Raw materials and energy are consumed in a continuous stream and a product is produced. Continuous processes increase production possibilities Market demand must be high. Most CP are fluid based Tend to have open-ended production runs Considerable time to start-up Require instrumentation because process is invisible There are some assembly-based continuous processes Crude oil processing - into Hydrocarbons Crude is fed to a furnace which heats the oil and puts it into a cooling tower (distillation column). 400=Lube oil, paraffin wax, asphalt. 370=Fuel oil, 300 Diesel, 200 Kerosene, 150 Gasoline, 20 Gas Paper Mill processing Feedstock: Small wood particles Finished Products: paper, bark, pulp, turpentine
Zinc processing Feedstock:Ore FP:Zinc, other metals, sulfuric acid
Batch
Products made in batches or lots Discontinuous flow of ingredients (raw materials or feedstock) Production runs have set start/finish, cycle time. Goes through steps or phases as part of a recipe Fluid and Dry processing May include multiple process trains operating in parallel Can operate in manual mode Beer Brewing Mashing - mixing of milled grain and malt with water and heating the mixture to allow the enzymes in the malt to break down the starch in the grain into sugars. Lautering - Separation of water and sugars Boiling - boiling of extracts (worts) Fermenting - Add yeast to cooled wort, sugars are converted into alcohol and CO2 Filtering Conditioning Packaging
Discrete
The staged assembly of products through a series of work cells. Discontinuous material flow Assembly-Oriented Staged production Of course we tend to think of discreet as open/closed, On-Off, or staccato in music.
Created the site, decided to use the Blog entires as a means for starting the Process Controls dialog. Probably will shift to some sort of database oriented entries.