¦OPERATIONS
Reducing
Front End Expenses
Pellet manufacturers can save money in the short- and long-term via design, strategy and technology. BY KEITH LORIA
PHOTO: BRUKS SIWERTELL
10 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
M
inimizing costs has always been a top priority for pellet producers, but today’s economic uncertainty underscores the urgency for companies to thoroughly evaluate methods of reducing waste—that is, regarding wasted efforts, wasted energy and wasted product. In fact, 60 percent of production activities in a typical manufacturing operation are waste, according to research by the Lean Enterprise Research Centre. The eight forms of waste are defined as waiting, unnecessary transportation, unnecessary motion, inventory, extra processing, defect, overproduction and unused talent. “Elimination of these eight forms increase the value generated for the company and the consumer, but more importantly, provide sustainability of the natural resource by avoidance of the depletion of the resource,” says Justin Price, P.E., principal of Eugene, Oregon-based Evergreen Engineering. “For me, when a producer wants to minimize cost, we typically look to the lean manufacturing principals and look to eliminate the ‘eight wastes.’”
