Six Sigma Process Improvement Project

Team: CHEMICONS
Project Name: Improvement in Production of Biofuel from Food
Waste
Process: Biodiesel Production

Yellow Belt:
1. Diptanshu Biswas
2. Ayanavha Chakraborty
3. Pinav Paul

Master Black Belt:

1. Shri Rajagopal RG
2. Shri Sharadchandra Karve
3. Dr. Yogesh Koparkar
DMAIC Steps

Deliverables
Phase
SIPOC
Define Customers and CTQs established
Problem Statement, Business Case, Goals & Scope
Team
Key output measures Y identified
Data Collection Plan
Measure Do MSA (Gage R&R – Only for Black Belt)
Process Variation displayed (Span)
Baseline sigma performance calculated
Possible causes identified by Segmentation/Stratification
Detailed Process mapped in area of problem
Analyze Process Map Analyzed
Data Analysis – Root Cause validated
Vital Few identified
Opportunity is Quantified
Solutions identified/mapped
Design Solutions
Improve Implementation Plan – (Consider Pilot)
FMEA executed
Cost Benefit Proposal Created
Standardized process
On-going Monitoring Plan established
Control Procedures/documentation realised
Response Plan developed and deployed
Systems and structures modified (staffing, training, reward and
recognition, systems)
Ownership of on-going process management transferred to process
owner
Reference

• All data and information used in the project is either sourced from the internet or
assumed arbitrarily based on the goals.
• The internet sites are:
www.researchgate.net
www.google.com
• The arbitrary data set is obtained with the help of random data in Minitab.
• All graphs and Quality Tools are implemented with the help of Minitab
Define
 SIPOC
Region : Critical
Critical to
to Quality
Quality measure
measure
Product / Service: Biodiesel
Process : Biodiesel Production
No. of staff: %
% yield(η)
yield(η)
.

SUPPLIERS INPUTS PROCESS OUTPUTS CUSTOMERS

• • Start • Biodiesel • Domestic
Public Solvents
• • HHV • International
Agencies Catalyst
• Local • Purification of feed • Yield
Waste Food
suppliers • Temperature Drying of feed
• Waste • Humidity
Collection • Speed Feed analysis
Department • Time
• Impurities Transesterification
• Oil/Methanol
Ratio FAME analysis

Purification of product

End
Note:
Waste food refers to waste cooking
oils and animal fats.
DMAIC Project Charter
Project No.: 01

Project Name: Improvement in Production of Biofuel from Food Waste Core Process: Biodiesel Production

Resource Plan: Team Members/Support Resources:

Green Belt : N/A
Sponsor: N/A
• Diptanshu Biswas
Process Owner: N/A • Ayanavha Chakraborty
Six Sigma Leader: N/A • Pinav Paul
Black Belt and Master Black Belt: Shri Rajagopal RG, Shri
Scope
Sharadchandra Karve, Dr. Yogesh Koparkar
• Process Starts With: Purification of waste cooking oils
Problem Statement
• Process Ends With: Purification of biodiesel
The production of biodiesel has a percent yield of less than 90% • In Scope: The whole process
thereby causing a loss. • Out of Scope:NIL
• Constraints CTQ: Other quality parameters should not get
affected
Goal Statement • Process Impacted: Biodiesel Production
Customer CTQ’s
To increase the production by increasing the
percent yield of Biodiesel greater than 90% thereby making a The yield during production of biodiesel is currently less than
profit. 90% which is affecting the total production per year.

Estimate Financial Opportunities High Level Project Milestone

Biodiesel sells at 80 rupees / litre . By increasing the percent yield Define: 01/10/2020 – 15/10/2020
Measure: 16/10/2020 – 15/11/2020
the total capacity is projected to increase by 2000 ton/year which
Analyse: 16/11/2020 – 22/12/2020
will amount to a profit of roughly 18 crore rupees. Improve: 23/12/2020 – 31/01/2021
Control: 01/02/2021 – 28/02/2021
Validation
Functional Manager/Process Owner Date: Sponsor: Date: Financial Analyst:: Date:

Black/Green Belt: Date: Six Sigma Leader Date: Date:

