I stumbled upon a blog called Lamentations of Chemistry yesterday and read a post entitled
Chemical Plant Production Managers. The author of the post, whom is a chemist, elaborated his admiration to people who runs a production plant. I really liked the post. I can relate myself to what he has mentioned. I believe other production engineers or process engineers will feel and experience the same thing as what he mentioned in the post. At least somebody recognize our capability and skill.
Below are part of the post that I want to highlight:
A chemical plant is a big machine through which flows a large stream of money. Money flows in one side of this machine and out the other side. Jets of cash flow outward to payroll and raw material vendors. The production manager never forgets that the inflowing stream must always be bigger than the outflowing stream. Customers insist on just-in-time delivery of products, but they also want 60 days net with a lot of other strings. The relationship between the controller and the plant manager may be chronically strained.
People who run production plants are really engineers, irrespective of whether or not they hold a diploma in engineering. Scientists find the thread between cause and effect. Engineers take that thread and figure out how to use it for fun and profit. Sure, some scientists have engineering sense and some engineers have scientific sense. But a plant manager is all about running the plant at full speed. When they make tweaks, it is usually on the engineering side. Usually they are loath to alter chemistry.
Continue reading the full version at
Chemical Plant Production Managers.
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