there are not many materials that require crushing. Most of them are directly fed or sieved. The second weighing position is mainly operated during the day shift, and if the workload increases, night shifts can be arranged. So, the weighing positions do not need to consider capacity improvement for now.

In the batching position, the processes can be divided into wet granulation, dry granulation, one-step granulation, and direct mixing. Among them, the equipment for wet granulation is not being used at the moment (it was purchased more than ten years ago but never used). The main products are produced using one-step granulation and direct mixing processes. The daily production capacity can meet the requirements, and there are no night shifts in the batching position. Occasionally, a couple of extra hours are worked in the afternoon based on production arrangements.

There is an issue in the batching position with the total mixing hopper being insufficient. The fast clamp-type mixer used in the total mixing position pushes out the mixed materials directly from the hopper, which serves as both a mixing container and material storage. Sometimes, cleaning cannot be completed, or the materials occupy the hopper, mainly due to heavy occupation by downstream processes. It is suggested to consider purchasing twenty additional hoppers to eliminate the problem of insufficient hoppers.

The tablet compression and filling position currently lacks production capacity. This position operates round the clock throughout the year, producing only one batch per day for product A. For each batch, 300 million tablets are mixed in the total mixing process, and two batches can be produced every day with the materials from batching. However, the tablet compression machine has a maximum capacity of only 150,000 tablets per hour, which means it can produce a little over one batch per day, considering cleaning and debugging time.

The coating position is currently fine. The workshop mainly produces film-coated products, with an average production time of 3 hours per batch. Each batch/pot can produce 1.5 million tablets, which meets the production requirements.

In the capsule filling position, there are currently two filling machines, but only one is being used, and it is not operating at full capacity. The variety of capsules is limited, and the production volume is low. However, it completely meets the requirements.

In the packaging position, there are various packaging specifications in the workshop, with 24-hour production. The packaging capacity is highest for the centralized procurement variety, which occupies one production line continuously for 24 hours. The other two production lines need to produce the remaining varieties, resulting in frequent changes in packaging molds and increased time for equipment adjustment. After changing the molds, the equipment initially runs smooth or at a slow speed, and there are frequent minor malfunctions, which occupy a considerable amount of production time. Additionally, the bottle packaging position cannot keep up with the production speed. Increasing the bottle filling speed results in a high rejection rate. Furthermore, there is no automatic box packaging machine for square bottle products, and manual box packaging is inefficient. Fortunately, the current workload is not high.

After comprehensive analysis, the production stagnation points primarily concentrate in the tablet compression and packaging positions. To solve these issues, we need to start from these two areas. By analyzing the usage of hoppers, if there are 20 additional hoppers, 13 will be used for post-compression materials, and 7 will be used for pre-compression materials. More accurately, the production stagnation occurs before the packaging stage. Although the tablet compression position is not fast, it still has a reasonable match with upstream processes and can barely meet the requirements. The priority should be to improve the packaging capacity.

Considering all the analysis, the packaging position is the slowest. I reported the analysis results and process to the factory leadership. This year's budget for equipment procurement and maintenance was only approved for 1.5 million yuan. We can only choose between purchasing packaging equipment or tablet compression equipment. After comprehensive consideration by the factory leadership, the decision was made to purchase a packaging machine first. If there is still budget remaining, several additional hoppers will be purchased as a contingency. After the packaging equipment is in place, the production capacity will be reassessed. If the tablet compression position still lacks capacity, then next year's budget will include the purchase of a tablet compression machine.