Term Paper On Crown Cement

A STUDY ON CROWN CEMENT APPLYING THE CONCEPTS, TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES OF MANAGERIAL OPERATIONS

A STUDY ON CROWN CEMENT APPLYING THE CONCEPTS, TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES OF MANAGERIAL OPERATIONS

Prepared for Dr. Muhammad Ziaulhaq Mamun Professor

Prepared by Group #1 Name

Batch & ID

Name

Batch & ID

Mirajul Alam

55D; ZR-07

Muhammad Tanvirul Islam Jony

55D; ZR-39

Tausif Omar Haque

55D; ZR-10

Mohammad Tariqul Islam

55D; ZR-51

Md. Rizwanul Islam

55D; ZR-11

Richard Subro Baroi

56D; ZR-12

Md. Abrar Fahad Khan

55D; ZR-12

Ishrat Rejwana

56D; RQ-38

Tanzim Tahmim

55D; RQ-16

Rahat Md. Shihab

56D; ZR-45

Anika Tabassum

55D; RQ-22

Abrar Bin Darda

57D; ZR-43

Md. Shahed Faisal

55D; ZR-27

Farah Binte Azam

57D; RQ-46

Nusrat Jahan

55D; RQ-31

Institute of Business Administration University of Dhaka

June 11, 2017

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL May 15, 2017 Dr. Muhammad Ziaulhaq Mamun Professor Institute of Business Administration University of Dhaka Dear Sir: Subject: Submission of the report on “A Study on Crown Cement Applying the Concepts, Tools and Techniques of Managerial Operations” With due respect, we are submitting our factory visit report authorized under your supervision- “A Study on Crown Cement Applying the Concepts, Tools and Techniques of Managerial Operations”, as a requirement for the fulfillment of the course ‘Managing Operations’. The report includes an overview of the Crown Cement Factory, various operations of the company including supply chain management, quality management, inventory management, forecasting, workforce management, waste management etc., challenges for the company and some recommendations to cope with those challenges. In preparation to this report, we participated in a factory visit, in accordance to your instruction to witness the aspects of operations first-hand inside one of the largest facilities of the country. We also interviewed some of the key personnel to get a comprehensive insight into how the operational procedure is maintained inside the facility. We are grateful to you for the opportunity that you have given to us. We have learnt a lot during this factory visit and also while working on this report. We sincerely hope that this report will live up to your expectations from us. We will be delighted to answer any further questions you may have for us regarding this paper.

Sincerely,

______________________________ Tausif Omar Haque MBA 55D; ZR-10

______________________________ Mirajul Alam MBA 55D; ZR-07

i

______________________________ Md. Rizwanul Islam MBA 55D; ZR-11

______________________________ Md. Abrar Fahad Khan MBA 55D; ZR-12

______________________________ Tanzim Tahmim MBA 55D; RQ-16

______________________________ Anika Tabassum MBA 55D; RQ-22

______________________________ Md. Shahed Faisal MBA 55D; ZR-27

______________________________ Nusrat Jahan MBA 55D; RQ-31

______________________________ Muhammad Tanvirul Islam Jony MBA 55D; ZR-39

______________________________ Mohammad Tariqul Islam MBA 55D; ZR-51

______________________________ Richard Subro Baroi MBA 56D; ZR-12

______________________________ Ishrat Rejwana MBA 56D; RQ-38

______________________________ Rahat Md. Shihab MBA 56D; ZR-45

______________________________ Abrar Bin Darda MBA 57D; ZR-43

______________________________ Farah Binte Azam MBA 57D; RQ-46

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to thank Dr. Muhammad Ziaulhaq Mamun, for his support throughout the P501: Managing Operations Course, and for giving us the opportunity to prepare this report. The experience of seeing first-hand production process at M. I. Cement Factory Ltd. was invaluable. Next, we wish to thank A.T.M. Moslah Uddin, AGM (HR and Admin) for granting us permission to visit the factory premises and take photographs. Finally, we would like to convey our heartfelt gratitude to the following individuals who took some time out of their busy schedules to give us a tour of the factory premises: 

Engr. Saiful Alam, Executive Director



Engr. ASM Fahim Uddin, Senior General Manager (Technical)



