Quality And Quantity Control In Cement Industry

Introduction

Cement industry is one of the most elementary industries as the product can be found in normal day to day functioning. Cement is a fine powder which is used to give strength and is the controlling component of concrete.  This is the key component used in construction project. Techniques and activity used to achieve, improve and sustain the quality of products or services can be defined as Quality control (Anyanwu, 2013). Determination of composition of all the material used in production of cement is important for an affluent control in process and quality of product. Quality assurance and monitoring of production to meet the applicable product standard as specified in the scope of testing.

Quality control

Diversified functions are being performed by the modern plants expert control and supervision is a key to get most out of it cement plant. Process expert alleviate the plant, optimize production, manage process interference and reduce wear and tear of equipments. Areas of quality control start with control of raw material, finished goods, in process control and physical control. If proper control methods are adopted in manufacturing of cement it will result in less rejection rate with increased product quality, price reduction, and increase the product yield leading to increase in reputation of the company in the industry.

Need for quality control

Ever increasing competition in construction industry and demand of best quality products by the customer has lead cement industry to take efforts to provide high quality products. If quality control is not done it will result in low productivity, under utilization of resources and loss of customer. Cost of cement production is very high because of amount of energy used by cost driver. 60-130 kg of fuel and 150KWH of electricity is required to in the process of manufacturing of each tone of cement (Okereke, 2003).

General Policies for Quality control

To meet the objective of providing best quality cement most of the Australian companies in cement industry are following Quality management system by complying with the requirements of International standards AS/NZS ISO 9001:2000.

Basic requirements for following quality management system based on ISO9001 are adopting short and comprehensive review process to determine the needs of customer. It is also important to be in touch with suppliers for maintaining the quality of the components and raw material. Identifying the opportunity and solving the problem expeditiously is also important to maintain the quality of the cement manufactured by the company.

Quantity Control

Quantity control means total material quantity that will be created if every produce receipt has been posted in control cycle. Quantity control process should not be confused with physical counting of stock. In today’s world it is common to have immense requirement of bulk material even in a sheer size project which creates the need of quantity control. Another reason for quantity control in cement industry is because every organisation requires quantity information in different form. There are two methods for taking quantity control decision. First physical count of products received and matching them with invoice receipts and second in the low cost where physical count can be too costly physical count is not required and invoice should be matched.

Need for quantity control

Cement is made by crushing and grinding calcium carbonate known as limestone, sand (silica), alumina and iron ore in suitable proportion and then heating the outcome in kiln. In production of cement use of computerized controls in number of application can be done to optimise the mix of raw material to ensure there is proper composition of chemicals (Keviczky). The control system of production helps in production of maximum quantity of cement in accordance with the prescribed quality. It can also optimize burning process to improve the quality of cement and thereby improving heat recovery and emissions from clinker cooler.

Quantity control also becomes important in certain cases where the supply of that product is limited for example in case of manufacturing of cement electricity consumption is very high which makes it important to schedule the use of electricity properly and to use alternative source of energy.

A quantity take off policy is needed by the organisation to identify the requirements of raw material needed for manufacturing of cement. Data base managers can be used as a powerful tool to generate a versatile report summarizing the information needed. Various companies have designed Quantity control system for recognising the material used in manufacturing process.

The ability to know the need of raw material, finished goods and work in progress is very important for a manufacturer. Quantity control helps the organisation to maximise its profit by keeping track of the quantity requirements. This also leads in improving the productivity of the organisation.

Quantity control concept with Database Concept

(Source: Project Management Institute)

Conclusion

Quantity and quality control can help in achieving optimal allocation and reallocation of machines and can also result in minimization of production cost of cement. These controls can be considered as guide for the management of the company for proper utilization of resources and in creating strategies based on the future requirements.

References

Okereke, P.A. (2003): Construction Materials, Testing and Quality in Tropical Climate. Crown Publishers Ltd. Owerri

Cement Industry Federation. (2013). Industry Report. Retrieved on 1 April 2017 from : https://www.cement.org.au/Portals/0/Documents/CIF%20Publications/2013%20CIF%20Industry%20Report%20(Med%20Res).pdf

Keviczky, L. (2017). Automation and Control in cement industries. Control, System, Robotics and Automation. Vol XIX.

KEMA INC. (2005). Industrial Case Study: The Cement Industry. Retrieved on 2 April 2017 from: https://www.calmac.org/publications/industrialcementfinalkema.pdf

Diekmann, J.E. (1981). Quantity Control- the key element in project control. Retrieved on 2 April 2017 from : https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/quantity-control-project-control-construction-1838