TRAINING SUGAR INDUSTRY PERSONNEL IN LOUISIANA - John Seip Louisiana State University, Batofl Rouge, La., U.S.A.

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1 I TRAINING SUGAR INDUSTRY PERSONNEL IN LOUISIANA - John Seip Louisiana State University, Batofl Rouge, La., U.S.A. SUMMARY In newly developing as well as in established industrial areas of the world, the sugar industry is facing an acute problem in securing competent administrative and mechanic and techn~cian type personnel. These difficulties are partly the outgrowth of industrial diversificat~on in established sugar produc~ng areas as well as of the rural and seasonal nature of the sugar industl'y. In theory at least, the colleges and universities have prov~ded a pool of techn~cally tralned persolmel. With respect to the mechanical and techllicia~l type employee, a systein of formal vocational training has not replaced the traditional journeyman-apprentice system, which is wholly inadequate for industry's tram~ng needs. Facing this situation, the Louis~ana sugar industry has had to improvise by consol~dating factory services and filhng administrative positions with personnel having madequate factory or~ented techn~cal training. In many cases these personnel have been drawn from the factory's, already meager pool of mechanical and process personnel. In recognizing the factory's need for assistance in providi~lg technical competellce for their employees, the Audubon Sugar Factory has conducted techn~cian type training programs. The current Sugar Boiler and Sugar Chemist Courses are of the short course variety, each session lasting two weeks. Emphas~s is on the fundamentals of raw sugar processing and chemical control and liberal laboratory and p~lot plant experience. Trainees attending the courses ~nclude not alone technicians as sugar boilers ancl chemists, but additlollally adin~nistrative personnel who lack formal process and chemical train~ng. INTRODUCTION The subject of training sugar industry personnel in Louisiana implies that there is a possible lack of trained personnel in the industry. Indeed this is so, and I would like to first discuss this factor in terms of a basic problem. This problem I define as that of recruiting and keeping competent factory personnel. In understanding the scope and nature of the problem, we are in a better position to determine the requirements of a training program in terms of the subject matter and the student capability and experience. DEFINING THE PROBLEM

2 Mechanical : Engineers and Mechanics Process : Superintendents and Process Operators Chemical Control : Chemists,+., 307 ~t would be well to make a distinction between the professional and non-professional particularly in the technical classifications. In terms of training, the professional employee is generally a college or university graduate. Historically, the non-professional employee, whether mechanic or technician, has been the product of the journeyman - apprentice system. In very isolated instances he may be the result of more recent vocational craft training or vocational technical institute To distinguish between professional and non-professional personnel by virtue of adnzi7zistrative responsibility may be a hazardous undertaking. Increasingly, personnel with mechanical or technician training are being utilized in administrative positions because of the inability to secure professionally trained employees. Some reasons for the 9roblem While the'following factors compound the problem of personnel procurement in the Louisiana sugar manufacturing industry, they will be recognized as being applicable to many other sugar growing areas. Lack of vocational training facilities: Historically, the market for professionally trained employees has been served by the private and state colleges and universities. This pool of trained personnel serves industry, government, and the educational institutions. Unfortunately, no such pool exists in any magnitude for mechanics and technicians. The traditional journeyman - apprentice type training is inadequate in light of today's needs. Firstly, the journeyman must himself be retrained periodically to keep him abreast of changing technology. Secondly, increasing industrialization is demanding more trained personnel than can be supplied by the traditional apprentice training program. While vocational training for the mechanical crafts is available to a limited degree, formal technician training programs as Vocational Technical Institutes are effectively non-exist ant. Industrial diversification ia the area: Difficulties in recruiting professional personnel in the face of an expanding chen~ical process industry in south Louisiana are obvious. Procuring trained or trainable mechanical or tecl~nician personnel is equally troublesome. The problem is magnified by the fact that many sugar factory personnel have left to seek employment in the chemical process industry. Com9etition from the urban-based industries: By its nature, sugar production and lnanufacturing is essentially rural based. By contrast, the chemical process industry in Louisiana has gravitated toward the communication and transportation centers which were or have become highly urban. This has evoked the commonly heard complaint in the sugar industry, "Even if I pay the prevailing wage or salary, I can't lceep my personnel". ' The centralization of industry in urban areas means for technical e~nployees

