Constraint Elimination through Water Reuse

Abstract

Facility managers are tasked with maintaining the very systems that create much of plant overhead. Careful management of maintenance and operations can keep plant overhead costs low and ensure optimum performance of systems and equipment. A thorough understanding of plant systems and equipment can also assist in producing creative solutions to plant problems in the most affordable manner. Zimmer Biomet, Inc. is faced with adding additional cleaning equipment that will further overwhelm a wastewater processing operation that is already nearing 85% capacity. The obvious resolution of this problem is to increase the capacity of wastewater processing by adding a third processing station. Due to the expense of adding another processing station, the facilities department was contacted and asked to investigate alternative solutions. Fundamentally, the facilities department was asked to resolve a process constraint. They leveraged their understanding of plant systems, a review of industry best practices, and the appropriate continuous improvement tools in order identify a more cost effective solution to eliminating the constraint. This project documents the process followed by the facilities department that resulted in identifying a water reuse opportunity that not only eliminated the constraint, but also resulted in a financial savings, a reduction in water usage, a reduction in energy cost, reduced stress on the environment, and a demonstration of the plants commitment to social responsibility through carefully managing natural resources.