Engr. Subodh Kumar Bannarjee, General Manager (Maintenance)



Md Habibur Rahman, Deputy General Manager (QA & Lab)



Engr. Quazi Asif Afzal Hasib, Assistant General Manager (Production)



Abu Ahmed Zahid, Senior Manager (QA & Lab)

It has been a pleasure to be able to spend time learning different aspects of managerial operations from these talented managers. Moreover, a physical visit to the factory helped us understand the real scenario of the working environment and the activities performed by the operation managers.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... viii 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 BACKGROUND ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 ORIGIN................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.3 OBJECTIVES ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.3.1 BROAD OBJECTIVE........................................................................................................................ 1 1.3.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES.................................................................................................................... 2 1.4

METHODOLOGY............................................................................................................................... 2

1.4.1 PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION ....................................................................................................... 2 1.4.2 SECONDARY DATA COLLECTION .................................................................................................. 3 1.5

SCOPE .............................................................................................................................................. 3

1.6

LIMITATIONS.................................................................................................................................... 3

1.7 GANTT CHART ..................................................................................................................................... 3 2.

COMPANY OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................................... 4 2.1 VISION ................................................................................................................................................. 5 2.2 MISSION .............................................................................................................................................. 5 2.3

VALUES .......................................................................................................................................... 5

2.3.1 COMMITMENT ............................................................................................................................. 5 2.3.2 ACCOUNTABILITY ......................................................................................................................... 5 2.3.3 INSPIRING, MOTIVATING & COMPELLING ................................................................................... 5 2.3.4 ABILITY ......................................................................................................................................... 6 2.3.5 KEEP PROMISES ............................................................................................................................ 6 2.3.6 BE RESPECTFUL ............................................................................................................................ 6 3.

PLANT LOCATION .................................................................................................................................. 7 3.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE LOCATION ........................................................................................................ 7 3.2 ADVANTAGES OF THE LOCATION........................................................................................................ 8 3.3 DISADVANTAGES OF THE LOCATION .................................................................................................. 8 3.4 PLANT LAYOUT .................................................................................................................................... 8 3.5 CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES .................................................................................................... 9

4.

MACHINERY......................................................................................................................................... 10 4.1 LIST OF PRODUCTION MACHINES ..................................................................................................... 10 4.2 LIST OF PACKAGING MACHINES ........................................................................................................ 11

5.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION ...................................................................................................................... 12 5.1 CEM I ................................................................................................................................................. 13 iv

5.2 CEM II ................................................................................................................................................ 13 5.3 CEM III ............................................................................................................................................... 14 5.4 CEM IV ............................................................................................................................................... 15 5.5 CEM V ................................................................................................................................................ 15 6.

RAW MATERIALS ................................................................................................................................. 16 6.1 CLINKER ............................................................................................................................................. 16 6.2 GYPSUM ............................................................................................................................................ 16 6.3 SLAG .................................................................................................................................................. 17 6.4 LIME STONE....................................................................................................................................... 17 6.5 FLY ASH.............................................................................................................................................. 17

7.

WAREHOUSING ................................................................................................................................... 18

8.

PRODUCTION PROCESS ....................................................................................................................... 20 8.1 PORTLAND CEMENT (PC) .................................................................................................................. 22 8.2 PORTLAND COMPOSITE CEMENT (PCC) ............................................................................................ 23 8.3 BLAST FURNACE CEMENT (BFC) ........................................................................................................ 24

9.

PACKAGING PROCESS.......................................................................................................................... 25

10.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT OF CROWN CEMENT ..................................................................... 26

10.1 PROCUREMENT OF RAW MATERIALS ............................................................................................. 26 10.2 RAW MATERIALS SHIPPING ARRANGEMENTS ................................................................................ 26 10.3 UNLOADING RAW MATERIALS ........................................................................................................ 27 10.4 RAW MATERIALS STORAGE ARRANGEMENTS ................................................................................ 28 10.5 PRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 29 10.6 PACKAGING ..................................................................................................................................... 30 10.7 CARGO LOADING............................................................................................................................. 31 10.8 TRANSPORTATION & DELIVERY ...................................................................................................... 32 11.

