Cement production is not a mere cementing affair with the raw materials. With shutdowns at plants assuming alarming proportions, manufacturers are looking to save the losses resulting from a shutdown.
Over a billion tonne of cement is made per annum and cement kilns are the heart of this production process. There is longer uptime of the kilns resulting in higher production and consequently higher sales. The kilns come up for a minimum of one major shutdown annually and enhancing their uptime has been the central concern for all cement manufacturers. In a high demand period like these, manufacturers often wish they could do away with shutdowns.
A major shutdown happens every year for about 20 days, which is inevitable even with imported refractories, says PB Gopalakrishna, president (operations), Rain Commodities Ltd (RCL). Priya Cement, the brand name of RCL is a key player in south India with two plants in Andhra Pradesh and a wide marketing network spanning Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
RCL?s questions revolved around what best can be done to reduce lead time in a kiln shutdown environment that has a repetitive nature but still has the characteristics of a project. And RCL was planning for a shutdown, which was not routine. They were looking for solutions beyond just increasing labour and then pushing people relentlessly to reduce shutdown time.
On the challenges in the cement industry, Gopalakrishna explains: ?I have often wondered what has changed in the cement industry, specifically in the areas of production technology and maintenance. Shutdowns are still required to maintain the productivity and life of the kiln, and the average duration of a planned kiln shutdown continues to be between 16 to 20 days. In high demand time periods like these we often wish we could do away with shutdowns. We postpone shutdowns several times to accommodate market demand.?
He adds, ?In a country of a billion people, immediately we tend to think of pumping in more labour to achieve any possible reductions in shutdown time. But are there no alternate solutions that could reduce downtime and help meet production and sales targets??
Meanwhile, the business transformation team of Satyam Computer Services got in touch with RCL with a solution offering based on ?The Theory of Constraints (TOC)?, offering reduction in completion times of projects such as shutdowns. RCL was convinced of the benefits that could be derived by the implementation of critical chain project management (CCPM), based on TOC and so began the project. Satyam introduced and implemented the concept of critical chain project management based on the ?Theory of Constraints? to bring about all round improvement in the cement major?s operations.
Guided by Satyam, the RCL team sprung into action and worked at renewed vigour to set about the task of achieving the desired results. The team broke two of the most commonly associated myths in the way projects are managed. Firstly, no amount of safety factored in the estimates is enough to protect against the kind of uncertainty in a project environment. Secondly,
focusing on completion of each task on time is a guarantee of being able to finish the project on time.
The key to success was one integrated network of tasks showing all
inter dependencies and resource allocations. The focus shifted to high priority areas and completing tasks at the earliest. RCL achieved an additional production of 15,000 tonne of cement, thereby adding Rs 6.5 crore to its topline, by cutting kiln shutdown time by about 28% at its Ramapuram plant in Andhra Pradesh.
Says Mayooranadhan, senior general manager and plant head, ?We always had plans at a department level. This is for the first time we were guided by Satyam to build an integrated chart. There were 208 activities and the duration for the shutdown was coming to 18 days.? He adds, ?The measures suggested by Satyam to evaluate the project status and progress were simple yet revealing and brought about an enormous amount of management focus on tasks where required. We were never worried about controlling all 208 activities and never diffussed our focus. The daily meetings were astonishingly short and revealed the importance of focusing at the right places to reap benefits.?
Gopalakrishnan points out that there were certain hitches in changing the mindset. But after the entire exercise, due to the visibility brought in, the departments worked as a cohesive unit and there were no blame games.
On the contrary, each department was going beyond its brief to help other departments when required. The senior management involvement from RCL ensured that there was always adequate support in this paradigm change.
RCL is now confident that this learning can be translated to future shutdowns as well, hence the benefits are not one time but perpetual. In fact, RCL with the knowledge gained through this implementation has already achieved substantial success in reducing the shutdown time of their cement
mill as well.