Deputy Factory Director Wang's request was obviously a deliberate attempt to make things difficult. Factory Director Yuan couldn't stand it anymore. He proposed a compromise plan. In order to prevent so-called technical risks, he suggested that Fang Hanmin first use the catalytic hydrogenation process to treat someone in the second workshop. A set of equipment undergoes a complete technical transformation. If successful, it will be extended to all production lines in the entire workshop.
This was actually no different from the experiments that Fang Hanmin had conducted directly in industrial equipment. Although Fang Hanmin felt that it was unnecessary, he had no choice but to accept this plan in order to silence Deputy Factory Director Wang.
After the implementation plan was determined, the next step was the coordination between the second workshop and the relevant functional departments of the factory. Factory Director Yuan asked the leaders of the second workshop and the heads of functional departments to fully cooperate with Fang Hanmin's work, and there should be no shuffling around.
On the morning of the next day, Fang Hanmin took his four assistants Guo Peng, Xu Hui, Jiang Guoxin and Wan Cheng, as well as Jiao Tiehui and others, to find the two leaders of the second workshop to do docking work and refine the implementation plan.
The office of the second workshop was not spacious enough. Six or seven people rushed in at once, and the room suddenly seemed very crowded. The workshop director, Lao Yang, had to go outside to find a stool. Fang Hanmin, young and quick-legged, was very familiar with the situation here, "Director, I go!"
When Fang Hanmin passed by the workshop attendance clerk's office carrying two simple stools he found from the work section, Xiao Min called out to him, "Xiucai, oh no, Section Chief Fang, are you back again?"
"Due to work matters, we have a meeting with the workshop leader. Yes, I may have to go back to the second workshop to stay for a while. Xiao Min, are you okay?"
Xiao Min smiled and said, "I'm fine. I have a chair in my office where you don't have to sit in the meeting. It's the desk chair you used before. I'll send it to you."
Fang Hanmin and others finally had a place to sit down. In order to show respect, he asked Lao Yang to speak first. The workshop director Lao Yang waved his hand, "We all attended the meeting organized by the factory yesterday. There is nothing to talk about. Just like before, you If you need cooperation from the workshop, just tell us directly.”
Since Fang Hanmin has long since gotten rid of his status as a temporary worker, his current status and reputation are no longer the same as those back then. The workshop technician Lao Wu not only abandoned his contempt and prejudice against him, but also respected Fang Hanmin, "Chief Fang, we We must strictly implement the factory's decision and fully cooperate with your work. Just tell us how we need the workshop to cooperate."
Fang Hanmin talked about his detailed plan, "Actually, this way of working is not uncommon in the second workshop. The first two technical reforms were carried out in this way. What I mean is to determine a suitable set of equipment first, and then we will focus on this The two prerequisites for determining which set of equipment is suitable are that it is closest to the process requirements and that it will not affect the current normal production as much as possible."
After clarifying this meaning, Lao Yang directly expressed his position, "Hanmin, we don't understand your hydrogenation reduction process, and we don't know what equipment conditions meet the process requirements. But you know all the conditions of the second workshop well, which set of equipment meets the requirements?" Only you know the two prerequisites. It’s up to you to choose the equipment. We can’t make any better suggestions.”
This is not a deliberate shirk by the leader of the second workshop, because it is indeed the case. Fang Hanmin also knows that these are the true words of the two workshop leaders, but he must put them first in terms of work procedures. If he announces his decision from the beginning, it will be like When he went to the workshop to point fingers, it was tantamount to not paying attention to the two grassroots leaders. Fang Hanmin would not do that anyway.
According to Fang Hanmin's proposal, the second workshop decided to separate the sixth production unit, numbered 0602, as a trial production equipment for the hydrogenation reduction process.
After the two leaders of the second workshop took Fang Hanmin and his assistant to the site for an on-site inspection, they explained to the team leader of the grassroots section and required the grassroots staff to obey Fang Hanmin's command and actively cooperate with the work of the technical department.
According to the hydrogenation reduction process flow chart that had been drawn, starting from the next day, Fang Hanmin arranged for more than a dozen test workers such as Jiao Tiehui to adjust the equipment pipelines.
According to the instructions of Director Yuan, as long as the spare parts required during the adjustment of equipment pipelines are in stock in the warehouse of Hongxing Pharmaceutical Factory, no matter which workshop they belong to, they must first meet the needs of Fang Hanmin's working group. If the warehouses of the entire factory are If there is no inventory, the supply department must purchase it as quickly as possible without delaying the construction progress.
Factory leaders and relevant functional departments supported the in-depth technical transformation of the second workshop with an unprecedented attitude, and Fang Hanmin and his team were encouraged. Entering early summer, the daytime temperature has reached as high as 32-3 degrees Celsius. The equipment and pipeline installation and construction workers headed by Jiao Tiehui were wearing work clothes and hard hats, sweating profusely from the heat. Except for lunch time, they worked in the workshop all day long. God, no one complained.
After Fang Hanmin and several assistants completed the preparation of technical information on the hydrogenation reduction process, they did not sit in the office and conduct remote control. Instead, under Fang Hanmin's personal leadership, they put on work clothes, picked up tools, and repaired the equipment and installed it with the workers. Pipeline.
Guo Peng and others did not understand this at first. They thought that they were technicians, and that it was the work of workers to repair equipment and adjust pipelines, and it had nothing to do with technicians.
