Is it 'Process Intensification' time yet?

Did there used to be an army of stuffed shirts with clip boards going around each factory watching people and recording their movements? That was supposed to be the process recording and by thoughtful placing of assemblege material the process of making the product was sped up or enhansed? I guess that is still going on.

So are you guys actually doing that at a power plant? Also it is amazing that you have an assembly plant local to you. Our last ones moved overseas years ago.

It's been a while since stuffed shirts and their clipboards have been involved.

Process intensification is all about reducing plant inventory; "What you don't have can't leak". It's about designing a smaller plant and achieving the same throughput. For instance, by doing distillation in a centrifuge, increasing the local g-force, separation can be achieved in a smaller number of throretical plates (albeit cylindrical ones) and in a plant that is a few metres tall, not a few tens of metres.

Cool:

I was just remembering the days when I could actually go to a factory and contribute my efforts. Did not mean any offense I have been that stuffed shirt my self a time or two. Just no factories any more and process improvement I have seen lately, means getting a clerk to do a spreadsheeet better.

I Dun know I just miss the old days.

Likewise.

Last Saturday, I visited with another Chem E friend. I am retired, while he is still working as a consulting engineer at some local chemical and fuels plants. He mentioned that most US corporations no longer have staffs of process engineers to identify and correct processing problems. He indicated that with the pull out of heavy industry from our shores (and relocation of facilities in China, India, etc) thereare few "process engineers" left, so consulting engineers are trying to fill the gap. Back in the day, I remember that 70% of all engineers were process engineers.

Interestingly, lawyers and accountants just cant seem to solve process problems. Too bad!! I likewise miss the sanity of the "good old days". You know, the modern world has the idea that the younger engineers are smarter than the experienced ones, they will have to find out the hard way that experience must be gained, you just cant buy it from the shelf. If engineering were such a trivial field there would be more of them. WHile I'll admit there are a lot of engineers, I've frequently asked trivial qustions from younger graduates and seldom received a correct reply.