Ultramarine Chemicals

&Pigments Lmtd.

Detailed analysis on the

DETERGENT
MANUFACTURING PLANT.

VIT B school
 INTRODUCTION

Ultramarine Chemicals & Pigments Lmtd.

was established in 1963 in Ambattur at
Chennai. The firm later expanded and opened
a new plant in 1975 at Ranipet
Products
The plant at Ranipet produces three types of
products
– Pigments
– Surfactants
– Detergents
 
THE firm is the third largest
manufacturer of pigments in the world.
The pigments manufactured are ultra
marine blue, violet, yellow.

 It also severs as the largest producers

of surfactants in India such as LABSA ,
aryl sulphonates etc. which are used in
all kinds of toiletries like
soaps,detergents,phenyls etc
The detergent plant of the firm
produces washing powder under
various brands as
• Wheel
• Wheel active
• Sunlite
• Crane
• Oob
• Diva
 And thus acts as a major supplier to
HUL(HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LMTD.)

 WHEEL, WHEEL active are marketed by

HUL in all over the country and Sunlite in
domestic markets of Kerela.

 While Oob , Crane , Diva are firms own

manufactured detergents and are
exported to Africa and Srilanka
OBSERVED PLANT-
DETERGENT
MANUFACTURING
&PACKAGING
 VALUE CHAIN

 Value chain is basically defined as the tool

to identify ways to create more customer
value. And thus identifies nine
strategically relavant activities divided as
five primary and four as support activities.
 Corporate Value Chain

Prentice Hall, 2004 Chapter 4

Wheelen/Hunger
12
The value chain of ultramarine chemicals & pigments lmtd. is described as follows
 RAW
Here theMATERIALS:
basic raw materials used in processing
of detergents are
Surfactants, builders like sodium silicate,
chemicals ,antiredeposition agents, Fluorescent
whitening agents are also common. ,Oxygen
bleaches such as sodium perborate ,sodium
sulfate, Enzymes and perfumes are also found in
commercial detergents.
These are basically used from the other home
plant producing various sulphur based
surfactants, while rest all other raw materials are
purchase from local markets of Mumbai and Tamil
Nadu.
 MANUFACTURING UNIT:

Now the raw materials collected are

being processed in the plant at Ranipet
and Chennai. Here the value is added to
the raw materials as they are processed
and than final detergents is
manufactured .

PACKAGING:
This is also done in the manufacturing
plant itself and thus further value
 WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTORS OR
EXPORTERS :

• The finally processed detergent after

packaging is than shipped or
transported to the wholesale
agencies or franchisee or exported
outside the country depending on the
detergent variety. This further adds
value to the detergent or goods in
form of cost of transportation and
storage involved .
 RETAILERS:

Now the packed detergents are

further transported to retailers on
demand and leads to further value
addition.

CONSUMERS:
And from retailers the the final
product reaches to the consumers
with all the value added in the
product.
Location factor
 Location factor

The location factor is defined as the reasons

contributing to the question as to why the plant
has been set in a particular geographical area.
The basic reasons why Ultramarine Chemicals
& Pigments lmtd. is situated in Ranipet are as
follows-
• Shipping port is very near-so the detergent
products to be exported need to involve high
transportation costs.
• Tax benefits-Tamil Nadu govt. is providing
various tax benefits to the industries situated in
3. Centre of south India-watching
geographically Ranipet almost comes in
centre of south India ,thus equidistant in
approach to any part.
4. No river-Since no river flows in this part
of the country or they are almost dry ,so
the fear of moisture acting as a problem
in detergent storage and transportation is
less, (otherwise lump formation takes
place in the detergent).
General Layout
Manufacturing process
layout
 The Manufacturing Process

The process used is blender process-

In the blender process favored by smaller
companies, the ingredients are mixed in large
vats before being packaged. The machines
used are very large: a common blender holds
4,000 pounds (1,816 kilograms) of mixed
material, but the blenders can accommodate
loads ranging from 500 to 10,000 pounds (227
to 4,540 kilograms). By industry standards,
these are small batches for which the blender
process is ideal. While some settling may occur,
the resulting detergent is of high quality and
 The blender process

• First, ingredients are loaded into one of two

machines: a tumbling blender or a ribbon
blender. The tumbling blender, shaped like a
rectangular box, is turned and shaken from
outside by a machine, while the ribbon blender
is a cylinder fitted with blades to scrape and
mix the ingredients. After the ingredients inside
the blender have been mixed, a doorway at the
bottom of the bowl is opened. With the blender
still agitating the ingredients, the mix is allowed
to run out onto a conveyor belt or other
channeling device. The belt then moves the
Process mapping
 Process mapping

Raw materials used-sodium bi carbonate, soda

ash, sodium chloride salt, dolomite, tenopol,
perfumes, antiredeposition agents, Fluorescent
whitening agents ,Oxygen bleaches, Enzymes
and perfumes
Step 1. The soda ash and salts are mixed on the
first floor of the plant and then lifted through
bucket elevator to third floor.
Step 2. Now the mixture passes to another mixer
called as LABSA weighing hopper where tenopol
, perfume, surfactant(LABSA) are mixed.
Step 3. Mixture is then pumped to the
another cone shaped hopper where a
temperature of 350.c is maintained and
thus properly mixed.

Step 4. Then the mixture goes through a

cage mill the detergent is cooled at room
temperature and further mixed with
various solubilisers oxgen bleach and
enzymes as well as fluorescent dyes.
Step 5. Now through the bucket elevator the
mixture is again lifted to 2nd floor where it
passes through the shieve shaker and
where the detergent is agitated and
filtered to remove the unwanted and large
size particles
Step 6. The finally processed detergent is
than flowed into a large hopper ( cone
shaped) which is than packed by
automated machines having prescribed
polythene pouches measures and the
quantity of detergents to be fed.
Quality Control
 Quality Control

Manufacturers constantly monitor the quality

of their detergents, and they utilize the same
testing methods to assess the effectiveness of
new products. In one method, light is shined
onto a piece of fabric that has been soiled and
then washed in the test detergent. The amount
of light reflected, compared to the amount
reflected by a sample of the original fabric, is a
measure of cleanliness. A reflection rate of 98
percent is considered quite good and indicates
that the detergent has cleaned properly.
Process flowchart
PROCESS FLOWCHART
 Analysis &
suggestions
 ANALYSIS
From the study of the above industry
it can be inferred that the firm has a
sound value chain and is constantly
adding value to the product.

Secondly the location factor analysis

shows that the industry has utilized
every single advantage for its cost
effectiveness which act as a positive
point to industry profile
Thirdly the process mapping shows
that the industry follows continuous
production process featured by mass
market, very stable demand, highly
automated, very high volume

Fourthly the study of process layout

shows functional grouping of
machines, batch processing & needs
dynamic scheduling & needs large
storage spaces.
 suggestions
1. Since the industry is facing a lot of
problems due to continuous power cuts in
the state it hire the generators instead of
buying them as it will lead to cost
effectiveness
2. Instead of buying the raw materials from
local market the industry could go for
producing them themselves just like it uses
surfactants of its own plant.
3. Since the company is operating 2 plants at
the same time , it can instead operate only
Thank
you