FORECASTING.................................................................................................................................. 33

11.1 FORECASTING DECISION ................................................................................................................. 33 11.2 FORECASTING TECHNIQUE ............................................................................................................. 33 12.

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT............................................................................................................ 34

12.1 SOFTWARE USED............................................................................................................................. 34 12.2 INVENTORY MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES...................................................................................... 34 12.2.1 JUST-IN-TIME INVENTORY MANAGEMENT .............................................................................. 34 12.2.2 SAFETY STOCK .......................................................................................................................... 34 12.2.3 FIRST IN FIRST OUT (FIFO) ........................................................................................................ 35 12.2.4 ABC CLASSIFICATION ................................................................................................................ 35 v

13.

QUALITY CONTROL .......................................................................................................................... 36

13.1 LIST OF CERTIFICATIONS ................................................................................................................. 37 13.2 QUALITY CONTROL DEPARTMENT AND PERSONNEL...................................................................... 38 14.

WASTE MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................... 39

14.1 TRASH MANAGEMENT .................................................................................................................... 39 14.2 EFFLUENT TREATMENT PLANT ........................................................................................................ 39 14.3 AIR POLLUTION MANAGEMENT ..................................................................................................... 40 15.

TIME PLANNING .............................................................................................................................. 41

15.1 DELIVERY PLANNING ....................................................................................................................... 41 15.2 SCHEDULE OF DELIVERY .................................................................................................................. 41 15.3 MEDIUM OF DELIVERY .................................................................................................................... 41 15.4 POINT OF DELIVERY......................................................................................................................... 41 16.

WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT.......................................................................................................... 42

16.1 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE ....................................................................................................... 42 16.2 MANAGEMENT TEAM ..................................................................................................................... 43 16.3 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT ...................................................................................................... 43 16.4 ADHERENCE TO COMPLIANCE ........................................................................................................ 43 16.5 PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL ............................................................................................................. 44 17.

WORK ENVIRONMENT: HEALTH AND SAFETY ................................................................................ 46

17.1 WORKING CONDITIONS .................................................................................................................. 46 17.2 SAFETY ACCORD .............................................................................................................................. 46 17.3 TREATING INJURIES ......................................................................................................................... 47 17.4 RESPONSIBILITIES OF SAFETY AND HEALTH MANAGER .................................................................. 47 18.

CHALLENGES ................................................................................................................................... 48

19.

RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................................................................................... 49

20.

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 50

REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................ 51 APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................................................... A STRUCTURED QUESTIONNAIRE FOR INTERVIEW ...................................................................................... B INTERVIEW SUMMARY..............................................................................................................................D PHOTO GALLERY........................................................................................................................................H

vi

LIST OF TABLES Table 1:Grinding Capacity ........................................................................................................................... 10 Table 2: Packaging Arrangement ................................................................................................................ 11 Table 3: Types of Cements at Crown Cement ............................................................................................. 12 Table 4: Sources of the raw materials ........................................................................................................ 20 Table 5: Raw Materials Storage Arrangement ............................................................................................ 21 Table 6: Sourcing Countries of Raw Materials ............................................................................................ 26 Table 7: Raw Material Storage Capacity ..................................................................................................... 29

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Group #1 with Honorable Faculty Dr. Muhammad Ziaulhaq Mamun Before Factory Visit .......... 2 Figure 2: Crown Cement Factory .................................................................................................................. 7 Figure 3: Plant Layout of Crown Cement ...................................................................................................... 8 Figure 4: Portland Cement .......................................................................................................................... 13 Figure 5: Cement and Fly Ash ..................................................................................................................... 14 Figure 6: Clinker .......................................................................................................................................... 16 Figure 7: Gypsum ........................................................................................................................................ 16 Figure 8: Slag ............................................................................................................................................... 17 Figure 9: Lime Stone ................................................................................................................................... 17 Figure 10: Fly Ash ........................................................................................................................................ 17 Figure 11: Clinker Shade ............................................................................................................................. 18 Figure 12: Limestone stored in the yard ..................................................................................................... 19 Figure 13: Production Process of PC ........................................................................................................... 22 Figure 14: Production Process of PCC ......................................................................................................... 23 Figure 15: Production Process of BFC ......................................................................................................... 24 Figure 16: Different packaging used by Crown Cement ............................................................................. 25 Figure 17: SCM of Crown Cement ............................................................................................................... 26 Figure 18: Crown Cement Feeder Vessel: Crown Mariners ........................................................................ 27 Figure 19: E-Crane ....................................................................................................................................... 27 Figure 20: Unloading of Fly Ash .................................................................................................................. 28 Figure 21: Clinker Shade ............................................................................................................................. 28 Figure 22: Certifications .............................................................................................................................. 37 Figure 23: Crown Cement: Organizational Structure .................................................................................. 42

