OPTIMIZATION OF COCOA BEANS PROCESSING MACHINES USING DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM

Abstract

This research investigates the activities of agro-oil seeds process extraction, and the material flow lines division and their integration. The current engineering conditions of the case study was carried out by ascertaining the functionality of the machines before use and required strategic decisions, and their attributes were identified. Failure to do these may have negative effects on the research results. The investigation results show a good conformity with the machine manufacturer’s manual parameters of: Working Pressure 500 bars, Specific Pressure 825 kg/cm2, Steam Pressure 4 kg/cm2, Pneumatic Pressure 6 - 8 Bar, Steam Consumption 60 kg/h, and Air Consumption 56 dm3/h. Each strategic decision was modeled and integrated for proper decision making, and computer algorithm and its software were thereafter developed and tested to evaluate the performance of the software (DSS) developed using a cocoa processing industry. Results generated were statistically analyzed for decision making, and the results generated were optimized where need be for productivity enhancement. The case study used in this study (Duyvis Liquor Press) was found to have daily running time of 1440 mins/day; loading time of 1380 mins; operating time of 1374 min/day; stoppage losses of 57 mins/day; rate of quality products 99.5%; actual processing time of 6000 batches/day; availability of the machine 96 %; net operating rate 95.83% while overall machine effectiveness is 89.6%. This is within the recommended standard of 85 % and the liquor press effectiveness (Meff) performance from 2008 to 2017. From the performance chart, the liquor press has an average effectiveness of 86.1% with a variance of 0.0065. The effectiveness of the machine was very low in 2012 and 2015. In 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017 years of study, the machine effectiveness was encouraging because in these years the machine effectiveness was above the set benchmark of > 0.85 (> 85 %) in these periods. Material, time, energy, and monetary losses were highly reduced. The average machine cost effective index (CEI) for the entire years considered was 1.27, which is encouraging. Liquor press CEI performance from 2008 to 2017 chart shows that in 2012 the machine struggled to have its CEI > 1 but in 2009, 2010, 2013, and 2014 CEIs were < 1. This revealed that performance of the machine in these years were seriously affected by inflation i.e., no profit in operating this machine at these periods may warrant obtaining loan with the hope of recovery when favorable conditions come. This is part of risk in business. But in 2008, 2011, 2015, 2016, and 2017, the CEIs are greater than 1 (CEI >1) indicating that the performance strength of the press against inflation was great and encouraging, hence high level of productivity profit. The average CEI value for the entire periods was 1.047, denoting good method for keeping the machine operating. The 3D bar chart of MAOC, CEI, and Meff over the period of 10 years (2008-2017) were drawn. This shows the performance of liquor press as it affects the three strategic decisions where the MAOC is seen as the best followed by CEI and the MEFF. This is to say that the economic performance of the machine is most favorable followed by the engineering feature and the productivity index is the least. If we are to optimize the strategic decisions, it should be in the order of MEFF → CEI → MAOC. Comparing the cost of this MOPE-DSS-2020 with the nearly similar foreign software, there is evidence of cost benefit of 40.4%. This research provided a systematic procedure for evaluating machinery level of performance and control in industries under various scenarios, its applicability is in developed and developing countries.