All process controls at our plants are automated
Published on : Friday 15-05-2020
DS Ravindra Raju, President – Manufacturing, Deepak Fertilisers And Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (DFPCL).
As the largest producer of IPA, what is it normally used for – in India and globally?
Isopropyl alcohol (2-propanol), also known as isopropanol or IPA, is the most common and widely used disinfectant within pharmaceutics, hospitals, cleanrooms, and electronics or medical device manufacturers. Different solutions, purity grades, concentrations and alcohol types, when used correctly, yield beneficial cleaning and disinfection properties; or can induce dangerous consequences when used inaccurately. Apart from this, the major usage is in the pharma industry as a solvent under the control of FDA.
Has the company scaled up the production in view of increased demand for hand sanitizers?
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, our plant was functioning at its full capacity. DFPCL’s current installed IPA capacity is 70,200 MT.
The Covid-19 crisis is unprecedented. How is the company operating amidst the lockdown?
We have obtained required permission from the government to keep some of our pivotal plants in operation as our product line falls under the essential category. Despite challenges in terms of non-availability of manpower, contract workers and truck drivers, etc., we have been successful in managing the plant to run with minimum manpower and maintenance. We have been taking various safety measures in order to ensure that each one of our employees and workers is safe. However, supply chain, maintenance workshops, and contract labour availability continues to be a challenge. The Government has been very proactive in lending support to the company for transportation and accommodation of people close to the plants.
What are the kinds of precautions (for worker safety) required to do so?
The employees are the backbone of any industry and at the DFPCL we keep them at the highest pedestal. Every single employee's health is DFPCL’s responsibility while they are at work. Below are some of the precautions we have taken in this crisis:
SOPs developed for the following on Do’s and Don’ts – Prevention of COVID 19
- Doctors are available at the plants and Medical Officers regularly audit the cafeteria conditions
- Handheld thermal scanners and hand sanitisers have been placed at every entry and exit point
- Sanitisers are supplied to every employee
- Separate swiping of attendance cards and social distancing is ensured
- Employees in high people density zones such as security checkpoints, cafeteria, logistics department, etc., are provided with safety aprons
- It is mandatory for everyone to wear masks and hand gloves
- All work areas, including transport buses, are regularly sanitized
- Only priority-based visitors are allowed
- Only trucks with two persons (driver and cleaner) are allowed to enter
- Anyone having flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, breathlessness, etc., is not allowed inside the plant premises
- Skeletal staff required to run the plant are called in
- Spray fans have been installed at the entry gate to spray everyone with disinfection
- Medical examination of vendors, gardening and housekeeping staff is regularly carried out at the Occupational Health Centre (OHC)
- Overcrowding is prohibited, timings are deferred, and social distancing is maintained
- Supply of food items for at least a month is maintained at all operational manufacturing plants
- Indoor areas such as entrance lobbies, corridors, staircases, escalators, elevators, security guard booths, office rooms, meeting rooms and cafeteria are disinfected with sodium hypochlorite or phenolic disinfectants.
As a company closely working with the farm sector, how do you see the impact on Indian agriculture in general, food stock in particular?
Food stocks in the country are brimming with bumper crops this year in quite a few states in India and we do not see any challenge in the immediate future. Yes, to replenish the stocks going forward, we need to bring in reforms in integrated marketing of farm produce. Another challenge we can foresee in Q1 is that the railway cargo movement will be focussing on agricultural goods and the Industrial Sectors will suffer for want of rakes from railways for moving Fertilisers. Indian Agriculture will be impacted but it will be more resilient in our view to come back on rails quickly. Migrant labour returning back to villages will also be absorbed in Kharif activity and this will be a plus to Indian Agriculture. On the other hand, we will have a big challenge to make sure the Industry normalises fast.
How automated are the company’s production facilities?
All process controls at our plants are automated. All of the plants of DFPCL are on DCS platforms and we are in the process of integrating SAP Hana, the advanced version of ERP for Analytics. Although some of our packing lines are still semi-automated but as a pilot, we are upgrading to smart manufacturing (Industry 4.0) for performance improvement in the near future in one of our plants.
We are adopting a culture of TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) and continuous improvement in an agile manner supported by information technology so that we can accelerate the adoption of advanced automation technologies. We are continuously seeking inputs from industry experts and industry benchmarks to track OPE and OEE through SAP Hana Dashboards in the quest for operations excellence eventually to enhance our performance
We are extensively adopting ICT (information and communications technology) for smart collaboration and seamless communications; with the combination of integrated data, voice and video technologies along with knowledge/document management systems. For instance, we are enabling paperless movement of inbound/outbound logistics and virtual capabilities for auditors to remotely verify plant process parameters and operations parameters. We have deployed a fully automated Online Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (OCEMS) to monitor critical emission parameters in real time and communicate these seamlessly through internet technology.
What is the impact on the company’s business activities?
Bottom line impact in Q1 will be significant but we are hoping IPA business will absorb some of the shock of lockdown. At DFPCL, we are running three major businesses, viz., Industrial Chemicals, Ammonium Nitrate and Fertilizers. Although, we had permission to run the plant but we faced and are still facing challenges in terms of non-availability of critical consumables, regular and contract manpower, customers plants are not opening, non-availability of truck drivers, etc. We faced loss of sales in Industrial Chemicals business due to non-availability of lifting material from customers and we also faced loss of sales in Ammonium Nitrate and Fertilizers business due to issues in downstream supply chain pertaining to non-availability of trucks. However, we have been continuously in touch with our upstream and downstream supply chain partners in order to ensure that our plants run on a continuous basis and dispatches smoothly.
The world may not return to business as usual after the present crisis is over. What are the changes most likely to happen?
The world may not return to the normal but a ‘new normal’ will be created. Health and wellness might become the most important priority for all of us. In business I can fathom that Capital will become scarce and the consolidation will happen sooner than later. In the short term there might be salary and job cuts across the board, which I hope should not happen. Until the vaccine is not found the business travel and consumerism will take a major hit and it will suppress demand in various sectors. India can become a major manufacturing hub because of the anti-China wave and I hope the government and the private capitalise on the opportunity. This might help in job creation in the country. The manufacturer will invest more in Digitalisation and Automation and this will also help in the innovation in the supply chain. The Pharma Sector will see a huge transformation in their R&D to deal with such pandemics in the future.
DS Ravindra Raju, President – Manufacturing, Deepak Fertilisers And Petrochemicals Corporation Limited, is primarily responsible for the complete supply chain apart from manufacturing for the entire group at multiple locations. Mr Raju has over 30 years of