vii

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Starting its journey back in 1994, M. I. Cement Factory Ltd. or more commonly known as Crown Cement Ltd. is a public limited company listed in both Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchange. Crown Cement is one of the most prominent cement manufacturers and exporters of Bangladesh. Since its inauguration, the company has their plant situation in the brink of Dhaleshwari River at Muktarpur, Munshiganj. Their huge plant includes space for their production equipment for cement, storage for inventory of raw materials, parking area for their logistics and also a separating packaging plant. The factory has a capacity to produce 1.740 million metric tons of cement per annum which they are increasing even more by installing more machineries. The company is blessed with many benefits because of the location of the plant. Being very close to the river helps the company to bring in raw materials and deliver finished products at a cheaper rate through the river way. The location being one of the top locations in the country surrounded by other popular cement manufacturers plants help the company get a helping hand from the policies taken to the entire area. Besides, the location being very close to the capital Dhaka, which is the primary target for delivery purposes of the company, helps the company to schedule their products easily to the metropolitan. However, the location does make them feel some difficulties, specially the very narrow roads creates traffic congestion which has been a constant matter of worry for the company. The Crown Cement facility is equipped with all the modern machineries which helps them produce quality products. They have separate machineries assigned to task like grinding, separating and packing cement products. The raw materials used in these machineries are kept inside the facilities. There are shades and silos where different types of raw materials are stored. Crown Cement mostly relies on five types of raw materials; however most important of them is Clinker. Most of the raw materials, including Clinkers are imported from abroad and brought to the facility by river. Some raw material, like limestone is also stored in their yards. The production process of different types of cements has also some similar trends. The production process is very specific and follows certain flow charts. The most popular type of cement Crown Cement produce is Portland Cement followed by Portland Composite Cement. Currently they are also producing another special type of cement to help construct the Padma Bridge project. Inside the facility they also have a packaging plant which they use to manufacture the packages which they use to transport their finished goods. The supply chain of Crown Cement follows eight steps starting from procurement of raw materials to shipping those raw materials and receiving it to the plant. The process then continues by unloading the received raw materials in their plant. The unloaded raw materials are stored in their different warehouses assigned for specific types of raw materials. Then production process begins which ends in the packaging stage. After the final product is made, then supply chain concerns are related to transportation and delivery of those finished products. viii

The forecasting technique used by Crown Cement Ltd. is the moving average technique. The forecasting is done directly from the Crown Cement head office at Gulshan, Dhaka. The managers at the head office believes that the recent data from the moving average is the best method of forecast for a product like cement which also has some seasonal impact too. The inventory management of Crown Cement does not follow any ABC Classification technique. However, they try their best to implement a part of Just in Time strategy for their company as they forecast in such a way that there are no finished goods waiting to be delivered inside the facility. They produce and immediately deliver their product to the customer ends. Crown Cement is a ISO: 9001-2008 certified company. They have also been awarded the national trophy for export several times. They are very much concerned about the quality aspects of their products. The products are always tested for their performance and there is a quality control team dedicated to make this certain. Even though the impact of total quality management is not seen the inside the company. The company is also concerned about the environmental pollution occurred from their facility, mostly as air pollution. They have installed dust collectors to minimize this problem as much as possible. There is no Effluent Treatment Plant inside the facility because cement production does not require water. There are safety parameters inside the factory as employees and workers have to wear facial mask, helmet and other safety equipment inside the compound. Crown Cement has 1745 people working for their company, 588 of them works inside the factory. The government policy states that the minimum wage for a labor to be Taka 5500. Crown Cement pays their workers Taka 6000. The workers work for just one shift a day, nobody is allowed to do any overtime work. Any kind of health issues and injury inside the compound are treated by the company. The rate of turnover has been less than one for last few years. The facilities inside the Crown Cement factory is one of the best inside Bangladeshi cement manufactures. If they can forecast their demand a bit better way, then they will be able to maximize their profit. They also need help from the government to enlarge the narrow roads heading to their factory. However, within all the limitations, they are doing well in terms of their performances over the years.