Seeing Fang Hanmin rolling up his sleeves and getting to work without saying a word, Guo Peng, Xu Hui, Jiang Guoxin, Wan Cheng and others looked at each other in confusion. Since the leader had taken action personally, they could continue to be bystanders, no need for others to say anything, and they felt sorry for themselves.
With the efforts of all members of the team, work efficiency continues to improve. The original plan to overhaul equipment and reinstall pipelines would take at least half a month to complete. As a result, they only spent ten days, not only in accordance with the requirements of the new process, but also completed the work. The adjustments to the equipment pipelines and even the pressure and leak tests of the system have been completed.
All the raw materials were ready in advance, and Fang Hanmin decided to go all out and start the hydrogenation reduction reaction on the newly installed equipment immediately.
Because hydrogen is a highly flammable and explosive gas, it is colorless and odorless and difficult to detect. Although safety education has been carried out for operators long ago, in order to be foolproof before the official commissioning of materials and commissioning, Fang Hanmin decided to take necessary measures to prevent leakage. measures and once again emphasize the importance of safe production to operators.
After everything was ready, Fang Hanmin greeted the leaders of the second workshop and the relevant functional departments of the factory, and then started the trial production of hydrogenation reduction in the new No. 0602 equipment.
With four assistants, Fang Hanmin went to the post to conduct demonstration operations in person. After the reduction reaction was officially started, he handed over the post to Jiao Tiehui, "Come and try it."
Seeing Jiao Tiehui skillfully adjusting various process parameters through different valves, Fang Hanmin asked: "Master Jiao, do you think this is any different from the pilot operation?"
Jiao Tiehui replied while operating: "I don't think there is any difference. The only difference is that the equipment here is larger in size, and the pilot equipment is smaller."
"How do you feel about the convenience of controlling reaction conditions and adjusting parameters?"
"I think the control and adjustment here are more convenient. On the pilot plant, it is not as convenient as here."
"Our current process is completely manual adjustment and control. When it is fully implemented in the second workshop in the future, if conditions permit, automatic control and automatic adjustment will be implemented." Fang Hanmin predicted.
"If automatic control and automatic adjustment are implemented and all are operated by machines, wouldn't we operators be useless?" Jiao Tiehui was thinking very long-term.
"Operators are still useful. Automatic control and automatic adjustment only reduce the labor intensity of workers, make the control and adjustment of process conditions more precise, and help improve product quality. By then, operators do not have to switch valves one by one, they only need to Just sit in the control room and observe the instruments." Fang Hanmin explained.
"That's great! Now I only operate one piece of equipment and I don't feel tired. If in the actual production process in the future, each worker operates several pieces of equipment, his hands and feet will really be busy. This job will indeed not be easy."
"However, automatic control and automatic adjustment do not mean that the equipment does not require human care at the site. Regular inspections are also a task of the operator."
"Inspection is much simpler than doing it manually. As long as you have a sense of responsibility, you won't take inspections as a big deal."...
This conversation made Fang Hanmin think of a question. The automatic control and automatic adjustment he just mentioned unintentionally were only used in aerospace and other military fields at that time. However, in the 21st century, DCS (distributed control system) It has been widely used in civilian fields such as oil refining, chemical industry, metallurgy, and pharmaceuticals, and has made great contributions to improving labor productivity, reducing production costs, and improving the production environment.
In the new process of the second workshop in the future, should distributed control be implemented for all operating units? Can this idea be supported by factory leaders? Can the domestic instruments and meters at that time meet the control accuracy requirements? This series of problems caused certain troubles to Fang Hanmin.
The benefits of distributed control systems (DCS) are obvious, but in the eyes of some conservatives, there are two problems. First, because DCS requires a large number of instruments, it will undoubtedly increase the capital investment of the project; In addition, the use of DCS control systems will definitely reduce the number of operators required. How to arrange the reduced workers is also a big problem.
Fang Hanmin decided not to consider this matter for the time being. There must be a road to the mountain. He felt that there would be a plan to get the best of both worlds.
During the trial production, Fang Hanmin required several technicians, including himself, to stay at the production site at all times in order to deal with and answer practical problems encountered by the operators at any time.
Ten hours after the hydrogenation reduction reaction took place, Fang Hanmin asked Jiao Tiehui to take a sample and send it to the laboratory for testing. Half an hour later, the laboratory technician sent the test report.
The test results showed that the selectivity of the palladium-carbon catalyst was very good. The reduction reaction was carried out for ten hours, and the selectivity of the catalyst was still 100%.
Guo Peng and other technical staff also gathered around. After reading the test report, someone said, "The conversion rate is not as good as the pilot test results."
Fang Hanmin was slightly surprised, "Oh, how come you can see that?"
"I remember that during the pilot test, after ten hours of hydrogenation reaction, the conversion rate reached 95%, which is only 90%." Guo Peng said this, which shows that he is very dedicated to his work.
Fang Hanmin said calmly: "This phenomenon can be reasonably explained. After all, the size of the equipment used in trial production is more than ten times larger than that of pilot equipment. The mixing uniformity and contact time between raw materials cannot be exactly the same. In trial production equipment, , the conversion of raw materials is slower, which is normal, but this does not mean that the palladium-carbon catalyst performs poorly here. After all, selectivity is the most important indicator, and the conversion rate can be improved by extending the reaction time."