Other:
High Level Improvement Timeline

Pro c e s s Aug S e pt Oc t No v De c Jan Fe b

S te p 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 De live rable s
Cha rte r
De fine Cus tome r Focus
S IP OC
Me a s ure s
Me as ure Colle ction P la n
Ba s e line S igma
Ma pping/Ana lys is
Analys e Vita l Fe w
Opportunity qua n.
S olutions
Impro ve Eva lua te
Imple me nta tion P la n
P roce dure s
Co ntro l/Ve rify Monitoring
Communica tion

Original P lan
Actual progres s
Define Tollgate Review

TEAM
 Team is sponsored by a sponsor
 Team formed and team leaders (Six Sigma Black/Green Belt & Six Sigma Coach) assigned
 Improvement team members fully trained on Six Sigma and DMAIC
 Full participation by members in regularly held team meetings
 Team members perform project work when assigned and in a timely fashion
 Team members regularly document their project work
 Team is equipped with available and reliable resources
HIGH LEVEL BUSINESS PROCESS MAP
 Business Process Mapping Completed (SIPOC), verified, and validated high-level 'as is' (not 'should be' or 'could be') business
process map
 Completed SIPOC representation, describing the Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, and Customers
CUSTOMERS & CTQs
 Data collected and displayed to better understand customer(s) critical needs and requirements
 Customer(s) identified and segmented according to their different needs and requirements
TEAM CHARTER
 Project management charter, including financial opportunities, problem and goal statements, project scope, milestones, roles
and responsibilities, communication plan

Six Sigma Leader: Sponsor: Process Owner:

Signatures

date date date

Black/Green Belt: Six Sigma Financial Analyst: Other:
date date date
Measure
Data Collection Plan Worksheet Key Output Measure Y

CTQ Measure Data How many ? How Collected By Whom Segmentation criteria
Description Type (as appropriate)
(op definition)

η = (kg of
biodiesel Random data
% produced collected Team
Continuous 100
yield(η) per kg of from Minitab Members
waste oil)
* 100%
As-is Process Capability

CTQ: % yield
Target: >90% yield
Defect: Any process step/factor that decreases the final yield
Unit: N/A
Opportunity: Any modification in process step/factor that increase the final yield
Measurement Data Display
Understanding process variation . . .

Graphical Summary of Yield % of Biodiesel for a total of 100 samples. We can see
that the mean yield is nearly 82% which is much below our target yield of >90%.
Measure Tollgate Review

KEY MEASURES Y IDENTIFIED

 Key output measures Y identified and agreed upon
 High impact defects defined and identified in the business process

DATA COLLECTION PLANNED AND EXECUTED

 Solid data collection plan established that includes measurement systems analysis
 Data collected on key measures that were identified

PROCESS VARIATION DISPLAYED/COMMUNICATED

 Process variation components displayed/communicated using suitable charts, graphs, plots
 Long term and short term variability accounted for

PERFORMANCE BASELINE/SIGMA CALCULATION

 Measure baseline process performance (capability, yield, sigma level).
 Update project goal
Signatures

Six Sigma Leader: Sponsor: Process Owner:

date date date

Black/Green Belt: Six Sigma Financial Analyst: Other:
date date date
Analyse
Fish Bone Diagram/Cause & Effect/Ishikawa Diagram

Y=f (X1, X2, …, Xn)

X ’s Y
Mother Nature Material Method
Moisture content Inefficient drying
Condition of the Catalyst quality Improper Purification
environment surrounding Catalyst efficiency Improper transe
the calamities
Natural reactors sterification
Quality of raw
material SoP not followed Why is the
yield below
Untrained person
Obsolete tech 90%?
Oil/Metha

Temperature Lack of skills

Poor maintenance Impurity
concentration Catalyst
Lack of discipline
n

concentration
ol ratio

Defective parts No knowledge about ‘5S’

Time of reaction

Machines Measures Mankind

Prioritisation of Xs: Control / Impact Matrix Y=f (X1, X2, …, Xn)