ix

1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND M. I. Cement Factory Ltd. is a public limited company and one of the leading manufacturers of cement in Bangladesh. On December 31, 1994 it started its journey (Brief History, 2017) with the commitment for providing high quality cement to the country. Its brand “Crown Cement” has own renown both at home and abroad. Initially the plant was installed with a capacity of producing 600 tpd (ton per day) of Portland cement. With the passing of time the demand of Crown Cement increased day by day. Therefore, the sponsors expanded the project thrice. In 2011, the total production capacity was 5800 tpd i.e. 1.740 million metric tons per annum. Crown Cement pioneered in export of cement in 2003 and paved the way for earning hard-earned foreign currency. Recently Crown Cement achieved the National Export Trophy (Gold) twice for attaining the top most place among the cement exporters in Bangladesh. The factory possesses good communication facility both through water and road. It is located at West Mukterpur, Munshiganj on the bank of the river Dhaleswari. It is connected by a metallic road (Dhaka- Munshiganj Highway) linked with the whole country.

1.2 ORIGIN The report titled “Analyzing the Operation Management in Crown Cement” has been prepared for Dr. Muhammad Ziaulhaq Mamun, course instructor, Managing Operations (P501) as the requirement for the group term paper of this course. The report is based on information and knowledge acquired from the plant visit.

1.3 OBJECTIVES The objectives of this report has been divided into a broad objective and several specific objectives. The objectives are mentioned below:

1.3.1 BROAD OBJECTIVE This paper focuses on understanding different aspects of operations inside the Crown Cement Company Ltd. by a rigorous study of managerial operation tools and techniques and associating those techniques with practical examples. 1

1.3.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES The Specific Objectives of the report is to apprehend the following about Crown Cement: -Plant location and Layout -Raw materials -Supply Chain management -Environment, health and safety considerations taken -Quality control -Inventory management

1.4

-Production Process -Waste & Time Management -Forecasting -Workforce -Machineries and Technology used -Production Process

METHODOLOGY

The sample of the study is Crown Cement. The report has been compiled through both primary and secondary research. The primary data was collected from interviews and observation.

1.4.1 PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION The research team visited Crown Cement factory in Munshiganj to collect information through personal interviews of Mr. Abu Ahmed Zahid, Senior Manager (QA & Lab), Mr. A.T.M. Moslah Uddin, Assistant General Manager (HR & Admin) and Engr. Quazi Asif Afzal Hasib, Assistant General Manager (Production) of Crown Cement. A semi structured questionnaire was used to conduct the interviews.

Figure 1: Group #1 with Honorable Faculty Dr. Muhammad Ziaulhaq Mamun Before Factory Visit 2

1.4.2 SECONDARY DATA COLLECTION Secondary data was collected from various studies made available through library work, from the company website of Crown Cement and from the various webpages, studies and journals available about Crown Cement. The collected data has been interpreted to complete the report.

1.5

SCOPE

The analyses are based on information divulged by the interviewees and observations from factory visit. The scope of the report is limited to the manufacturing process, the supply chain management, the forecasting techniques, the inventory management, the workforce management, and the quality control and waste management of Crown Cement. Moreover, it aims to provide an overview of use of information technology in the manufacturing process.

1.6

LIMITATIONS

The primary limitation was time constraint. The time was just enough to visit all the floors of the factory and interview the Senior Manager (QA & Lab), the Assistant General Manager (HR & Admin) and the Assistant General Manager (Production) of the company.

