Future petrochemists of the Dzerzhinsky Polytechnic Institute have passed the next stage of the "CASE-IN"

The qualifying stage of the International Engineering Championship "CASE-IN" in the field of Petrochemistry was held at the site of the Dzerzhinsky Polytechnic Institute of the R.E. Alekseev NSTU.

The stage was held in a remote format. Welcoming the participants, experts, and members of the organizing committee of the championship, Alexander Petrovsky, Director of the DPI NSTU, noted the growing prestige of the competition and wished the participants a successful case defense and high marks from the expert commission.

10 teams took part in the 2024 selection - and not only from Dzerzhinsky, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara Polytechnic Universities, but also from St. Petersburg Mining University, as well as from Ural Federal University.

The task of the participants this year was to select one of the enterprises in the SIBUR circuit and conduct a SWOT analysis of existing business processes and the formation of sound approaches to their optimization. To do this, it was necessary to develop a set of measures based on lean manufacturing tools, combining both well-known lean technologies and new solutions proposed by the participants themselves. The set of measures being developed was supposed to help improve the efficiency of the company's business processes and be technically and economically sound.

The teams were evaluated according to 5 criteria: technology, originality and novelty of solutions, economics, presentation and answers to questions, and the level of lean manufacturing implementation. Each criterion was evaluated on a 5-point score.

"Unlike last year, when all teams were offered a solution to a single case (from one of Sibur's plants), this year each team had its own case from its Sibur plant. That's why the projects were different – someone had deeper technological work, someone worked with staff, someone had elements of production automation. All the teams performed well, but the quality of the projects was different. Not all projects contained detailed economic calculations showing the items of capital expenditures and the payback period of the project," Igor Balakhnin, an expert of the qualifying stage, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate professor of the Department of TOC, shared his assessment from the presentation of the teams. 

Following the results of the teams' performance, two teams advanced to the next stage of the championship – the Gazov team from St. Petersburg Mining University, which took 1st place, and the Drive team from Dzerzhinsk Polytechnic Institute, which showed the best result during the qualifying stage from the teams of Dzerzhinsk polytechnics. 

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