Detergent production is a rather common (Zoller, 2008) and a lot of companies offer machinery and are able to help with the technical design. However, the launch of a laundry detergent production line remains a big step, so to complete such project in time it should be well organized. There are to principle organization path: full-in-house and in-house-outsourcing. Here the project designed according to the second path was presented. The choice has resulted from a carful risk evaluation. Here if some tasks like (final technical design, mounting) would be done on outsourcing they would go smoothly. There companies offering such service together with the machinery production. (Asia chemicals, n.d.; Complete plant, n.d.; Laundry detergent, n.d.) This would also allow to complete the project within a year including personal training and three months for test production and stability tests.
However, it is impossible to eliminate slacks and there will be three major ones: the design, the production of machineries and the mounting. The schedule is envisage the additional steps including staff recruiting and organization of trainings during these forced slacks. This by-passing actions are the float.
The greatest floats are the initial development of a marketing strategy, recruiting, as this technology is a well-known one and though specialists in this field are unique and hard to find, ordinary chemical engineer can substitute them. In this case, the new person will need some time to get acquainted with the details and key technological aspects. However, thee study time would be short.
Thus, if evaluating the slack/float ration for this project the number 2/1 would be close to a theoretical one. Still in reality it can be slightly higher as the estimated risks for the prolongation for slack periods is much higher (at least twice) than for float period. The floats are also supposed to support slacks or proceed simultaneously to decrease the overall project time and to deliver every step within the timeframe, which include 20% spare.
For this project it is recommended to uses only the new machinery if the marketing concept will be set on powder products as the used ones are subjected to high risk of breaking and other negative technical issues which could not be fully evaluated during the standard examination. As laundry detergent production resembles production of cosmetics, it is possible to recruit specialists hiving cosmetic background to minimize the risks and decrease the study period.
The second recommendation is to perform a pilot production test using outsourcing installations to make sure that it fits the raw materials. It is possible to organize a R&D laboratory, but it is rather expansive so it would worth it if only this laboratory is supposed to support the marketing and production in future, but bot to be transformed into a quality control department.
Summarizing all, it could be concluded that the three most crucial activities for this project completion are marketing strategy, technical design and machinery supply. All three are linked together and could not be revised on the following steps or when in progress.
Thus, the proposed laundry detergent production line project can be seen as a challenging one with a high chance for success.
References
Asia Chemicals : Liquid Detergent Plant (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.yatai.cn/liquid_detergent_production_plant.htm
Complete Plant for Liquid Detergent (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.yonton.com/en/productread.asp?id=141
Laundry Detergent (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Laundry-Detergent.html
Zoller, U., & a Sosis, P. (Eds.). 2008. Handbook of Detergents Part F: Production. Boca Raton:CRS Press