1.7 GANTT CHART This project has been completed within a pre-specific period of time. Every aspect of the workload had been assigned under a timeframe and to properly utilize that, a Gantt Chart has been prepared that shows the proper track of this report along the timeline. The Gantt Chart has been attached on the following page:

3

3 days

1 day

April 2017 1 3

5

7

9

2 days

11

15

21

Inactive Milestone

Inactive Summary

Manual Task

Duration-only

Milestone

Summary

Project Summary

3 days

27

29

May 2017 1 3

17 days

5

External Tasks

Finish-only

Start-only

Manual Summary

Manual Summary Rollup

Report Format Finalization

Incorporating Collected Data

Crown Cement Factory Visit

Split

6 days

1 day

25

Submitting Letter of Authorization

23

Inactive Task

2 days

19

Meeting with the Company

17

Task

2 days

13

Company Selection

Group Formation

Project Announcement

Project: Crown Cement Date: Sat 6/10/17

30

7

9

11

15

Baseline Summary

Baseline Milestone

Baseline

Deadline

External Milestone

13

17

19

25

27

Report Preparation

23

Slippage

Manual Progress

Progress

Presentation Preparation

5 days

21

29

4

5 days

6

8

Submission & Presentation

Report Compiling

June 2017 31 2

10

1 day

12

2. COMPANY OVERVIEW M. I. Cement Factory Ltd. is a public limited company and one of the leading manufacturers

of

cement

in

Bangladesh. On December 31, 1994 it started its journey with the commitment for providing high quality cement to the country. Its brand “Crown Cement” is renowned both at home and abroad. Initially the plant was installed with a capacity of producing 600tpd (ton per day) of Portland cement. With the passing of time the demand of Crown Cement increased day by day. Therefore, the sponsors expanded the project thrice. By dint of quality Crown Cement soon gained acceptability both at home and abroad which raised the necessity for expanding the plant from initial 600tpd (ton per day), 800tpd 2nd unit in 2002, 1400tpd 3rd unit in 2006 and 3000tpd 4th unit in 2011 thereby raising the total production capacity to 5800tpd i.e. 1.740 million metric tons per annum. The company has been listed in Dhaka Stock Exchange and Chittagong Stock Exchange in 2011. Its high growth agenda have been highly appreciated by the shareholders, and have won investors trust. Its backward and forward integration endeavors have given new dimensions to its growth platform. With this end in view, the associate industrial units’ viz., Crown Polymer Bagging Ltd., Crown Power Generation Ltd., Crown Mariners Ltd., Crown Transportation & Logistics Ltd., Crown Cement Concrete & Building Materials Ltd. have been set up and are already in operation. The company has also acquired a handy max size ocean going ship to facilitate transportation of raw materials from abroad. It is hopefully expected that these new growth platforms will facilitate creation of new dimensions and frontiers to the mother company M. I. Cement Factory Limited. Crown Cement pioneered in export of cement in 2003 and paved the way for earning hard-earned foreign currency. Recently Crown Cement Achieved the National Export Trophy (Gold) twice for attaining the top most place among the cement exporters in Bangladesh. The factory possesses well communications facility both through water and road. It is located as West Mukterpur, Munshigonj on the bank of the river Dhaleswari. It is connected by a metallic road (Dhaka-Munshigonj Highway) linked with the whole country. 4

2.1 VISION Their vision is to make a contribution to the nation by creating opportunities in the arena of industrial growth and development of Bangladesh, and to provide solid foundations for society’s future.

2.2 MISSION As a modern cement company, they manufacture cement (Brand name: Crown Cement) to meet the needs of clients through innovative products & services that create value for all their stakeholders.

2.3 VALUES 2.3.1 COMMITMENT 

Shareholders – Create sustainable economic value for their shareholders by utilizing an honest and efficient business methodology.



Community – Committed to serve the society through employment creation, support community projects & events, and be a responsible corporate citizen.



Customers – Render service to their customers by using state-of-the-art technology, offering diversified products and aspiring to fulfill their needs to the best of their abilities.



Employees – Be reliant on the inherent merit of the employees and honor their relationships. Work together to celebrate and reward the unique backgrounds, viewpoints, skills, and talents of everyone at the work place, at each level.

2.3.2 ACCOUNTABILITY They are accountable for providing quality products & excellent services along with meeting the strict requirements of regulatory standards and ethical business practices.