IMPACT
High Medium Low

• Oil/Methanol ratio • Poor maintenance • Impurity concentration

• Temperature • Defective parts • SoP not followed
• Catalyst concentration • Lack of skills
In Our • Moisture content
Control • Improper purification
C • Time of reaction
• Obsolete tech
O
N
T • Catalyst efficiency • Environmental conditions • No lnowledge about ‘5S’
R • Quality of feed • Natural calamities • Lack of discipline
• Untrained person
O Out Of • Catalyst quality
L Our
Control
 Pareto Analysis of Root Xs derived from Cause/Effect Matrix
C2 is the various factors
C1 is the frequency of
defects on variation of the
respective C1 factor
keeping all other factors
constant. C2 factors are
listed below:
1. Oil/Methanol ratio
2. Temperature of
reaction
3. Obsolete tech
4. Moisture content
5. Catalyst
concentration
6. Time of reaction
7. Improper purification
Conclusion: We can see that almost 80% variation is caused by three factors which constitute Only
about 20% of the causes.
The root causes are :
1. Catalyst Concentration
2. Oil/Methanol ratio
3. Temperature of reaction
Bar Chart of Reaction Temperature vs. Yield % of Biodiesel

From the data above it can be seen that the optimum temperature must be in the range
of 45 to 60 degrees celsius with max. yield occuring at 55C.
Bar Chart of Catalyst Concentration vs. Yield % of Biodiesel

From the data above it can be seen that the optimum catalyst concentration must be
around 1.5 % (w/w) for max. yield.
Bar Chart of Oil to Methanol ratio vs. Yield % of Biodiesel

From the chart above it can be seen that the optimum molar ratio must be around 1:9
i.e. 9 moles of methanol per mole of waste oil for obtaining max. yield.
 Hypothesis Testing: Two Sample T Test and Box Plot

T-Test Results:
• Null hypothesis: Difference ≤ -10 or Difference ≥ 10
• Alternative hypothesis: -10 < Difference < 10
• α level: 0.05

Null Hypothesis DF T-Value P-Value

Difference ≤ -10 112 9.1463 0.000
Difference ≥ 10 112 -114.54 0.000

The greater of the two P-Values is 0.000. Can claim

equivalence.

Before After

Conclusions: After analysis of the effect of Temperature, Catalyst concentration and

Oil/Methanol ratio on the final yield of Biodiesel, we tested our hypothesis with the
optimum conditions. Our test was successful as we can see above that our hypothesized
process has shown very significant Improvement.
Vital Few Causes

No. Of Causes Analysis tools

22 no. Fish Bone

Diagram We narrow down to 3
vital few causes:

20 no. Cause/Effect
Matrix 1.Temperature

Pareto
7 no. Analysis 2.Catalyst
concentration

3 no. Hypothesis
3.Oil/Methanol Ratio
testing
8 Wastes identified in our process

1. Intellect : Untrained personnel (lack of skills)

2. Errors : Wrong measurement of reactant quantity

3. Inventory : More than the required raw materials delivered by suppliers

4. Waiting : Obsolete tech extrapolates the process times

5. Motion : Different units situation at different locations within the plant

6. Transport : Transportation of feed from sources to the plant

7. Over processing : Longer purification times result in loss of product

8. Over production : None

Analyze Tollgate Review
DATA AND PROCESS ANALYSIS
 Identify gaps between current performance and the goal performance
 Value added tasks / non value added tasks
 Moments Of Truth in process identified

ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS

 Generate list of possible causes (sources of variation)
 Segment and stratify possible causes (sources of variation)
 Prioritize list of 'vital few' causes (key sources of variation)
 Verify and quantify the root causes of variation

QUANTIFYING THE GAP/OPPORTUNITY

 Determine the performance gap
 Display and communicate the gap/opportunity in financial terms
Signatures

Six Sigma Leader: Sponsor: Process Owner:

date date date

Black/Green Belt: Six Sigma Financial Analyst: Other:
date date date
Improve
Improvement Context Analysis
Benchmarking:
It is difficult to effectively state one biofuel
option is better than another, as each biofuel
plant has its own specific plant design and
unique set of regional conditions (e.g., raw
material, auxiliaries and infrastructures), by-
products; therefore, an appropriate
comparison needs to somehow account for
all these variances. A direct comparison of
biofuels based on current literature values
can therefore only be seen as a starting point
to consider these new incentives on the
investigated indicators.
Biodiesel production increase by increasing the
yield from current value to >90%. This is to be
achieved by controlling the optimum
temperature, catalyst concentration and
oil/methanol ratio as analysed in the Analyse
phase.
Other Considerations:
The potential impact of:
-New Technologies: With the advance of
research in the field of biofuel production,
the new tech is becoming increasingly
efficient with less effort.
-Regulation changes: Use of non sustainable
resources are being discouraged in favour
of sustainable resources. Increase in
biofuel production will help in regulating
that.
-Politics / Economy: The government is
focusing on self sustainability for the
country. Increase in biofuel production will
reduce fuel import and enhance the
government’s motive.

