1. PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT USING INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
TOOLS IN ASSOCIATED PAN MALAYSIA CEMENT SDN BHD KANTHAN
S.KESAVARMA
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang,
26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia
Email: kesavarma92@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
This study focuses on the productivity improvement using Industrial Engineering tools at Associated
Pan Malaysia Cement Sdn Bhd which is located at 13 ½ miles, Jalan Kuala Kangsar, 31200 Chemor,
Perak. The company is producing several types of cement and transporting it by bulk tankers, cement
bags, rail wagons, and palletizers. Based on the study conducted, it is learnt that improvement can be
made in efficiency of cement transported by the bulk tankers. Unbalanced cycle time and unwanted
movements spotted in the bulk loading. To shorten this factor, a solution has been found is that the
working layout introduced in order to reduce unwanted movements. Therefore, line balancing is carried
out to reduce time after the analysis with the activity chart and also the operation chart. All the new
ideas and solutions have been obtained with the help of the Industrial Engineering technique.
INTRODUCTION
Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering that deals with the optimization of complex processes
or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of
integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis
and synthesis, as well as the mathematical, physical and social sciences together with the principles
and methods of engineering design to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from
such systems or processes. Its underlying concepts overlap considerably with certain business-oriented
disciplines such as operations management. Depending on the fields or specific skills involved,
industrial engineering may also be known as, or overlap with, operations management, management
science, operations research, systems engineering, manufacturing engineering, ergonomics or human
factors engineering, safety engineering, or others, depending on the viewpoint or motives of the user.
The place of case study is Associated Pan Malaysia Cement Sdn Bhd. There are few delays due to
some problems which can be resolved to obtain optimum bulk tankers loading. Currently, the total
time taken for bulk loading is about 65 minutes. The aim of this project is to reduce the total loading
time taken for bulk loading to 30 minutes. This project therefore named as CICO30 (Check In to Check
Out in 30 minutes). Data from bulk tankers of different transporters namely Jasa Selamat, Chip Seng
Heng and Bintang Transport collected and analyzed for identification of idle time and improvement of
process layout is to be carried out.

2. PROBLEM FORMULATION
Case study is carried out in Distribution Department, Associated Pan Malaysia Cement Sdn Bhd
which is located in 13 ½ miles, Jalan Kuala Kangsar, 31200 Chemor, Perak. The product produced
by this company is different types of cement. The bulk dispatch delay problems are as tabulated
below:
Table 1: The detailed description of problems for the case study
PROBLEMS
CURRENT
PRACTICES DESCRIPTION
Layout Current distance
Non-systematic arrangement
covers big unnecessary
walking distance
Unbalanced cycle time
Time taken for each process at
each station
The time taken to finish each
process is not in an orderly
manner causing other works to
delay just because particular
process that took longer time
than others
Check in : Bulk tankers with valid order will check in at the security guard house.
Weigh in : The empty weight of the tanker is measured and stored if the RWDS system.
Loading : Cement loading under the silo 11 and 12 for OPC Bulk and Mascrete respectively.
Checker : Driver meet checker and verify loading point and loading time is saved in system.
Weigh out : The final weight of the bulk tanker measured and load tonnage is determined.
Check out : The bulk tanker check out with a valid delivery order to local customer.

3. Figure 1: The complete process flow chart of bulk tanker dispatch
PROCESS FLOW CHART
Start
Weigh in
Loading
Load tonnage
Weigh out
Check out
Check in at the security
End
Pumping overload
cement
exceed limit
Does not exceed limit
Checker

4. PROBLEM 1: LAYOUT
Process layouts are found primarily in job shops, or firms that produce customized, low-volume
products that may require different processing requirements and sequences of operations. The
current layout shows that there are unwanted distances exist in between the stations and there are
movements that overlap each other.
Figure 2: Original layout with improper workstations of each process is not in a good position and
requires unwanted repeated movement.

5. Figure 3: Improved layout that completely reduces the movement distance inside the company.
The arrangement of work station for each process is in a good position. Improving the workstation
arrangement reduces total time taken to complete one loading process due to reduced distance
covered.

6. Figure 4: The total distance covered by the original layout for one complete process cycle is
1084m, 1203m, and 1109m for silo 8, silo 11, and silo 12 respectively. There are repetitive
movements in between workstations that are against the process flow.

7. Figure 5: The improved layout states that the distance covered by the process flow in improved
layout is 949m, 874m, and 780m for silo 8, silo 11, and silo 12 respectively. Besides, the items
that are ordered frequently should be placed close together near the entrance of the facility, while
those ordered less frequently remain in the rear of the facility, that are in workstation 12. By using
new layout, the factory can produce flexibility. The factory has the ability to handle a variety of
processing requirements.

8. Figure 6: Comparison of current and proposed route distances for loading under silo 8, silo 11
and silo 12. The lesser the distance covered for one complete bulk loading, the faster the process
will finish.
Since the checkout process is proposed to be moved into weighbridge workstation, the driver need
not to park his tanker, walk to security guard house and walk back to lorry before entering the
weighing in process. Thus, the repetitive movement in current checkout workstation that is against
the process chart can be neglected and the efficiency of the loading process can be increased.
Furthermore, the loading time update by the checker is no longer inside the packing plant. It is
moved to weighing out workstation instead. This is because, the lorry driver need to park
approximately walk 97meters to the checkers office and walk back to lorry before driving to weigh
out workstation. The repetitive movements spotted there and it is against the process chart too.

