Development of MRP schedule for CNG conversion - a case of Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL)

Abstract

The Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL) is a company of Petrobangla reporting to the ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources which is responsible for different converted forms of natural gas in Bangladesh (i.e. LPG, LNG, CNG, SNG etc.). In 1981, Petrobangla has taken an initiative to substantially improve air quality and instituted a pilot project to expose CNG in the transport sector. After 6 years, in 1987 the project was reformed as a company named by Compressed Natural Gas Company Limited. Further it was renamed as Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL). Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, with a population of more than 15 million trying to strive through the huddle of life in a developing world. The urban traffic has turned to be a nightmare for the people and the city is in a serious search for an environmental friendly solution. It is up on us to endeavor in finding new and efficient ways to challenge the issues of urban quality of lives and managing the limited resources. CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) as a fuel energy has come to be a vital service in the economy and a friend to the urban environment. The main arterial roadways of Dhaka have high levels of ambient pollutants due to traffic density, poor traffic flow and almost no maintenance of public service vehicles. The most striking aspect of Dhaka’s air pollution problem is the crowded; dusky environment of the city, Trucks, Buses, Three-wheeler Two-stroke Auto-rickshaws and Cars create a dense smoke plume that exposes traffic police, roadside vendors and the public to extreme levels of air pollution. The Government of Bangladesh‘s strong campaign to combat air pollution and at the same time find alternative to petrol, has increased the public demand for CNG vehicles and for steady supply of CNG. In 2003, Government instituted another program to convert the entire fleet of three-wheel Taxis from 2-stroke diesel or gasoline to 4-stroke CNG. As a consequence, according to IANGV (International Association of Natural Gas Vehicles), over 1, 72,000 vehicles are plying now on CNG and 485 nos. of CNG Refueling station are installed for refueling of those vehicles. My thesis works focuses on development of MRP Schedule for CNG Conversion of RPGCL. MRP can be applied both to items that are purchased from outside suppliers and to sub-assemblies, produced internally, that are components of more complex items. Working with the CNG sector, I have always tried to improve the rate of vehicle conversion per day with limited resource personnel which will be a sustainable solution for better performance. As the company is thinking of establishing new department for better planning and management in CNG sector, since there are no MRP in planning division. It is so much time consuming, erroneous and laborious for generating material requirement reports and sent it to planning division in the necessary format. If an MRP can be developed, it can save enough time, manpower and reduce expenditure. A central MRP is therefore extremely needed for planning division of RPGCL. The broad objective of the study is to develop a MRP Schedule for CNG conversion at Joarsahara and Dhania, RPGCL workshop for improvement of rate of conversion as well as economical and financial betterment of the company.