Coal Manufacturer

C: I would like to understand if anything has been affected in sourcing, inbound transport, plant, outbound transport, warehousing, or distribution.

I: Nothing wrong with the mine, the coal quality is same and enough for the next 1000+ years. Similarly, water and special chemical are abundantly available, and there has been no change in its quality. All transportations and warehousing are fine—nothing wrong post warehousing.

C: I will dive in the process directly then. I would like to understand what exactly happens in the plant and what are the labour and machine involvements.

I: Entire process is handled by machines, think of it to be on a conveyor belt on which the process of curing happens.

C: Total production = Production rate * no of operating hours. Has there been any change in these?

I: Our production rate has gone down.

C: Since it is a conveyor belt process, the production rate should be based on conveyor belt speed. Since we have factored operating hours to be constant, is it fair to assume that the speed has gone down?

I: Yes. Why do you think that happened?

C: I would broadly bucket it into internal and external. Internals would include machine maintenance, limitations from the plant building, anything that the management can change and fix. External would include supply and demand limitations, legal or community factors, etc.

I: Could you think of any other external factor apart from supply and demand but on similar lines. Or maybe, a different twist to supply limitation. Go through the process again. 

C: We've discussed that nothing has changed for the coal, water, and special chemical. Only other material involved is waste. Should I investigate it?

I: Yes.

C: Before we proceed, is the decline in production a conscious business decision for the longer term?

I: Yes.

C: Okay, I think that there is some issue with the disposal of the waste. Typically, coal wastes are used as landfill in the quarry from which it is extracted. The curing company's take a license for the same.

I: Right, the landfill we are using are about 90% filled, and the client has no other dumping ground. The business has slowed down to buy time to find an alternate landfill.