The improvement of the current Primacord® plant at Sasol Dyno Nobel Pty (Ltd)

Abstract

Sasol and Dyno Nobel formed a joint venture (50% Sasol; 50% Dyno Nobel) which is now a leading supplier of industrial explosives and blasting services to various industries in South Africa and some of the neighboring countries. Sasol Dyno Nobel Pty (Ltd) imports technology from Dyno Nobel in the USA. The products are assembled and manufactured at the Ekandustria facility in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The joint venture manufactures and markets non-electric explosive accessories, including Primacord® detonating cords. The Primacord® plant is currently operating at sub-par levels and this problem needs to be addressed. Recommendations and changes will be made to the current process and the efficiencies will be improved by de-bottlenecking the current process and applying lean manufacturing principles where applicable. A literature review was done on various methods, tools and theories to generate ideas on improving the manufacturing process. A conceptual design was created to get a depiction of what needs to be used in solving the problem and making the project feasible. Bottlenecks were identified and recommendations were made to improve throughput and decrease inventory build up.