1. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Work Integrated Learning
P2 Report
Name: Lungelo Treasure Mwelase
Student No.: 20401998
Company: Unilever SA (Pty) Ltd
Duration: 02 November 2010 to 23 December 2011

2. CONTENTS
Description Page
Acknowledgement 3
Abbreviations 3
Introduction 4
Maintenance work 4
Sap work 5
Stores handling 6
TPM (Line 5 & Stores) 6
Drier 6 soap feed pump replacement 7
Refurbish Glycerine Cooling Tower 9
Install electrical mixers to effluent tanks 11
Remove brine tank (in progress) 11
Laundry soaps pumps monitory (in progress) 11
Assistant Manufacturing Engineer 12
Future proposals 12
Conclusion 12
Declaration 13
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3. Acknowledgement
I would like to extend my utmost gratitude in making my experiential
learning program possible to the following:
The Durban University of Technology for their patience and guidance
throughout the course. For the theoretical and technical skills I have
acquired during my studies.
Unilever, for giving me the opportunity to complete my training. Our
Engineering Manager, Mr V Ellero and our Assistant Manufacturing
Engineer, Mr S Moonsamy, which I’ve been reporting to throughout my
time.
All my colleagues throughout the different disciplines in the factory but
most importantly the Maintenance team where my practical knowledge
really appreciated.
Abbreviations
SAP Systems Application Product
BOM Bill of Materials
RMS Raw Material Storage
WO Works Order
w.r.t. With respect to
P & ID Pipe & Instrument Diagram
GA General Arrangement
PPM Pre Planned Maintenance
TPM Total Productive Maintenance
CEP Capital Expenditure Proposal
5s Seiri - Organizing
Seiton – Neatening
Seiso - Cleaning
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4. Seiketsu - Standardisation
Shitsuke – Sustaining
INTRODUCTION
Unilever is an international brand which produces various home,
personal and food products. The training was done at Maydon Wharf
Soaps Factory, which is situated in Durban. The Soaps factory is
divided into two sections producing Laundry soaps and Toilet soaps.
The factory runs 24 hours a day across three shifts. The appointment
was for P2 as the learner had already held his P1 from previous
employment. Rules and regulations were clearly explained to the
student while the induction was also carried out as per company
procedure prior to appointment. Due to the learners’ discipline it was
seen appropriate that the learner report to the Mechanical Packaging
workshop.
Most of the learners’ time here was spent on extensive maintenance
work but the main objective of project work was also achieved, this
arrangement also proved productive to the learner as a lot is learnt on
maintenance work.
Maintenance work
A large portion of the program was spent on maintenance work
together with the maintenance team. A lot is learnt in this discipline as
one gets hands on experience of servicing and overhauling machinery.
This section is also advantageous as it lets one put theory into practice.
Below are a few highlights of the work done.
Soap manufacturing
Mostly worked on:
 PPM and overhauling pumps
 Driers
 Heat exchangers
 Cooling towers
 RMS area
 Pipelines and flexible
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5.  Highshear mixers
 Condensers
 Reactors
Soap packaging
Mostly worked on:
 PPM on packing lines
 Breakdowns
 Spares brought in workshop
 Conveyer belts
 Carousel area conveyers
 Workshop housekeeping and 5S
Sap work
The learner was tasked to help the maintenance planner in updating
the BOM on the SAP system. These are different parts that make up a
plant or component. The Legacy system (as it was called) had to be
discontinued and the Unity SAP (which is used by Unilever globally)
was to be introduced. Basically the BOM from the Legacy system had
to be copied to the Unity SAP while also verifying the BOM.
The learner was also exposed to
 making and closing notifications
 different types of notifications
 converting notifications to WO
 editing and closing off WO
 stores stock taking (gather info on spares)
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6. Stores handling
Some time was also spent on learning more about how the stores
department operates. Stores control also uses the SAP system to
handle stock. For every spare drawn, the team leader for that particular
department is responsible for making a re-order through their work
centre. When a certain number of orders are reached, the system puts
the order through to the supplier for delivery. Should the supplier delay
then the store man follows up the order. When receiving spares, it is
necessary to count them against the order and then sign for them. The
invoice then goes to the store man for payment process. From time to
time it helps to perform stock taking, this is where spares are counted
physically then compared to what the system registers. This is helpful
to recover any unaccounted spares in time as the major stock take is
done once a year, where every spare has to be accounted for.
