Identification and Speed Part 2: Process Details

Business requirement is Speed

The chemical industry has continuously-running fabrication and any suspension of production increases the cost of products. That is why raw materials must be purchased and integrated products must be shipped exactly on time. So the requirement from our Customers is to maximize the speed in which we ship our product to them, as well as to minimize the time it takes to register their tank-cars by issuing shipping documentation.

We understand that the speed of the product shipping process is of primary importance to our Customers. We are doing our utmost to send back the loaded customer tank-cars on the same day that they arrive at the plant for loading. To achieve this, we optimize our business-processes and support them with the relevant SAP R/3 programs. But there is one thing which we can not optimize. It is the identification process. The questions around the optimization of the identification process is complicated by the fact that we produce and sell chemical products which are potentially dangerous for environment.

Safety Requirement is Identification

Modern conditions push strict requirements to safety administration. At first, we aspire to defend ourselves and the environment from deleterious influence on our chemical production. At the same time, we aspire to defend ourselves and our chemical production against the threat of terrorism and theft. It forces us to organize a strong system of identification of everything entering into the plant territory and going out of it. Normally, in large chemical enterprises the Customer tank-cars, coming for product, must drive through four check points (see the table):

Now let’s draw attention on the operation “Check of Documents” which is made at every check point.
– under “documents” we mean:

• Technical passport of tank-car
• Driver license
• Proxy of goods for person empowered to take a product
• Passport of person empowered to take a product,
• Certificate of tank cleanness
• License for dangerous product transportation

– under “Check” we mean:

• Check of all documents for authenticity – to exclude counterfeit documents
• Check of all documents for actuality – to exclude invalid documents
• Identification of driver according to driver’s license
• Identification of empowered person by passport check to assure authorization to lift product
• Check of data conformity in the proxy of goods and in the passport of empowered person – to exclude issue of product to someone not permitted by proxy of goods

The implementation of the one operation “Check of documents” takes 5-7 minutes for one tank-car. As a result, each tank-car wastes 20-28 minutes for checking documents during the business-process of registration and shipment.

Business-Process Requirement is Optimization

If the same operation is being implemented several times during the one business-process, this business-process is not optimal. From here there is a question: “Who has the best practice to optimize an identification business-process?”