Solution stories
Edible Oil Refinery: From Monthly Yield Guesswork to Daily Margin
How intake quality, stage-wise yield, refining recipes and expeller monitoring came together across Anvaya and ASTR.
Trikaan Research & Engineering4 min read
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The yield gap started at the weighbridge, not in the refinery.
- Stage-wise balances turned a monthly argument into a daily report.
- Refining recipes adjusted to crude quality reduced chemical overuse.
- Expeller monitoring caught bearing issues before breakdowns.
A soybean processor with seed crushing, solvent extraction and refining across two plants knew its yield was slipping but could not say where. Every month, finance, production and procurement each had a different explanation.
This story follows how the problem was found and solved using several Trikaan products together.
The situation
The company bought soybean from traders and farmer groups, crushed and extracted it, refined the crude oil and sold packed oil, bulk oil and de-oiled meal. Month-end reports showed overall yield below expectation, but the data to break it down lived in weighbridge slips, lab registers and shift logs.
Leadership wanted a daily view of yield and margin, and fewer surprises from expeller breakdowns during peak season.
What they had already tried
- A larger Excel workbook consolidating plant data.
- Extra supervisors to check weighments.
- A dashboard tool connected to the ERP — which had only month-end data.
- A preventive maintenance calendar that was hard to follow during peak months.
How we diagnosed the real problem
A three-week assessment walked the flow from gate to dispatch across shifts and joined one quarter of intake, lab and production data batch by batch.
- Moisture samples were recorded hours after unloading, so deductions were inconsistent.
- Solvent extraction losses were known only as monthly totals.
- Refining chemicals were dosed by habit, not by crude quality.
- Two expellers caused most unplanned downtime, with repeated bearing failures.
The solution, product by product
No single product solved this. The value came from the products working on the same data.
| Product | Role in this solution |
|---|---|
| Anvaya | Weighbridge integration, gate passes, lot-wise goods receipt with automatic quality deductions, stock and dispatch |
| ASTR Production | Stage-wise input/output/loss per batch, refining recipes linked to crude quality, by-product costing |
| Machine Digital Twin | Expeller and filler monitoring: vibration, temperature, current, fill accuracy |
| ASTR Reporting | Daily yield and margin by plant and product, asked in plain language by leadership |
| ASTR agents | Draft purchase requests for chemicals and packing material based on plan |
How it rolled out
- Weeks 1–3: Assessment and value baseline.
- Weeks 4–9: Intake and stage-wise capture at the first plant.
- Weeks 10–14: Expeller monitoring and refining recipe module.
- Next quarter: Second plant using the template.
What changed
Within the pilot period, the plant could see yield by stage every morning. Discussions moved from blame to specific fixes: sampling at the right point, recalibrating a filler, adjusting bleaching earth by crude quality.
- Yield variance visible daily instead of monthly.
- Quality deductions applied consistently at intake: [X]% improvement in deduction recovery.
- Unplanned expeller downtime reduced by [X]%.
- MIS preparation time reduced by [X] hours a month.
What we would tell a similar company
- Start at the gate; procurement quality often decides yield.
- Treat by-products as products with their own cost.
- Connect the two or three worst machines before the whole plant.
- Let leadership ask questions directly instead of waiting for the MIS pack.
Frequently asked questions
Which products were used?
Anvaya, ASTR Production, Machine Digital Twin and ASTR Reporting, sharing one data model.
How long did the pilot take?
Around three months for the first plant in this scenario; actual timelines depend on scope.
Is this a real customer?
It is an illustrative composite based on common situations in the industry.
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- #oil mill yield improvement
- #soybean processing ERP
- #refinery digital transformation
- #Anvaya ASTR edible oil
Trikaan Research & Engineering
Trikaan
Written by the researchers and engineers who build Anvaya, ASTR and Seed Track, with input from Trikaan's delivery and engineering teams.