Conclusions: no clear conclusion can be made to indicate a ‘champion’ biofuel option, It is

very difficult to benchmark a biofuel within a market sector that is constantly undergoing
changes. One major contributor to fluctuating market conditions is the price developments of
mineral oil and this is a key consideration in the bench mark of a biofuel. However, there is ever
increasing attention being given to biorefinery concepts, which are promoted to maximise
biomass-to-products ratio, as biorefineries are multiproduct facilities (e.g. biofuels, bulk
chemicals, feed and food, energy).
Solution Matrix

Root Cause Solution

Temperature The temperature of the reaction should be
maintained between 45C - 60C

Catalyst concentration The concentration of the catalyst should

be 1.5%(w/w)

Oil/Methanol ratio The molar ratio of waste oil to methanol

should be maintained around 0.111 or 1:9
Implementation Plan

Person
Root Cause Solution Target Date
Responsible

Temperature 45-60C Mr. X 31st Jan '21

Catalyst 1.5%(w/w) Mr. Y 31st Jan '21

Concentration

Oil/Methanol 1:9 Mr. Z 31st Jan '21

ratio
Cost/Benefit Analysis

Description Assumptions used Amt(in Rs.)

Catalyst For 1g oil 1.5g catalyst 350000

required
Costs
For 1mol oil 9 moles of 30000
Methanol methanol required

The yield is assumed to

Increase in Yield 500000
increase by approx.10%
Improvements
Ecosystem improvement Increase in biodiesel production will
save petroleum and decrease food waste. N/A

120000+soft
Net (Cost) Benefit benefits
Improve Tollgate Review
GENERATING (AND TESTING) POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
 Possible solutions generated and tested

SELECTING THE BEST SOLUTION(S)

 Optimal solution selected based on testing and analysis
 New and improved process ('should be') maps developed. Cost/benefit analysis of optimal solution(s)
 Small-scale pilot for proposed improvement(s)
 Pilot data collected and analyzed
 Improved process ('should be') maps modified based on pilot data and analysis
 Project impact on utilizing the best solution(s)

DESIGNING IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

 Solution implementation plan established, including schedule/work breakdown structure, resources, risk management
plan, cost/budget, and control plan
 Contingency plan established.

Six Sigma Leader: Sponsor: Process Owner:

date date date

Signatures

Black/Green Belt: Six Sigma Financial Analyst: Other:

date date date

Control
Monitoring

The box plot of before and after

processes is shown below.
C1 = Before process
C2 = After process

From the process capability chart

of after process it can be seen
that the sigma level has improved
significantly by 7.9 to 2.82. The
mean yield has increased to about
91.3%. Thus our target has been
successfully achieved.
Control Summary

Item Before After

Six Sigma Net Income :

Sigma level -5.08 2.82
Rs. 18,00,00,000 per
annum
DPMO 999999 2418

The process improvement was Lessons Learned:

successfully translated to the process • Customer satisfaction
owner eho will be responsible for • Teamwork and collaboration
maintaining the improvements in • Raising the bar
the future.
Control Tollgate Review
MONITORING PLAN
 Control plan in place for sustaining improvements (short and long-term)

PROCESS STANDARDIZATION
 New process steps, standards, and documentation are ingrained into normal operations

DOCUMENTED PROCEDURES
 Operating procedures are consistent
 Knowledge gained on process is shared and institutionalized

RESPONSE PLAN
 Response plans established, understood, and deployed

TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP (PROJECT CLOSURE)

 Transfer ownership and Knowledge to process owner and process team.
 Coaching for process reviews planned over XX months

Six Sigma Leader: Sponsor: Process Owner:

Signatures

date date date

Black/Green Belt: Six Sigma Financial Analyst: Other:
date date date
Thank You