30 Oct 2023

DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING

PROCESS AND
MATERIAL FLOW
ABEN 125 – DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT OF AB PROCESSING
SYSTEMS

OBJECTIVES
•Know the activity symbols
•Identify types of process charts
•Construct chart design
•Analyze process through diagrams
•Identify mass and energy involved in the
system
 30 Oct 2023

Introduction
• A complete processing plant consists of a number of unit
operations or processes arranged in a certain sequence
which may be simple, as in feed grinding on the farm, or
complex as in producing cotton seed oil or soybean oil.
• In designing a new plant or rearranging an existing plant
for more efficient operation, a certain established
procedures should be followed to secure the most
satisfactory results.
• These procedures can be shown through the activity
symbols.

Activity Symbols
As standardized by the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers, the process is composed of six types of steps:

1. Operation
2. Transportation
3. Inspection
4. Storage
5. Delay
6. Combined Operation
 30 Oct 2023

Activity Symbols

1. Operation

• alteration of an object's physical and chemical

characteristics,
• assembling or disassembling objects
• arranging/sorting objects for another operation
• providing or receiving information
• planning or calculating
e.g. Drying, hulling, whitening, sorting, cleaning, grading,
mixing, blending

Activity Symbols

2. Transportation

• Any movement of a material from one place to another

unless such movement is an integral part of an
operation,

e.g. grain by elevators, milk by pump, refuse by truck,

fruit by belt, box by employee, grain by truck.
 30 Oct 2023

Activity Symbols

3. Inspection

• an object is examined for identification or verified

for quality or quantity in any of its characteristics.
e.g. moisture content determination of grain,
determining grade of fruit, checking performance of
vegetable washer, noting temperature of pasteurizer.

Activity Symbols

4. Storage

• A storage occurs when an object is kept and

protected against unauthorized removal.
• A desirable interruption of activity
e.g. such as ingredients being held for future use, fruit
being held for optimum market.
 30 Oct 2023

Activity Symbols

5. Delay

• When conditions do not permit or require immediate

performance of the next planned action.
• An undesirable interruption of activity.
e.g. prunes in tray waiting to be dried, material in truck
waiting to be unloaded, employee waiting for machine to
operate.

Activity Symbols

6. Combined Activity

When it is desired to show activities performed either

concurrently or by the same operator at the same work
station, the symbols for those are combined.
e.g. cheese in a processing room is both a storage and an
operation; mixing process may be both an operation and
a transportation.
 30 Oct 2023

Process Charts
•a graphic representation of events and
information occurring during a series or
operations.

Types:
1. Operation Process Chart
2. Flow Process Chart
3. Layout Sheet or Layout Diagram

Operation Process Charts

• also known as outline process chart
• provides a comprehensive overview of a
product's production system, recording main
activities in sequence regardless of location
or performance, regardless of job
completion.
• The method is present, proposed, or revised,
indicating existing conditions, proposed
changes, or revised procedure developed
after previous study.
 30 Oct 2023

Operation Process Charts

Advantages:
•Enhances plant layout
•Specifies basic manufacturing system,
•Determines assembly sequence and
schedule activities, and
•Introduces new technical personnel to the
manufacturing system.

Operation Process Charts

Other conventional details in OPCs

Material added to Material added to Material removed

the main line prior the main line during as a result of an
to operation an operation operation

Material divided
with no operation Optional process
being performed routes indicated
 30 Oct 2023

Operation Process Charts

Considerations:

1. What events can be combined?

2. Can inspections be eliminated?
3. Can delays be eliminated or converted into
storages?

Field-run seed from producer

Operation 1 Quality Inspection

Process Chart
(a)
1 Storage
(b)
Primary separation by
1
Subject Charted: Seed cleaning and Treating screen and aspiration
Chart Type: Material
2 Quality inspection
Method: Present 3 Quality inspection
(d)
Separation by
2
gravity table
5
4 Quality
inspection
Quality
2
1 inspection Storage
Delay
Treating powder
3 Grind by hammer mill
4 Treating operation
Summary
6 Sack
No. Operations 6 5 Sack
No. Inspections 5 3 Storage
No. Delays 1 1 (c)
No. Storages 4 Storage
(e) Weed seed and trash
Clean Seed
 30 Oct 2023

Flow Process Charts

• Chart of all the activities involed in a process
• Similar to an OPC, except that more detail is shown by
including transportations and delays as well as
operations, inspections, and storages.
• The flow process chart may represent the entire
process, but because of the volume of detail it is
generally used for significant parts of it only.
• Includes:
• Operation duration (time to complete)
• Distance traveled (for transport operations)

Flow Process Charts

Displays product flow sequence using
symbols for operation, transportation,
inspection, delay, and storage; recording times
and distances moved along the symbols side.
Types:
1) Man – what the worker does
2) Machine – how the equipment is used
3) Material – what happens to the material
 30 Oct 2023

Flow Process
Chart

Layout Diagram
•This is a graphical plot of operation or
event locations showing the direction of
flow of materials and labor.
•It is usually a plan layout to scale showing
space utilization and direction of
movement of materials.
 30 Oct 2023

Layout Diagram
Information Needed:

1. Relative to the Entire Process

2. Relative to each step listed on the
process charts

Relative to the Entire Process

1.Rate and characteristics of flow in

each line.
a. Rate of flow
b. Frequency
c. Duration
d. Duration of occurrence
 30 Oct 2023

Relative to the Entire Process

2.Characteristics of structure and area

a. Service facilities, roads, railroads,
capacity, connections, relative location
b. Available utilities
c. Orientation and prevailing wind
characteristics
d. Details of structure and area

Relative to Each Step

1. Capacity of unit
2. Labor requirement and characteristics
3. Space requirements for unit, service,
and labor
4. Utilities required
5. Materials required for flow in and out of
unit.
 30 Oct 2023

Layout Procedures
1. The material from one operation should be placed in
such a position that it can be most easily picked up for
the next operation.
2. The distance an operator must move to obtain or
deliver material away from a machine should be
reduced to a minimum.
3. Time spent by a machine performing an operation or
part of an operation which does not require the
immediate attention of the operator or attendant is
idle time as far as the attendant or operator is
concerned.

Plant Layout
Diagram
 30 Oct 2023

Layout Diagram Symbols

Layout Diagram Symbols

 30 Oct 2023

Layout Diagram Symbols

Layout Diagram Symbols

 30 Oct 2023

Layout Diagram Symbols

Layout Diagram (Process)

 30 Oct 2023

Material Balance
Material balance calculations are
employed in tracing the inflow and outflow
of material in a process and thus establish
quantities of components or the whole
process stream.

The principle is based on the Law of

Conservation of Mass.

Material Balance
 30 Oct 2023

Material Balance

Energy Balance
An energy balance around a system is based on the first law
of thermodynamics: the law of conservation of energy.

Mechanical (work), electrical, and thermal energy can all be

reduced to the same units.

Defining the surroundings of the system on which to make an

energy balance is done like material balance calculations.

The basic energy balance equation is:

Energy in = Energy out + Accumulation
 30 Oct 2023

Energy Balance

Energy Balance
 30 Oct 2023

Laboratory Exercise 3

Prepare the following for your processing plant:

1. Operational Flow Diagram

2. Flow Process Chart
3. Process Layout Diagrams and Plant Layout Diagram
4. Mass and Energy Balance