9. TONNAGE TIME TAKEN (m) TONS/MIN TONNAGE TIME TAKEN (m) TONS/MIN TONNAGE TIME TAKEN (m) TONS/MIN
45.46 14 3.247142857 37.11 18 2.061666667 42.04 40 1.051
34.62 15 2.308 46.55 51 0.912745098 45.26 45 1.005777778
36.5 30 1.216666667 45.86 18 2.547777778 40.14 21 1.911428571
42.1 14 3.007142857 41.15 23 1.789130435 47.28 16 2.955
43.96 14 3.14 32.68 42 0.778095238 39.05 27 1.446296296
38.47 11 3.497272727 31.23 17 1.837058824 44.45 31 1.433870968
34.92 13 2.686153846 39.5 29 1.362068966 41.41 46 0.900217391
45.25 20 2.2625 43.15 28 1.541071429 41.56 32 1.29875
41.88 12 3.49 43.1 27 1.596296296 41.77 33 1.265757576
38.57 16 2.410625 34.99 19 1.841578947 39.68 28 1.417142857
42.7 16 2.66875 35.29 29 1.216896552 41.35 25 1.654
44.33 14 3.166428571 33.78 25 1.3512 43.11 33 1.306363636
36.09 11 3.280909091 43.61 36 1.211388889 37.77 25 1.5108
44.34 11 4.030909091 31.46 24 1.310833333 42.45 25 1.698
41.76 20 2.088 45.48 42 1.082857143 44.76 30 1.492
36.59 26 1.407307692 33 33 1 38.16 54 0.706666667
34.55 19 1.818421053 38.33 13 2.948461538 45.24 54 0.837777778
43.1 26 1.657692308 46.5 28 1.660714286 42.01 55 0.763818182
47.09 22 2.140454545 42.36 27 1.568888889 44.29 30 1.476333333
38.18 28 1.363571429 32.8 65 0.504615385 44.8 44 1.018181818
42.76 33 1.295757576 47.35 32 1.4796875 43.88 20 2.194
32.61 37 0.881351351 45.51 27 1.685555556 33.76 21 1.607619048
40.98 31 1.321935484 37.02 44 0.841363636 33.76 21 1.607619048
41.02 32 1.281875 44.28 27 1.64
36.67 27 1.358148148 44.21 16 2.763125
42.74 30 1.424666667 43.46 10 4.346
43.23 32 1.3509375 40.25 13 3.096153846
46.32 33 1.403636364 43.44 14 3.102857143
41.27 19 2.172105263 42.63 22 1.937727273
44.3 19 2.331578947 33.04 10 3.304
44.56 16 2.785 41.15 16 2.571875
38.13 24 1.58875 43.78 24 1.824166667
44.95 25 1.798 43.69 18 2.427222222
35.54 20 1.777 44.02 29 1.517931034
38.44 22 1.747272727 44.38 31 1.431612903
33.25 28 1.1875 43.08 26 1.656923077
43.45 15 2.896666667 45.08 39 1.155897436
34.53 14 2.466428571 31.67 17 1.862941176
42.59 22 1.935909091 42.8 19 2.252631579

10. Figure7:Comparisonoftonnage,loadingtimeandtons/minofsilo11.

11. The figure 7 shows the measurements taken on 6th
July 2015. The silo 11 measurement taken on
6th
July 2015 at 5.30am shows that the livestock is 2061.3 tons and dead stock is 5000 tons. The
silo 11 has capacity of 20000 tons maximum. Figure 8 illustrates the measurement of silo stock.
Figure 8: Stock measurement of silo
The tanker dispatch on the same date (6th
July 2015) observed and the mill operation also measured
that total of 1485 tons of OPC cement added to silo 11 from mill 6 for 10.1 hours with 147 tonnage
per hour. The figure 7 clearly visualizes that the loading time of each tankers increases as the flow
of cement in tons/min decreases gradually. This is solely affected by the silo stock level. At the
beginning of the day, the silo level was 7061 and the flowrate was 3.247142857 tons/min. As the
silo stock level decreases and no mill operation was carried out to add cement in silo 11, the
flowrate was 1 tons/min. At the beginning of the day, it took 14 minutes to fill 45.46 tons and when
the flowrate was 1 tons/min, it took approximately 33 minutes to fill 33 tons of cement into the
tanker. Right afther the mill 6 started to add cement into silo 11, the flowrate increased to
2.948461538 tons/min and it took exactly 13 minutes to fill 38.33 tons of cement. Hence, when
the silo stock level is higher, the flowrate in tons/min is higher too. This reduces the time taken for
loading of tanker and reduces the total check-in and check-out time as per stated in CICO30.
19.5
20.4
10.4
23.5 18.6
0.4PFA CM 5 & 6
6.7.2015
5.30am
Dead
Stock(MT)
600
600
5000
600
2000
150.4 450
Kanthan Plant
Cement Silo Stock
Physical Mesurements (Meters) Average
Meter1 2 3 4 5
Date:
Time:
Actual
Meter
Available
Stock(MT)
19.8
22.6 2228
19.2
9.7 9.7
22.6
22.2
19.8
19.2
0.4
22.2
3027
21.8Silo 10 PHOENIX
Silo 11 OPC
23.9 22.2
Silos
Silo 9 WALCRETE
Silo 8 OPC
Silo 12 MASCRETE Eco
17.9
24.4
22.6
20.1
9.9 8.8
5000
Rated (MT)
420
2380
5000
10000
20000
5000
7061
2232
Live
Stock(MT)
405.4
380.0
1632.0
1628.0
2061.3
2426.8