Cook Composites and Polymer
Cook Composites and
Polymers Co.
Developing a Sustainable Supply Chain
Ong Kar Hian | U098481J
AY 2012/2013 | Semester 1
Cook Composites and Polymers Co. (CCP) were founded in 1990 and is a leading manufacturer of gel coats, unsaturated polyester resins, coatings resins and emulsions. The company prides itself most in producing high-quality, custom-designed gel coats. To produce high quality gel coats, CCP utilizes styrene as a cleaning agent for their mixing vessels because styrene performs admirably in reducing contamination. Currently, the company’s rinse styrene is collected and shipped to cement manufacturers as a source of fuel to fire their energy-intensive cement kilns. Alternatively, the company can opt for a waste exchange programme. However, after recent exposure to a programme called the
“By-Product Synergy” (BPS), CCP discovered that rinse styrene could be utilized to create a good quality concrete coating which can be sold in the infrastructure resurfacing product market, earning
CCP a tidy profit. With rinse styrene disposal cost rising, coupled with the chemical’s hazardous and harmful natural, the company’s vice president of engineering and loss control Mike Gromacki has to decide how best to dispose rinse styrene, balancing both environmental and financial issues.
The financial issues will be discussed first. The North Kansas City plant is able to produce approximately 15,000 batches of 10-drum gel coats (Table 1). Given the high cost of acquiring and disposing styrene, the company faces a trade-off here: either using more styrene to reduce contamination of new batches or reducing styrene to reduce cost. From Table 2, taking into account the potential revenue and cost, and fixing production cost at $4,125, the optimal amount of rinse styrene to be used is 550 pounds, as stated in the case. However, by participating in the BPS programme, their rinse styrene concrete coating would reduce their net cost of styrene to
Polymers Co.
Developing a Sustainable Supply Chain
Ong Kar Hian | U098481J
AY 2012/2013 | Semester 1
Cook Composites and Polymers Co. (CCP) were founded in 1990 and is a leading manufacturer of gel coats, unsaturated polyester resins, coatings resins and emulsions. The company prides itself most in producing high-quality, custom-designed gel coats. To produce high quality gel coats, CCP utilizes styrene as a cleaning agent for their mixing vessels because styrene performs admirably in reducing contamination. Currently, the company’s rinse styrene is collected and shipped to cement manufacturers as a source of fuel to fire their energy-intensive cement kilns. Alternatively, the company can opt for a waste exchange programme. However, after recent exposure to a programme called the
“By-Product Synergy” (BPS), CCP discovered that rinse styrene could be utilized to create a good quality concrete coating which can be sold in the infrastructure resurfacing product market, earning
CCP a tidy profit. With rinse styrene disposal cost rising, coupled with the chemical’s hazardous and harmful natural, the company’s vice president of engineering and loss control Mike Gromacki has to decide how best to dispose rinse styrene, balancing both environmental and financial issues.
The financial issues will be discussed first. The North Kansas City plant is able to produce approximately 15,000 batches of 10-drum gel coats (Table 1). Given the high cost of acquiring and disposing styrene, the company faces a trade-off here: either using more styrene to reduce contamination of new batches or reducing styrene to reduce cost. From Table 2, taking into account the potential revenue and cost, and fixing production cost at $4,125, the optimal amount of rinse styrene to be used is 550 pounds, as stated in the case. However, by participating in the BPS programme, their rinse styrene concrete coating would reduce their net cost of styrene to