Ultramarine Chemicals &Pigments Ultramarine Chemicals &Pigments LmtdLmtd..

Detailed analysis on the DETERGENT Detailed analysis on the DETERGENT MANUFACTURING PLANTMANUFACTURING PLANT..

VIT B schoolVIT B school

INTRODUCTION

Ultramarine Chemicals & Pigments Lmtd. was established in 1963 in Ambattur at Chennai. The firm later expanded and opened a new plant in 1975 at Ranipet

ProductsThe plant at Ranipet produces three types of products– Pigments– Surfactants– Detergents

THE firm is the third largest manufacturer of pigments in the world. The pigments manufactured are ultra marine blue, violet, yellow.

It also severs as the largest producers of surfactants in India such as LABSA , aryl sulphonates etc. which are used in all kinds of toiletries like soaps,detergents,phenyls etc

The detergent plant of the firm produces washing powder under various brands as

• Wheel• Wheel active• Sunlite• Crane• Oob• Diva

And thus acts as a major supplier to HUL(HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LMTD.)

WHEEL, WHEEL active are marketed by HUL in all over the country and Sunlite in domestic markets of Kerela.

While Oob , Crane , Diva are firms own manufactured detergents and are exported to Africa and Srilanka

OBSERVED PLANT-DETERGENT MANUFACTURING &PACKAGING

VALUE CHAINVALUE CHAIN

Value chain is basically defined as the tool to identify ways to create more customer value. And thus identifies nine strategically relavant activities divided as five primary and four as support activities.

Prentice Hall, 2004 Chapter 4Wheelen/Hunger 12

Corporate Value Chain

The value chain of ultramarine chemicals & pigments lmtd. is described as follows

Here the basic raw materials used in processing of detergents are Surfactants, builders like sodium silicate, chemicals ,antiredeposition agents, Fluorescent whitening agents are also common. ,Oxygen bleaches such as sodium perborate ,sodium sulfate, Enzymes and perfumes are also found in commercial detergents.These are basically used from the other home plant producing various sulphur based surfactants, while rest all other raw materials are purchase from local markets of Mumbai and Tamil Nadu.

RAW MATERIALS:

MANUFACTURING UNIT:

Now the raw materials collected are being processed in the plant at Ranipet and Chennai. Here the value is added to the raw materials as they are processed and than final detergents is manufactured .

PACKAGING: This is also done in the manufacturing plant itself

and thus further value addition takes place.

WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTORS OR EXPORTERS :

• The finally processed detergent after packaging is than shipped or transported to the wholesale agencies or franchisee or exported outside the country depending on the detergent variety. This further adds value to the detergent or goods in form of cost of transportation and storage involved .

RETAILERS:

Now the packed detergents are further transported to retailers on demand and leads to further value addition.

CONSUMERS: And from retailers the the final product

reaches to the consumers with all the value added in the product.

Location factorLocation factor

Location factor

The location factor is defined as the reasons contributing to the question as to why the plant has been set in a particular geographical area.

The basic reasons why Ultramarine Chemicals & Pigments lmtd. is situated in Ranipet are as follows-

1. Shipping port is very near-so the detergent products to be exported need to involve high transportation costs.

2. Tax benefits-Tamil Nadu govt. is providing various tax benefits to the industries situated in Ranipet promoting it as a industrial area.

3. Centre of south India-watching geographically Ranipet almost comes in centre of south India ,thus equidistant in approach to any part.

4. No river-Since no river flows in this part of the country or they are almost dry ,so the fear of moisture acting as a problem in detergent storage and transportation is less, (otherwise lump formation takes place in the detergent).

General Layout

Manufacturing process layout

The Manufacturing Process

The process used is blender process- In the blender process favored by smaller companies, the

ingredients are mixed in large vats before being packaged. The machines used are very large: a common blender holds 4,000 pounds (1,816 kilograms) of mixed material, but the blenders can accommodate loads ranging from 500 to 10,000 pounds (227 to 4,540 kilograms). By industry standards, these are small batches for which the blender process is ideal. While some settling may occur, the resulting detergent is of high quality and can compete with detergents made by other processes.

The blender process

• First, ingredients are loaded into one of two machines: a tumbling blender or a ribbon blender. The tumbling blender, shaped like a rectangular box, is turned and shaken from outside by a machine, while the ribbon blender is a cylinder fitted with blades to scrape and mix the ingredients. After the ingredients inside the blender have been mixed, a doorway at the bottom of the bowl is opened. With the blender still agitating the ingredients, the mix is allowed to run out onto a conveyor belt or other channeling device. The belt then moves the detergent to another area of the factory where it can be dropped into boxes or cartons for delivery to wholesalers or distributors.

Process mapping

Process mapping

Raw materials used-sodium bi carbonate, soda ash, sodium chloride salt, dolomite, tenopol, perfumes, antiredeposition agents, Fluorescent whitening agents ,Oxygen bleaches, Enzymes and perfumes

Step 1. The soda ash and salts are mixed on the first floor of the plant and then lifted through bucket elevator to third floor.

Step 2. Now the mixture passes to another mixer called as LABSA weighing hopper where tenopol , perfume, surfactant(LABSA) are mixed.

Step 3. Mixture is then pumped to the another cone shaped hopper where a temperature of 350.c is maintained and thus properly mixed.

Step 4. Then the mixture goes through a cage mill the detergent is cooled at room temperature and further mixed with various solubilisers oxgen bleach and enzymes as well as fluorescent dyes.

Step 5. Now through the bucket elevator the mixture is again lifted to 2nd floor where it passes through the shieve shaker and where the detergent is agitated and filtered to remove the unwanted and large size particles

Step 6. The finally processed detergent is than flowed into a large hopper ( cone shaped) which is than packed by automated machines having prescribed polythene pouches measures and the quantity of detergents to be fed.

Quality Control

Quality Control

Manufacturers constantly monitor the quality of their detergents, and they utilize the same testing methods to assess the effectiveness of new products. In one method, light is shined onto a piece of fabric that has been soiled and then washed in the test detergent. The amount of light reflected, compared to the amount reflected by a sample of the original fabric, is a measure of cleanliness. A reflection rate of 98 percent is considered quite good and indicates that the detergent has cleaned properly.

Process flowchart

PROCESS FLOWCHART

Analysis & suggestionsAnalysis & suggestions

ANALYSIS

From the study of the above industry it can be inferred that the firm has a sound value chain and is constantly adding value to the product.

Secondly the location factor analysis shows that the industry has utilized every single advantage for its cost effectiveness which act as a positive point to industry profile

Thirdly the process mapping shows that the industry follows continuous production process featured by mass market, very stable demand, highly automated, very high volume

Fourthly the study of process layout shows functional grouping of machines, batch processing & needs dynamic scheduling & needs large storage spaces.

suggestions1. Since the industry is facing a lot of problems due to

continuous power cuts in the state it hire the generators instead of buying them as it will lead to cost effectiveness

2. Instead of buying the raw materials from local market the industry could go for producing them themselves just like it uses surfactants of its own plant.

3. Since the company is operating 2 plants at the same time , it can instead operate only one and work in shifts in order to be reducing the cost.

Thank you