Messebo Cement Factory PLC

Procurement & Supply Department

Root Cause Analysis for:
 Solid Waste Generation
 Raw Materials Spillage
 Deteriorated and Obsolete Goods
 Chemical reaction, explosion
 Expired Goods 

Objectives
Evaluate solid waste, spillage and deterioration of goods and collect data to identify
primary sources and/or root causes of any potential environmental impacts from the
generation of waste at the warehouses and plant sites and make recommendations
appropriate waste handling and disposal measures/routings in accordance with the
current legislative and administrative requirements.
1. Root Cause for Solid Waste Generation:
Solid wastes are generated due to human as well as industrial activities. These wastes
should be collected transported to the site and treated properly. This is very essential to
keep the environment clean.
 Solid Waste Causes and Control Measures
Human activities generate different kinds of wastes. These wastes are generally in solid
form, and may cause pollution of land, water, and air unless treated and disposed off.
The process of collection, transportation, treatment, and disposal can be grouped under
solid waste management.
Causes
The main sources for solid wastes are industrialwastes.
The composition of solid waste is as follows:
 Paper, wood, cardboard
 Used Belt
 Used Batteries
 Oil, grease and lubricant container barrels
 Filters, tonners, tyres, inner tubes and flaps
 different metalscraps, corrugated iron, wires, cables cable tray
  Rubber, plastics, discarded textiles, rags
 Grinding balls, hammers and liners
Problem in Disposal
The items are not grouped by category, scraps are mixed
Items that should be disposed and that can be reused are not sorted
The items are put in different areas, not centralized
Too much delay in deciding to dispose the scraps.
Effects of Solid Waste on the Environment
a) Health Hazard
If solid wastes are not collected and allowed to accumulate, they may create unsanitary
conditions. This may lead to epidemic outbreaks. Many diseases like cholera, diarrhea,
dysentery, plague, jaundice, or gastro-intestinal diseases may spread and cause loss of
human lives.
In addition, improper handling of the solid wastes is a health hazard for the workers
who come in direct contact with the waste.
b) Environmental Impact
If the solid wastes are not treated properly, decomposition and putrefaction may take
place, causing land and water pollution when the waste products percolate down into
the underground water resources. The organic solid waste during decomposition may
generate obnoxious odors. Stray dogs and birds may sometimes invade garbage heaps
and may spread it over the neighborhood causing unhygienic and unhealthy
surroundings.
Control Measures
The main purpose of solid waste management is to minimize the adverse effects on the
environment. The steps involved are:
- Collection of solid wastes
- Disposal of solid wastes
- Utilization of solid wastes

Collection of solid wastes:

Collection of waste includes gathering the waste, transporting it to a centralized
location, and then moving it to the site of disposal.
The collected waste is then separated into hazardous and non-hazardous materials.
There are a number of waste separation technologies available such as air stripping,
stream stripping, carbon absorption, and precipitation.
Disposal of solid wastes
Before the final disposal of the solid wastes, it is processed to recover the usable
resources and to improve the efficiency of the solid waste disposal system. The main
processing technologies are compaction, incineration, and manual separation. The
appropriate solid waste disposal method has to be selected, keeping in view the
following objectives:
- should be economically viable
- should not create a health hazard
- should not cause adverse environmental effects
- should not result in unpleasant sight, odor, and noise
Utilization of wastes
The solid wastes can be properly utilized to reap the benefits such as:
- conservation of natural resources
- economic development
- generate many useful products
- employment opportunities
- control of air pollution

Summary
As a part of human life, solid wastes are generated. The disposal of solid waste should
be part of an integrated solid waste management system. The method of collection,
transportation, processing, resource recovery, and final disposal should be
synchronized for effective implementation. This will help in having a clean and healthy
environment devoid of diseases.

2. Root Cause for Raw Materials/chemicals Spillage

 In our pp bag plant we have different raw materials which are used as an input for
pp bag production. Most of these materials are by products and derivatives of
petroleum products and thus they contain chemicals that are hazard to the
environment when they are spilt. These materials include:
PP Raffia, PP Coating, LDPE, Coloring material, Master Batch (Calcium Carbonate),
inks, thinner, etc
Raw Materials/chemical spillage is caused while un loading raw materials during
receiving and when transferring from warehouse to production area.
spillage is caused.
o when raw material bags are burst due to poor packaging,
o by sharp things,
o accumulation of materials and putting bags in very high columns that may
cause slips, trips and falls.
o overfilling or poor handling of storage containers, for example drums,
intermediate bulk containers and tanks;
o damaged or leaking storage containers;
o equipment and containment failure;
o collision or accident during transport or delivery;
o weather related problems, extremes of temperature;
o fires or explosions;
o deliberate acts.

