Resources

During the running of a process there are several types of resources that are engaged. Such resources are either consumed and therefore add a cost burden to the operating expenses of the process (e.g. raw materials, power, heat transfer agents, resins) or are simply employed (e.g. equipment units, labor units) but due to limits of their availability they may present bottlenecks to certain process configurations. We are going to describe in detail all the resource types that can currently be represented by SuperPro Designer and show how these resources are associated with functional elements of a process as well as how their consumption is tracked, viewed and reported. The application recognizes the following as resources:

2.   Equipment, see Main Equipment and Auxiliary Equipment.

4.   Materials, see Materials.

6.   Heat Transfer Agents, see Heat Transfer Agents.

Labor, see Labor.

Power, see Power.

Consumables, see Consumables

Storage Units (Supply & Receiving), see Material Storage Units.

For each resource above (except consumables), the application will present charts displaying exactly how they are engaged (or consumed) during the span of a single or multiple batches. Since batches may be set to have a partial overlap during execution, it is important to study the effects of stacking up batches as most bottlenecks in resource utilization will appear during that period. For storable resources (such as materials), SuperPro Designer can also perform an inventory analysis if the user provides information related to the replenishing of the resource. Special charts (inventory charts) can be presented that combine the consumption side as well as the replenishing side of such resources thereby allowing the user to design properly holding containers and/or capacities for the replenishing (or restocking) process.