The application of overall equipment effectiveness to support the development of a steamless nut-separated palm oil mill

Abstract

A steamless nut-separated palm oil mill has been developed based on small-scale community's requirements with the purpose to overcome constraints faced by a conventional palm oil mill. The current paper discusses challenges in the development and technology transfer of the steamless nut-separated palm oil mill, including communication about technology performance, uncategorised problems, and limited flow of financial information. To overcome these challenges, the proposed approach is to use OEE-based plant performance indices and its estimated corresponding financial performance indices to communicate about the technology performance. In this work, the calculation of OEE was derived based on data obtained from palm oil mills. In addition, the performance factor was sub-categorised into the reception and extraction factors to relate the plant performance to the mill capacity and oil extraction rate, which are common variables used in palm oil mills. Moreover, the quality factor was derived based on free fatty acid of crude palm oil. A simulated plant operating data was used for the purpose of demonstrating the proposed approach. The figures of world-class OEE and its components were also used to identify the area for initiating process improvement activities and estimate the potential performance of the technology.