Impacts of Raw Materials Spillage

Spillage of raw materials can cause environmental harm if they’re spilt and enter the
environment. It’sbetter to stop a spill happening than to have to clean up afterwards.
There should be proceduresand safety measures to protect our business and reduce the
risk of a spill.
Polluting materials include things we can clearly identify as harmful, such as chemicals,
pesticides,oils, sewage and animal slurries. But many things we don’t see as harmful
can still have a devastatingeffect on the environment, for example beverages, food
products, detergents, dairy products, paint andink. Impacts can include:
• the closure of public water supplies and other abstractions, both surface water and
groundwater;
• damage to wetland habitats, fisheries and river ecosystem;
• disruption of recreational and other river uses;
• groundwater contamination:
• land contamination;
• risk to and impacts on human health from air pollution.
These impacts can be immediate and long lasting, but sometimes the effect can take
longer to be recognized, especially if groundwater has been polluted.
The polluter has to be responsible for the clean-up costs, even where the pollutionwas
caused by vandalism. These can be expensive, particularly if groundwater has
beencontaminated. There may also be additional costs associated with our and others’
incident response.
An anti pollution works notice or a civil sanction may be applied to the business to
enforce clean-upand make reoccurrence prevention a legal requirement. If there is
environmental permit the enforcement may vary to prevent or minimize the effects of a
similar incident reoccurring. Fines or costsmay also be applied through the criminal
and/or civil courts. Besides, the company’s business reputation cansuffer and the
insurance costs may rise.
The impact of a spill is affected by the:
• polluting or toxic nature of the material that’s spilt;
• quantity and concentration of the material released;
• any mixing of materials released;
• environmental sensitivity of the local area around the spill;
• the time of year and weather conditions;
• availability of pollution control equipment and spill containment facilities;
• the speed and effectiveness of your incident response.
Even small spills can have a significant impact; inappropriate or delayed action can:
• make the polluting impact worse;
• threaten public health;
• increase your clean-up costs;
• increase the risk of legal action against you.
Contingency planning is the key to stopping a spill becoming a serious pollution incident .
3. Root Causes for Deteriorated and Obsolete Goods
3.1 Causes for Obsolete Inventory
It is a common misconception that inventory cannot go to waste, and that mature stock can
always be sold at some point in the future. Obsolete inventory, or dead inventory, is stock that
can no longer be sold because the product has reached the end of its life cycle. Dead inventory
will not receive sales for a long period of time and is not expected to sell in the future. Obsolete
inventory is one of the most costly inventory expenses, and can result in extreme losses for a
business.
The first step to avoiding storing obsolete inventory is to identify the main causes of the
problem:
i. Inaccurate Forecasting
Inaccurate forecasting while initiating purchase request can cause our company to hold excess
stock that might later turn into dead inventory. At the end of a product’s life cycle, the parts or
goods that are hold in excess will not be able to sell. For example, if our company had a surplus
of rotary phones as touch-tone phones became popular, the rotary phones would become obsolete
stock. Inaccurate forecasting can cost your business the warehouse and inventory expenses of
keeping dead stock in storage, as well as the cost of the products and disposing them if they do
not sell. Using effective forecasting techniques will help a business accurately meet its consumer
demand and avoid risks associated with having surplus stock.
ii Poor Product Quality or Design
Poor production quality or design occurs when a product does not meet the expectations of
internal and external customers. When this occurs, product demand will quickly decline, leaving
the company with an enormous amount stock that cannot sell. The cost of a poorly designed or
poor quality product is high, since it will shorten the product’s life cycle and damage the
reputation of the company's brand. Establishing excellent quality assurance practices and
thorough market research will help a company avoid carrying obsolete stock produced by poorly
designed or quality products.
iii. Inadequate Inventory Management System
Manually tracking and planning our company’s future orders is error-prone and time-consuming.
Using an inventory management system to track its stock levels will allow our company to
safeguard against inventory surpluses that could turn into obsolete stock. Finding the right
inventory management system can help our business reduce stock surpluses and help us avoid
carrying obsolete stock.

iv. Long Lead Times

Long lead times are produced by shortage of foreign currency and inefficiencies in a supply
chain, and can cause our company to accumulate excess inventory. Reducing lead times will help
streamline our supply chain and decrease the amount of stock that we need to keep in storage.
Proactively shortening our lead times will prevent our business from carrying large amounts of
obsolete stock by improving the accuracy of purchase orders to consumer demand. Purchase
order accuracy can be increased because our company will be able to forecast demand closer to
delivery though a just-in-time delivery strategy is very difficult and even unthinkable with the
current situation of our country.

v. Lack of Management of Obsolete Inventory

Expecting dead stock to sell as we accumulate storage expenses is not an effective way to
manage our inventory. Our business needs to put an inventory reduction plan in place that will
mitigate the risk of accumulating obsolete stock. Currently we are seriously controlling spare
parts requirement and we are evaluating the consumption trend before approval of the purchase
request. Our company has identified obsolete factory and auto spare parts and we are in process
to dispose the spare parts by selling them to relevant sister and other companies.
vi. Change in technology
When an equipment is upgraded, modified or improved to meet new technological requirements,
the spare part or component part of the equipment will be outdated thus should be changed to fit
with the new changed equipment.