Five modern rules to control the production cost of cement manufacturing plant
The cement manufacturing company is one of the largest manufacturing industries for improving global civilization. Since it has a direct relation with the standard of living, it is also considered one of the highest capital-intensive industries. Due to the increase in competition, it has witnessed unparalleled growth in recent years and that is why the cement industry is also under pressure. The urgent requirement is to counteract the ongoing rise in input prices and reduce the cost of production through optimized operations.
The five rules to control the production cost can be divided into the following major heads:-
Cost of financing:- Being one of the highest capital incentive industries, managing the cost of financing is one of the significant elements in cement manufacturing plant cost. It provides a great opportunity to review the current financial structure and review the short-term and long-term financial goals.
Raw Materials:- Identify which raw material is much cheaper and technically useful for cement manufacturing. We all know that limestone is the primary raw material for cement manufacturing. It is extracted from the earth, and then with the help of dumpers and shovels, limestone is put into the dump hopper. Since limestone has a varied MgO concentration, the high MgO limestone can be saved for the cement grinding step rather than dumped or landfilled. Some limestone resources have high alkalis, which can be balanced by utilizing high-sulfur, low-cost fuels rather than dumping or landfilling.
Asset Maintainance:- The production cost optimization starts from the asset maintenance stage. The efficient system design helps in getting the result with less investment cost on manpower and energy (fuel and power). Asset maintenance is critical because:-
Extensive repair & replacement expenses
Over-maintenance of equipment results in wear and tear.
Enable remote monitoring and control to increase flexibility and resilience.
Optimizing the usage of Electricity:- The cost of producing cement includes a significant amount of fuel and electricity. Electrical power is needed at every stage of the cement-making process. The following are the areas that help in reducing production costs.
The heat generated in industrial processes and not put to any practical use is known as waste heat energy. The cement industry working on waste heat energy through various waste heat recovery technologies provides valuable energy sources and reduces overall energy consumption.
Utilization and motor factors
Compare the current electricity usage with the international best practices.
Optimizing the cost of quality:- The term "cost of quality" refers to a methodology that enables an organization to ascertain the extent to which its resources are used for activities that prevent poor quality, that evaluate the quality of the organization's goods or services, and that result from both internal and external failures. The ultimate goal of the cement plant and Production Departments is to provide high-quality products that follow the customer and standard requirements with the least amount of waste, rework, and customer complaints at the most economically and commercially feasible cost.
Many perfect cement companies, like Ambuja Cement, Ultratech Cement, Wonder Cement, Shree Cement, ACC Cement, etc., have already benefited from the areas discussed above. For any cost reduction in the cement industry, it is compulsory to control these areas, which automatically results in increasing profitability of the company.