TPM (L5 & Stores)
TPM is a very important integral in Unilevers’ production. Every
employee has to be involved in TPM. Personally TPM is seen as a very
productive way of living, either be at work or casually. The learner was
placed to be part of production Line 5 and Stores department. The
learner acted as a circle leader for Line 5, the inconsistency and
attitude amongst shifts and constant rotation of personnel makes it very
difficult to maintain TPM improving on the Line. In the stores
department the learner was called upon mostly to help implement the
improvements that had been in place. The main improvement was to
put Perspex doors on the shelves and paste descriptive pictures of the
spare in that particular place. This is also helpful in the sense that even
if one doesn’t know the stock number of the spare, it can be seen on
the template. A pilot area was availed where all the changes and
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7. improvements are to be made before concluding with the whole
department. It was also thought that a catalogue containing part
number, description and shelf number of all the spares in the store to
be put together and made available to everyone. This is still work in
progress.
Below are the shelves before and currently:
Before After
DRIER 6 SOAP FEED PUMP REPLACEMENT
Introduction
The general task of this plant is to dry the soap in the stock-tanks and
send it through to the laundry soaps production lines. There are three
driers currently doing the job with the other two already on the
proposed pump unit.
Previous pump and problem statement
The pump previously used is a Trilobe pump which frequently caused
problems with its inability to pump the soap and reoccurring jamming.
This is not good as it has to be overhauled frequently.
Problems that were generally found with the pump
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8.  Clearance on the lobes was too fine thus jamming the pump due
to the foreign particles that came with the rework soap.
 Viscosity of the soap too thick for the pump, the pump used to
run for a very short period of time before repeatedly breaking
down.
 Very costly compared to the proposed pump and its
maintenance and overhaul take time to conclude.
Basically it’s the wrong pump for application.
Installed pump and its advantages
The new pump is a Blackmer NP2 vane pump.
 Cost effective, about a fifth of the Trilobe.
 Maintenance cost is good as it is cheap to replace pins and vanes.
 Very compact and simplified pump as there’s not much to do when
overhauling.
 Can handle semi-solid soap*.
 Requires little power than other positive displacement pumps when
handling viscous fluids.
 Can handle high viscosity shear sensitive fluids due to the unique
design of its sliding vane rotor.
Discussion
This project was more of a practical assignment for the learner to prove
his trade using tools. The learner had to use necessary tools to make
the assignment a success.
Firstly the old unit had to be removed, after proper isolation it was
removed in separate parts as it was a big unit. The coupling was
separated to remove the pump and the gearbox was separated from
the motor. The base was also removed and the surface was ground as
it was previously welded. On arrival of the new unit, all measurements
were taken for new mounting and material to be ordered. Instead of
building a plinth as a base it was seen better to modify and use the
base removed from the previous unit, this also proved cost effective.
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9. The base plate and shimming bars were then marked off and drilled as
for the new unit. The unit was then placed in position and a welder was
called up to tack it down. Then it was time to call upon pipe fitters to
modify piping accordingly to the new unit as the delivery sides of the
two pumps were different.
Thereafter an Electrical Engineer was called upon to help commission
the pump on the 14 March 2011.
Below are the two scenarios:
Before After
Feedback
The pump was initially run with non-standard vanes which didn’t last
long, as expected. After excessive wear they were replaced with
standard ones, which are a stock item. The pump has been running
successfully although it is not used as often as the other ones in the
plant, as it’s primarily dedicated to the Germiguard variant.
REFURBISH GLYCERINE COOLING TOWER
Introduction
The general purpose of this plant is to provide cooling water to the
driers as the temperatures here can get to very high measures; it also
plays a major role w.r.t. vacuum in the system. This cooling tower
hasn’t been in use for some time as the glycerine plant was
discontinued after some improvements in the raw materials.
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10. Discussion
Cooling tower maintenance has mostly been done by C/T specialists,
Wasser Cooling Tower. On some occasions it was done internally by
Artisans, which took some time despite having a fairly moderate
number of Artisans. Contact with Wasser was made regarding the
project but before calling them in it was seen first have a look at the
tower to see just how much work needs to be done. Using experienced
personnel, the tower was examined so as to know exactly what needs
to be repaired and avoid paying for nothing.
