Facing budget constraints in chemical process optimization. How will you ensure cost efficiency?

This question can be answered many ways depending on the level in which one is operating. Basically, understand the constraints of the budget & its limits regarding capital & expense spending to ascertain allowable resource availability. As for opportunities, these need to prioritized as potential monetized gains noting risks & timing and then force ranked in terms of potential for success vs. the resources available to realize them. Choose projects with the shortest payouts and least arduous paths to success leaving the high risk/high benefits projects for an opportunistic environment in the future. Enhancement of EBIT and cash flow should be the short-term objective under budget constraints & does not preclude growth/value options.

Lean Principles eliminate process waste and Optimizing specific consumption, and productivity. Eliminate unnecessary Preventive Maintenance, which causes shutdown, & add spare parts and manpower costs. Instead, start better condition monitoring initiatives.

The best way to go about it is making use of your energy analyzer and economic planning tools in cooperated into your software. Using chemical process building and simulation tools like Aspen HYSES can go a long way

In my experience processes proceed as they always have. You need to create a culture of critical thinking. Then when you map the process people will be able to see where the waste is, rather than chant "it is what it is". Map it out. Step through it bit by bit. Ask the questions of why, and how could this improve. Listen to the guys doing the work, once you've convinced them you are truly listening.

Process simulation helps significantly to adjust the product yield and Process parameters to meet the dynamic changes in the market rates of different products in Oil and Gas Industry. It is also helpful to troubleshooting the process abnormalities.

Process simulations are great. However, teams must ensure that the model runs as the process or vice-versa. If not, they are not any good.

If you're not measuring it then you cannot control it. Whatever your process find someone to help implement monitoring. Once you know where you're energy is going, you can start to calculate where that is efficient or not versus the ideal, where there is excess and therefore waste. Know that and you can focus action.

You cannot manage the things which you can't measure. Benchmarking is widely acceptable tool to know where you are operating process compare to others in the same process industry to find out the gaps. Energy efficient operation is a must needs for any process in current competitive environment.

Alternative raw materials, catalyst and chemicals supplier plays key role to minimise inventory and reduce cost of inputs to any process industry.

In cases where the exact internal conditions of the process are unknown or not measurable at any reasonable cost it is still often possible to make a model of the process. In this case it is then possible me to use model predictive control to achieve a better operation even when it is not possible to say if the control is optimal or not.

Predictive control and process control helps process to maximise the yield of desired product and minimise the off spec operations in any process industry.

Enfrentar restrições orçamentárias na otimização de processos químicos através da melhoria contínua me parece ser uma das melhores opções. Sendo assim, isso envolveria a implementação de práticas que garantam eficiência e sustentabilidade. A metodologia Lean Manufacturing, por exemplo, pode ser aplicada para eliminar desperdícios e melhorar a produtividade sem grandes investimentos. Ferramentas como o Ciclo PDCA e o DMAIC ajudam a promover uma cultura de melhoria constante, onde processos são continuamente avaliados e refinados, promovendo então uma melhor eficiência dos custos.

Don't put all the eggs in the big change basket. Look to the small changes as well. Encourage everyone to suggest and implement incremental improvements. Often these are not expensive investments. The more credence you give to suggestions, the more engagement you get, and the more suggestions you'll receive. Continual improvement can become self sustaining and give great satisfaction to all.

People with right skills and experience plays key roles in any process industry for efficient and effective utilisation of the business.

One smart move is to source raw materials locally instead of importing from other countries. Another Smarter Move is to Buy the Land where the raw material is sourced from. E.g Buying a land with Gypsum automatically gives that company full access to the raw material thereby reducing cost of production to the Minimum.

Safety has to be top of the list. No cost reduction is worth a process safety incident. One must evaluate the safety of the cost reduction. Less people is popular, but that can have safety implications, which must be evaluated through the Management of Change (MOC) process. Process changes in how the process is operated may improve efficiency and subsequent costs, but understand the effects of the change on process safety first. This is where higher management fails when they make these decisions. They have to listen to their OSHA PSM experts when making these decisions.