Hidden Liabilities or Opportunities for an Improved Bottom Line

I recently spent 10 days in India and a week in South Africa speaking at a range of International conferences and meetings. These are always enjoyable opportunities to talk to a range of companies from small-scale suppliers to multi-national corporates, and to get a sense of what are the pertinent issues of the moment. Inevitably, the issues that arise vary to a degree but I am often struck by the similarity of issues around the world.  
    An issue that is very apparent to me is that while bulk materials handling is absolutely critical to many industries, it is often almost invisible to senior management. Over the last few years I have worked with a mining engineer who has held very senior roles in some of the world’s largest mining companies. In my dealings with him, he has reflected that he had never really given materials handling much thought – knew it was there but took it for granted. He is astounded at the problems that arise in solids handling and is staggered at the lack of knowledge within many mining, resource, and process industries. He is clearly not alone in being responsible for large operations in which solids handling is a vital technology and yet was blissfully ignorant of just how much the efficacy or otherwise of his solids handling operations had the potential to impact his business.
    There is an important lesson in this for us in that we all have a tendency to focus on things we know about and tend to gloss over or take for granted those issues we know little about. And yet it is often those things we know little about that come back to bite us. A possible reason for this state of affairs is that, in general, bulk materials handling is an unavoidable cost to the business and does not add value to a process or product. However, what is often forgotten is that poor materials handling can most certainly have an adverse effect on product quality, and hence take value away. In addition, poorly performing materials handling systems add significantly to the costs of the business.
    In India, I had the pleasure of speaking to the technical conference of India’s largest power generation company. Opening remarks at the conference by one of the operations directors outlined the growth required in power generation in India to realize the Indian Government’s aspiration of ‘power for all’ with a population in excess of 1.3 billion. There is little doubt that bulk materials handling efficiency is already a limiting factor for this company and this just highlights how important materials handling is now and how this will intensify in the future.
    So having identified the problem – the easy bit – what is the solution? There are several elements that would help significantly. Education and research in this field are vital. Unfortunately, the number of research groups in this field is shrinking worldwide from the position in the 70s and 80s. Researchers are drawn to ‘sexy’ research areas such as nanotechnology and the health-related areas. Similarly, the number of universities and colleges teaching bulk materials handling as part of their diploma and degree courses in the engineering fields is also very small as a percentage of total courses offered. Part of the solution here is for industry, large and small, to communicate their needs to industry associations, professional bodies, government, and the education providers.
    However, there is also a job to do to ensure senior executives in major companies that rely on materials handling are made aware of the importance and significance of materials handling within their business and on their bottom line. In other words, to raise awareness and prevent bulk materials handling being taken for granted. Efficient and well-designed materials handling systems are often as important as the manufacturing process itself and the visibility of materials handling within the overall operation must be enhanced. Those of us working in the field need to take every opportunity to ensure that the visibility of bulk solids handling operations is elevated and ensure that the importance of such operations is made clear to those whose bottom line will ultimately be affected.
    Professor Mark Jones holds the Chair in Bulk Solids Handling at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He is also the Director of the Centre for Bulk Solids and Particulate Technologies and Director of TUNRA Bulk Solids Handling Research Associates.

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