3 EDUCATION AND SUGAR INDUSTRY PROGRESS I the availability of general extension or night courses at neighboring colleges or universities. For all employees, this centralization suggests the accessibility to modern secondary school systems as well as the cultural and sports programs which are common to well established urban areas. b Competition from the "glamow" industries: The "glamour" industries such as petrochemicals, electronics and space and atomic energy have an enviable drawing power for technically trained personnel. Additionally, by virtue of the size of their operations, these industries offer considerable opportunities for advancement with generally higher wage and salary scales which are supplemented by liberal savings, annuity, and retirement programs. Misce1laneo.u~ problems peculiar to the sugar industry: Added to the above factors must be those which reflect the specific nature of sugar production and manufac- Seasonal nature of the operations: Historically, factory process and chemical personnel have been hired for the duration of the crop. This expedient is po longer tenable, since such personnel can secure year-round employment in other industries. Increasingly, the factories are retaining such personnel during the off-season. Hopefully, they have some qualifications which can be utilized in the off-season repair and maintenance programs. Problems of the small factory: Econoinic considerations usually dictate that new factories be large scale complexes. The same considerations have hastened. the trend toward consolidation of the small farming - factory interests. The smaller factories which are still in operation face serious problems in procuring technical personnel. Solutions to the $voblem The preceding discussion has pointed up the many problems which face the sugar industry in recruiting, training, and maintaining trained personnel. Where several of these factors operate together as in Louisiana, the situation is clearly critical. Obviously, there is no simple panacea to the problem as indicated by the following expedients which have been taken by the industry. Centralization of technical and non-technical sevvices: Where several factories are owned by a single interest, the trend toward combining many activities and services has hastened. Feasibility studies for expansion and modernization programs, process and mechanical design, and design drafting are handled in a central office. Similarly, centrally located computer systems facilitate payroll preparation, inventory keeping, and cane payment. The cooperatively owned factories already have the services of a technical consultant and his staff. It is conceivable that ecoilomic necessity will dictate that smaller privately owned factories must join to pool some of the above activities. To a deg~ee this is done in the agricultural field by the industry as a whole through the services of an agroiloinist and an agricultural economist who are employees of the American Sugar Cane League, the Louisiana industry organ. Non-$rofessional employees in ad~ninistration: Failing to attract professional personnel into administrative positions, many factories have turned to their own

4 of non-professional technical and mechanical employees. Commonly in Louisiana, the position of assistant engineer, shift superintendent, and chemist are filled by *on-professional employees. In several instances, this same situation prevails with regard to the position of chief engineer and factory superintendent. Agricultural graduates in factory admixistration: Failing to fill factory administrative positions with engineering graduates, several Louisiana factories have turned to personnel with professional training in sugarcane production. For several years, Francis T. Nicholls College of Thibodaux, Louisiana, has offered a program heavily oriented to sugarcane production and leading to a degree in general agriculture and agribusiness. The curricula are grounded in the basic sciences, plant and soil science, and business administration. To encourage interest in these programs, factories in the surrounding area annually fund ulzdergraduate scholarships. Graduates of these programs hold administrative positions encompassing both farm and factory activities. TECHNICIAN TYPE TRAINING AT THE AUDUBON SUGAR FACTORY In the preceeding sections, the general classifications of sugar factory personnel were defined to include office, mechanical, process, and chemical employees - both professional and non-professional. Particular emphasis was placed on the problem of securing competent mechanical and process employees, the factors which have contributed to this problem, and the steps which the industry has taken to solve the problem. Despite these steps, and probably reflecting the nature of these expedients, there is a continuing dearth of factory technical competence - both at the technician level as sugar boilers and chemists- and quite often at the factory administrative In reviewing the problem with a view toward what could be done immediately through the services of Louisiana State University, it was felt that the most pressing need was for a technician type training program which would be oriented to factory process and chemical personnel. The facilities of the Audubon Sugar Factory seemed suited to such a program in view of the factory's long identification with the industry, initially through the Audubon Sugar School, and currently the Chemical Engineering The product of these considerations is the following short course programs which have been offered over the past three years: Sugar Boiler Short Course Basic Sugar Chemist Short Course Advanced Sugar Chemist Short Course.These courses are offered during the spring and summer, and each course generally lasts two weeks. The courses are coordinated through the University General Extension Division. They are resident courses to the degree that the trainees are housed and eat on the campus. Both Audubon Sugar Factory staff members and industry personnel participate in the course instruction. The industry personnel have a recognized competence in the field in which they are instructing. For these services they are paid a stipend.

