QUALITY

WHERE THERE'S

MUCKTHERE'S

BRASS!Many British companies are missing the boat when itcomes to making savings on a crucial area of running costs- water bills and effluent treatment.Paul Godwin thinks a drop of Quality Assurancecan make your water work wonders.

Manufacturer's quality system

NORMALLY INCLUDED NORMALLY EXCLUDED

Goods in

Storage

Process

Finishing

Packaging

Transport

Product

UTILITY INPUTWaterGas

Electricity

WASTE OUTPUTSolidsLiquids

Airborne

Paul Godwin

In most competent manufacturingcircles quality control and quality as-surance (QA) have become every-day realities.

A product is quality assured if thereare procedures in place to ensure that itis in accordance with its stated descrip-tion. To achieve this, a manufacturer'squality system will invariably be gearedto the principles and headings set out inBS 5750.

In essence, the raw materials of pro-duction are themselves of known andverifiable quality and the manufacturingprocesses are of known and verifiableperformance, leading to a product ofknown and demonstrable quality.Everyone involved from goods inwardsto products outwards has procedures tofollow and has the correct skills and train-ing to be able to execute them.

But let us consider for a moment whatthese quality procedures are geared to.They are geared to the customer in themarket-place. The customer who is con-cerned that he has bought a productupon which he can rely and for which hehas paid a price commensurate with thevalue of the product.

The customer perhaps gives littlethought to the manufacturing cycle un-less it has a demonstrable effect on cost.So the scope of a manufacturer's qualitysystem is likely to look something like thediagram left. I believe that manufac-turers do not always understand the sig-nificance of including utility input and

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MANUFACTURING ENGINEER MARCH 1992

QUALITY

A pattern of missedopportunities emerges whenwater waste treatment is putunder the quality assurance

microscope

waste output in their quality systems,since these topics usually have little orno direct influence on the final product.

However, there will always be a priceattached to both items in terms of cashvalue and environmental cost. By intro-ducing quality control procedures intothe purchase and use of utility consum-ables - such as water and electricity -and by introducing quality proceduresinto controlling and handling waste out-put, cost savings and environmental con-formance are likely to be achieved.

But how does a production businessstart to go about identifying where sav-ings can be made and what, if any, effectsuch savings will have on the productand its ultimate cost?

Such a question needs a systematicand logical approach to achieve a soundanswer. This is where the principles ofQA come into play, since BS 5750 hasalready taught the manufacturer to getused to a framework of a systematic andlogical approach.

QA involves everybody, from boardroom commitment to shop floor proce-dure authors, from the production line tothe quality auditors. BS 5750 provides aframework on which a system is devisedwhich in turn demands procedures to bedeveloped by those who will operatethem. In my experience, the writing of theprocedures alone concentrates mindsand makes people really think aboutwhat they are trying to achieve.

So it is with utility savings: a clear goal- such as to reduce water or energycosts by 10% - and a framework foraction, perhaps developed with advicefrom an independent external consult-ant. On this can be hung procedureswritten by line managers and operatorsand which are co-ordinated by an auth-orised manager.

Don't pour money down the drain - big savings are possible on your company'swater bills

With combined sewerage and watercharges approaching 90p per cubicmetre in some areas, gas at 43p pertherm and electricity tariffs variable ac-cording to a number of factors - butnevertheless significant - the potentialsavings are obvious.

The higher the utility consumption, thebigger the potential savings. Between1976 and 1988 the brewing industry re-duced specific energy consumption by34% as a result of improved efficiencyand better housekeeping.

A similar, perhaps less obvious, pic-ture emerges when we consider manu-facturing waste. How often do we seeheadlines such as Pollution crime: com-pany fined by magistrates or NRA pros-ecutes industrial brook polluter? This isa growing trend.

Businesses - and particularly manu-facturing enterprises - are increasinglyunder the pollution spotlight and will ine-vitably look for low cost ways of avoidingdisapproval. My view is that, by adoptingquality-style procedures in industrialwaste handling, critical areas of potentialpollution and efficiency will be identified.

Let us look at firms for whom wastehandling is their core business. Thewater utilities themselves treat sewageevery day. Their manufacturing processis to turn sewage into waste of demon-strable quality which can be dischargedinto rivers. If they fail in this, the NationalRivers Authority will want to know whyand may prosecute. In response to this

at least one water company is institutingquality systems for its sewage works.

Such a system will define objectives,identify critical operations and assessthe consequences of failure. It will ident-ify procedures and decisions to be takento avert failures and to operate plant andworks systems. It will identify levels ofdecision making and the people respon-sible for making them.

The potential for applying a carefuland structured approach to constructinga quality system for other processes out-side the direct manufacturing stream aresignificant. The benefits include energyrecovery, optimised plant investment,improved definition of responsibilitiesand training and more detailed manage-ment information.

Savings can be achieved for hun-dreds rather than thousands of poundsand, if carefully conducted, can helpcompanies to plan systems for renewalor extension, reduce capital investmentby properly identifying critical areas andapplicable solutions and significantly re-duce the risk of a pollution incident.

Utility and waste quality systems canadd to efficiency. Above all, a QA systemextended to include waste and utilitiescan lead to a net reduction in runningcosts which will lead to lower unit priceand greater competitive position. [EQFor more information enter ME44

Paul Godwin is an independent consult-ant with Oscar Faber Water Engineering.

MANUFACTURING ENGINEER MARCH 1992