Checklist:
 Open each cell and check condition of fibre glass, screens and
dirt that could restrict flow
 Check discharge bay of each cell for leaks and condition of
supporting structures
 Check main cold well for leaks
 Check valves for passing
 Cleaned and drained the cold well
 Check cooling fans and motors for performance
 Check pump motors for performance
 Check condition of louvers
After checking all of the above it was observed that the tower was still in
good condition and not much was to be done. Wasser wasn’t required at
this time. The main major work to be done here was pipe work.
Work done:
 Recondition fibre glass on 2 cells
 Replaced corroded channels on 1 cell
 Replaced louvers
 Sent out 1 fan motor that wasn’t working for overhauling
 Replaced 2 impellers which had broken blades
 Installed pumps which had been stored in the workshop
 Re-new paint on the entire C/T
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11. Pipe work was handed over to Projects Dept; a layout was discussed,
finalized and put into place.
Feedback
Although the C/T is not yet in operation, the project is seen as a
success as it is due for commissioning soon. It is strongly suggested
that PPM be done (internally) on cooling towers as a lot of money could
be saved as repairing any defects found on the tower is not included in
the specialists’ quote.
INSTALL ELECTRICAL MIXERS TO EFFLUENT TANKS (ATTACHED)
REMOVE BRINE TANK
While working on the brine holding tanks, the Industrial Engineer
Trainee was also working on making some space around that area.
Thereafter it was raised to track brine usage using one tank in
operation and the other one blanked out. Thus far the plant has done
well with one tank without any complaints from the operators or anyone
in general. Looking at the duration that the plant has operated with one,
it can be safe to say that removing one tank will not cause any harm to
the factory.
After removal of the tank then the task of repositioning Brine pumps
should commence. The tank should not be destroyed though as it can
be used elsewhere, e.g. to help in the recently proposed condensate
recapture project.
LAUNDRY SOAPS PUMPS MONITORY
Initially the learner had been more hands on with only the drier 6 pump
unit, but the task of monitoring most, if not all the L/S pumps was
raised. These pumps work in relation with the production lines; they
pump what’s required at that time. They have variable motors to alter
flow rate at any given instance, which is controlled electronically by
operators. It is easy to monitor drier feed pumps as they have flow
meters, a breakdown can be caught before it happens. As for the rest
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12. of the pumps in the plant, one can only record causes and frequency of
breakdowns.
A monitory spreadsheet is attached to illustrate the above.
ENGINEERING FOREMAN
Some of the learners’ time was also spent on basic exposure to the above
mentioned role. Basically in this role one is responsible for all the artisans
in the department. This role is pivotal in helping the learner grow w.r.t.
people management and general management skills. This role requires
someone with passion and patience as one is required to deal with almost
everything and a lot of different personalities.
Below is just a few responsibilities situated with this role:
 Prepare, layout and give out maintenance tasks to the team
 Act as the main link between production and maintenance
 Prioritize jobs to maximize production
 Work with the Maintenance Planner to prepare jobs in advance
and down plan for any outstanding jobs
 A lot of paperwork and supplier contact is also done here
 Offering solutions and decision making is also vital in this role
This role was very intriguing and challenging as a lot has to be dealt with,
most of which at once.
FUTURE PROPOSALS
• Remove one Brine holding tank and reposition brine pumps
• Reroute condensate pipe to effluent and use Brine tank to
collect condensate
• Remove cooling water lines on production Line 10 extending
from plodder to re-sealer, as they are not being used anymore
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13. • Refurbish Drier 4 Cooling Tower
CONCLUSION
Firstly, Unilever is a very evolved and up to date organization; personal
growth is eminent with the structure and standards in place. Secondly,
the time spent and knowledge gained at Unilever is priceless and the
constant improvements in the factory prove informative hence also
keeping one up to date with the technology currently being utilized.
Finally, it would be encouraging to see more students being exposed to
the opportunity that the learner experienced at Unilever SA (PTY) Ltd.
DECLARATION
I ___________________________ hereby declare that I have read through
the report being submitted by ____________________________ and agree
with the contents being disclosed there-in. The contents of the portfolio are a
true reflection of the work that was carried out by the learner.
__________________ _________________
Mentor’s Signature Date
Students’ Signature Date
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