5 I EDUCATION AND SUGAR INDUSTRY PROGRESS 7 Regarding the course content, the fundamental raw sugar processing scheme is covered as well as basic scientific and engineering principles which are specific to the particular course being presented. Emphasis is placed on laboratory and pilot plant experiments. Thus the trainees learn by doing, and the instruction is of iinmediate benefit to them. Trainees attending the courses have included: TABLE I Technicians as sugar boilers and chemists for whom additional training in their specialty is required. Process and mechanical administrative personnel as a7sistant engineers and superintendents for whom a formal process and chemical training is required. Agricultural and business oriented administrative personnel who need process and chelnical training. SUGAR BOILER SHORT COURSE PROGRAM May g to 12, 1967 Laboratory and Pilot Plant May I Chemical Control of Laboratory analyses: syrup, sugar mol- Sugar Boiling - asses, magma and massecuite. Double Laboratory Analyses dilution and water purity. 2 The General Raw Sugar Orientation with pilot plant equipment. Processing Scheme (with water); control of feed, steam, vacuum, etc. 3 Sugar Boiling - Graining and the grain strike (with syrup) : General Definitions waiting grain and shoclr seedlng. q Graining Graining and the grain strike (with syrup) : waiting gram and shoclr seeding. 5 Drying Cutting the footing and boiling from the Crystallizer footing (with syrup). Boiling from a sugar Performance magma footing (with snlall gram raw sugar for the magma mingled with syrup and syrup for the feed). May 8 Equipment Graining and the grain strike (with syrup), pan seeding. g Instrument Control Boiling high grade strilres; the footing and the feed Chemical Control - Pan Calculations : The Solids Balance, Yield Chem~cal Control - Pan Calculations : Blending to Purity Boiling low grade strllres: the footing and the feed. Handling false grain, etc. Operation of the factory pans (with water). Use aud evaluation of surfactants The sugar boiler shovt course: Table I presents a typical lecture and laborat~ry schedule for the Sugar Boiler Short Course. Briefly, the course content includes the essential laboratory analyses required for pan control, calculations for strike yield and purity determination, methods of graining, boiling from virgin grain and grain footings, and pan equipment and instrumentation. Pan problems and the solutions to such problems are demonstrated - as, for example conglomerates and false grain.

6 311 The pilot plant sugar boiling station is used for the laboratory instruction. The station consists of three vacuum pans, a centrifugal, feed and cut-over tanks and piping, and in~trumentation.~ Two calandria pans of 2 square feet heating surface each are manifolded together to permit cujiing footings from one pan to the other. A third smaller coil pan is independently manifolded. The pans are instrumented for conductivity and boiling point elevation determinations. Feed stock for the spring and summer courses is inventoried during the fall grinding season. Syrup in five-gallon containers is stored in the wallr-in freezer. Some We have urged that the factories arrange for the trainees to spend an additional two weeks at one of the local refineries. Several of the refineries have been particularly cooperative with this aspect of the program with the result that students have been assigned to a shift sugar boiler and actually participate in the refinery boiling program. During the fall grinding season, the vacuum pan station is operated in conjunction wit11 pilot scale clarification, heating, and evaporating equipment and the factory milling tandem. This arrangement has been ideal for test programs involving the evalua$ioii of new processes, equipment, and chemicals - as well as for research into all phases of raw sugar processing. The sugar chemist short courses: Occasionally, basic sugar chemist short courses are offered covering routine laboratory control inspections of juice, bagasse, syrup, molasses, massecuite, and sugar; water purities and cyclone determinations for pan control; the care and maintenance of laboratory equipment; and basic laboratory record keeping. Currently this type of instruction is being offered by the Francis T. Nicholls College as a commutertype course. During the summer, students attend the classes for several afternoons a week while they are working for sugar factories in the While the sugar boiler short course programs have been formalized, the advanced sugar chemist course format is flexible so that it can be adapted to the interest and training of those attending a specific session. Basically, the course is tailored to the preparation and interpretation of the factory reports and the principles of factory chemical control and laboratory operations. Specifically, problems are studied which require the actual preparation of the Daily and Weekly Manufacturing Reports and records for cane payment. The less used and more sophisticated analyses are reviewed to include frozen cane juice pol determinations, sugar in waste and boiler water, reducing sugar and Clerget sucrose determinations, and the preparation and standardization of stock solutions. Additionally, routine laboratory analyses are deinonstrated to show methods for strealnliniilg the procedure and to correct "bad habits" acquired in practice. The factory laboratories, equipment, and supplies are used for the classes. Juice, bagasse, syrup, and molasses are stored in the deep freeze loclter for the subsequent class work.

7 312 EDUCATION AND SUGAR INDUSTRY PROGRESS EXPANSION OF THE SUGAR INDUSTRY TRAINING PROGRAM We hope to ultimately offer mechanical training in the fields of raw sugar factory instrunlent and process equipment principles, operation, and maintenance. Tllepossibility has been considered of offering a three-day resident seminar type management oriented program covering industry problems and new developments in the industry. While the short course program has appeared to be the simplest immediate approach to the problem, we have considered such possibilities as one year on-campus sub-degree programs. Such programs would cover basic scientific and engineering principles, the raw sugar factory processing sche'me, equipment and instrumentation. chemical control, sugar boiling, and possibly basic agronomy and plant pathology. A real problem would be the need to tailor these courses to the qualifications of the trainees - thus eliminating the prospect of using existing university course programs. This summer as a trial balloon, the Chemical Engineering Department will offer a one-month resident technician training program for the area chemical process industry. Trainees will include process operators, laboratory technicians, and some mechanilcal personnel from the industry. Experience with this program may suggest ideas for a similar sugar industry training program. REFERENCE