Innovation improves production
Active participants in innovative activities were honored at Metafrax Chemicals. The event was timed to coincide with the annual Day of the Inventor and Innovator, which this year fell on June 28.
Presenting letters of thanks and gifts to colleagues, Albert Khudaibirdin, the company's Managing Director for Production, noted the importance of innovative work.
- People gathered here who strive to improve the company, its economy, and develop a culture of production. You have gathered here by right, as you have made a great contribution to innovative solutions and demonstrated your active position. Innovation is one of the important areas that makes our company stronger, more efficient and more competitive in difficult economic conditions. I hope that in the future you will remain at the forefront of this work and inspire your colleagues with your ideas, said the head.
This year, the innovators who were awarded with commendations and gifts included Vyacheslav Stryapunin, Chief engineer of the AUM complex, Kristina Stryapunina, chemical engineer of the analytical laboratory of the AUM complex, Alexander Pigilev, master of the equipment repair department in technological workshops (ORTO-2), Alexander Pigilev, Deputy Head of the ammonia workshop, Egor Limonov, Yulia Babina, a leading engineer and technologist at the railway transport preparation and repair shop, and Lyubov Pankova, Head of the Central Research Laboratory.
Andrei Yeremeyev, Technical Director of the company, and Oksana Panchenkova, Head of the Operational Efficiency Department, also congratulated the innovators, noting their significant contribution to the development of the company.
Inventive and innovative activities at Metafrax have a rich and multifaceted history. Since the establishment of the company, factory specialists have been actively implementing innovative solutions, improving production processes and creating new technologies. During this period, about 12,000 proposals were submitted by employees.
Today, the company's production culture continues to evolve thanks to the introduction of lean production system tools. According to the results of last year, 16 rationalization proposals were submitted. The implementation of innovative ideas gives visible results. Over the past 5 years, the total economic effect of innovation activities has amounted to more than 90 million rubles.
One example of an innovative engineering idea that has already been implemented in the company and whose viability has been proven in practice is cost reduction when using KS-1 solution. The ammonia workshop uses Russia's only industrial plant for the release of carbon dioxide from the flue gases of methanol reforming furnaces. KS-1 solution is used as an absorbent for CO2 absorption. The authors of the rational proposal developed solutions that significantly reduced the consumption of the solution and achieved an economic effect of more than 40 million rubles per year.
One of the rational proposals implemented in the production of polyorganics and polyatomic alcohols has made it possible to increase the efficiency of the equipment. When working out the reasons for the frequent failure of the mixing device at the crystallization unit of commercial pentaerythritol, it was proposed to replace the mixer gearbox with a similar one in size, but with a different gear ratio (slower, but with more torque). The result is an increase in the reliability of the equipment, a reduction in power consumption by 45,792 kWh per year due to the lower power of the electric motor.
- To develop innovation activities at the enterprise, we create an active and comfortable environment that engages and motivates employees to search for new opportunities and develop technical creativity. Last year, we increased royalties for implemented innovation proposals, and introduced additional payments for the implementation of simple improvement proposals," commented Oksana Panchenkova, Head of the Operational Efficiency Department. - Since 2022, practice-oriented training of the personnel reserve of line managers and specialists has been conducted on an ongoing basis. During this period, 29 innovation projects have been worked out, 345 employees of the enterprise have been trained. Additionally, within the framework of the Federal Training Program for project cross-functional Innovation Teams, 45 of their employees have completed online training under the Rationalizer program.