1.

INTRODUCTION
Sika Kimia Sdn Bhd is one of the leading producers in constructions and industrial

applications. It provides numerous products like addatives for use in concrete, cement, mortar,
waterproofing, roofing, flooring, sealing and bonding. Its production plants are located in Nilai
and Ipoh, Malaysia. In the production lines, it involves multi-product batch processes. Thus, the
tendency of problems to emerge in the production line is high during the process and also when
switching another batch, the time taken tends to be lengthy, complex and complicated; therefore
the company may waste resources like production and money. Thus this project provides
recommend of solutions to improve the capacity and productivity, specifically powder plant in
Nilai.
1.1

Objectives Of Study
The objectives of the project are as follows;

1.2

i)

To study the process and facilities in the powder plant and come out with process

ii)
iii)

flow diagram (PFD)

To evaluate the capacity and production in powder plant
To offer suggestions to improve the productivity performance of the powder plant

Scope of Study
The scope of the study are as follows;

2.0

i)

Study the production process and its capacity and productivity in powder plant at

ii)

Sika Kimia Sdn. Bhd, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.

The present study covers a period of 2 weeks from 22nd of jun to 3rd of julai 2015

DESCRIPTION OF PROCESS STUDIED

2.1

Process Flow Diagram (PFD)

New powder plant of Sika Kimia Sdn Bhd, Nilai is a plant for producing Sika Grout 215.

It is a pumpable dual shrinkage compensated, self levelling, prebageged cementitious grout that
suit with local ambient temperatures. It is used to repair concrete structures like concrete
anchors, machines foundations, bridge bearings cavities and gaps.
The process flow diagram (PFD) of new plant is shown in Figure 2.1. As part of the
production process, various raw materials in granular and powdered solids (sands and cement)
are conveyed in pipe feed into silos. The cements (1139) in which consists of type A and B are
pumped into silos by lories while the sands are transporting by transporter, MP54. Air from air
reservoir is supplied to the MP54 to convey the sands. The sands are grouped into 3 which are
type 1581-0 feed into silo K, type 1581-P feed iton silo L and type 1589-N feed into silo J.
Each products is then supplied to the weighing hopper, MP08 A in order to obtain the
right portion of cements and sands. Then, the additive materials are added into the hopper, MP08
B based on the desired formula. After that, the cements, sands and additive materials are sent into
the mixer. Mixer processes will ensure all the materials are mixed homogeneously. After 5
minutes of mixing, the sample of 2 kilograms of mixtures ( Sika Grout 215) are taken into
quality control room to check the quality standard of the products. The recipes for Sika Grout
215 are tabulated in Table 2.1.
After the products have been approved by the quality control, the products then are sent
into packaging machines, MP08 E and MP08 F. The products need to be hold in holding hopper
MP08 D if the packaging machines are runnig for the batch before. Normally, the time taken for
packaging the goods are 20 to 40 minutes depending on the number of man power.

3.0

PRODUCTIVITY AND CAPACITY IN THE POWDER PLANT

The production process in the powder plant is a batch process. In a batch processing, it

can be complicated by having multiple products that made in the same equipments. Making
products that consistantly accordance with the standard quality and specification is challenging
in order to maximize the utilization of the availabe equipments. Thus, a good bacth scheduling
and planning is needed in order to maximize the plant productivity in which the batches should
be produced in a sequence that minimizes the makespan. Figure 3.1 until 3.4 shows the

3.1

Resulting System Performance

Unit 0:03:48
1

0:03:48

Unit 20:01:15

0:04:14

Unit 3 0:05:42
0:17:29 0:07:06

unit 4

0:39:27

0:31:44

0:00:00

0:28:48

0.04

0:57:36

1:26:24

1:55:12

2:24:00

2:52:48

3:21:36

Figure 3.1: Gant chart for current system performance

unit 0:03:48
1 0:03:48

unit 20:01:15

unit 3 0:05:30
0 00:19:57

unit 4

0:00:00

0:19:30

0.020:05:30
0:19:30

0:28:48

0.02

0:57:36

1:26:24

0.02

1:55:12

Figure 3.2: Gant chart for scheduling performance

0.01
0:05:30
0:25:00

2:24:00

2:52:48

3:21:36

3:50:24

Table 1: Processing Times (min) of Sika Grout 215 (samples on..)

Units
Batch 1

Batch 2

Sika Grout 215

Batch 3

3.48
1.15
5.42
31.44
42.59

3.48
2.29
7.06
54.00
67.23

6.04
1.43
5.30
27.44
41.6

1
2
3
4
Total processing

Batch 4

25.00

Optimal
times
3.48
1.15
5.30
25.00
35.33

times

Table 3.2: Expected number of batches produce after scheduling (time reduction)
Times
Current performance

Scheduling and planning

25 minutes of
20 minutes of

Improvements

7.15 a.m 5.30

19 batches

packaging
20 batches

packaging
26 batches

5% - 27%

p.m
7.15 a.m 7.30

23 batches

25 batches

31 batches

8% - 26%

p.m
7.15 a.m 9.30

29 batches

30 batches

36 batches

3% - 19%

p.m

Batches

40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

Current
Time reduction (25 min of
packaging)
Time reduction (20 min of
packaging)2

3.2

Old Plant

MP01

unit 1 0:15:00

unit 2

0:18:00

Series 6
Series 3

unit 3

unit 4

0:00:00

Sika-102

0:24:00

Series 1

0.04

0:28:48

0:57:36

1:26:24

1:55:12

2:24:00

MP03

Unit 1
0:06:53

Unit 2

0:44:54 0:03:15

Unit 3
Packaging

QC Test

Unit 4

Unit 5

0:03:15
Maintanance

0:05:13
0:11:42

Mixer

Holding Hopper

Addatives

Holding time

Silos

0:50:00

0.06

0:00:00 0:28:48 0:57:36 1:26:24 1:55:12 2:24:00 2:52:48 3:21:36 3:50:24 4:19:12

4.0

RECCOMENDATION

5.0

CONCLUSION