Achieving Higher Productivity Through GP

4.

CASE STUDY : MUSHROOM CANNING

Mr. Augustine is the owner of Jaya Canning Factory. He produces canned mushrooms for export to Japan. Raw materials come from the countryside in 50-kg bags. The mushrooms are weighed and then soaked in water to remove big particles of soil and sand. After that the mushrooms will be washed in stainless steel drums 3 times. They are then steeped in 3% brine solution. The mushrooms will then be boiled for one hour at 100°C and then cooled down by spraying water over them and steeping them into water. After that the mushrooms will be manually checked to separate the spoiled ones. They are later washed one more time prior to canning. The cans will be weighed and filled with brine solution (2% brine, 0.1% acetic acid). They will be heated for air removal and then closed. The cans are now washed and heated for pasteurization. They are cooled down by water and packed for distribution. The factory has already built a wastewater treatment facility to treat their wastewater with the capacity of 160 cubic meters per day. During operation the neighbors often complain to the factory about the bad smell and bad water quality discharged from the factory. And sometimes it has got a warning from officers from the Department of Environment. Mr. Augustine, owner of the factory, wants to solve this problem and has contacted Dr. Tay from Singapore to make a new design of waste water treatment plant so that the factory will be able to treat their waste according to the government standard. Upon the arrival of Dr. Tay, they start to go through the factory together and here is their discussion: Dr. Tay: Mr. Augustine: Dr. Tay: After our survey I believe your wastewater treatment plant facility is too small to treat your waste right now. How do you know that our facility is too small? It was designed by a qualified