2.3.3 INSPIRING, MOTIVATING & COMPELLING They are ambitious and innovative. They bring energy and imagination to their work in order to achieve a level of performance, not achieved before. They achieve a higher standard of excellence. Everything they produce should look fresh and modern. 5

2.3.4 ABILITY They have the ability to undertake the responsibility to materialize their commitment, and goals. In all matters they think ahead & take new initiatives. They can see things from different perspectives; they are open to change and not bounded by how they have done things in the past. They can respond rapidly and adjust their mode of operation to meet stakeholder needs and achieve their goals.

2.3.5 KEEP PROMISES Everything they do should work perfectly. In all matters they maintain integrity & excellence. They believe in actions, not in words.

2.3.6 BE RESPECTFUL They respect their customers, shareholders & others stakeholders and want to fulfill their needs. They are respectful in regard to all their interactions with the customers, shareholders & others stakeholders. They always appreciate comments & suggestions from their stakeholders. They are open, helpful & friendly. They have total commitment to customer satisfaction.

6

3. PLANT LOCATION 3.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE LOCATION Crown Cement began its journey in 1958. Ever since its establishment, it started its operations in West Mukterpur, Munshiganj . The major factors that the management considered while setting up the factory include: ● Proximity to raw materials ● Proximity to the market of finished goods ● Good transport facility ● Localization of industry By considering these factors, the location chosen was Munshiganj. During that time, large areas of land was readily available in Munshiganj and soon it grew into a major hub for cement industry. The Dhaleswari river next to the factory provides an excellent opportunity to ship raw materials in the company’s own vessels.

Figure 2: Crown Cement Factory 7

3.2 ADVANTAGES OF THE LOCATION There are several advantages behind choosing this particular location. They are:      

Bulk Raw Material can come from the river beside the plant, which is convenient and reduces cost Cement business of the country is controlled from the area where the plant is situated along with Meghna Ghat and Chittagong Dhaka is the largest buyer of cements. As the plant is close to Dhaka, delivery of product to dhaka can be done at low transportation cost from the plant The closeness of the location to Dhaka enabled the management to visit the plant conveniently and in any time they wanted. Availability to labor Adequate gas and electric supply in the location.

3.3 DISADVANTAGES OF THE LOCATION There are a few disadvantages to the plant location as well. they include: ● The road just outside the plant is very narrow, causes traffic congestion ● Having many other plants in the area also causes a lot of traffic

3.4 PLANT LAYOUT

Figure 3: Plant Layout of Crown Cement 8

Legends: 1. 4. 7. 10. 13. 16. 19.

Truck Loading Packer Barge Loading Line Cement Silo Bulk Loading Line Cement Silo Ariation System

2. 5. 8. 11. 14. 17. 20.

Bag Filter Cement Mill Separator Slag Lime Stone Gypsum Clinker

3. 6. 9. 12. 15. 18. 21.

Fly Ash Raw Material Shed Clinker Silo Hopper Barge Loader E Crane River

3.5 CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES Due to the many advantages stated above, the management do not plan to move the plant from its current position. However, as there is much land available, they do have plan to expand the plant further in the future. To do so, locals of the area are planning to be moved at the company’s expense to other location.

9

4. MACHINERY The machineries for the plant have been purchased mostly from Germany and Japan. However, some of them are also purchased from China and some other European countries. The following section details out the different types of machinery used to produce cement.

4.1 LIST OF PRODUCTION MACHINES E-CRANE MICFL has two jetties which are equipped with two E-cranes with a capacity of unloading 8000 MT/hr. FEEDING HOPPER Feeding hoppers are used to measure how much of the raw materials are fed into the grinding unit. CLINKER CRUSHER This machine breaks down the boulder sized clinkers into pebble sized clinkers before being fed into the grinding unit for further crushing. GRINDING UNIT/ BALL MILL MICFL has four modern grinding units which are operated through DCS system. The capacity of the five grinding units is given in the table below: Table 1:Grinding Capacity

Unit

Capacity (TPH)

Unit 1

25

Unit 2 (OPC)

35

Unit 3

65

Unit 4

125

Unit 5 (VRM)

175

Among these Unit is fully dedicated for OPC production with a capacity of 600 MT/day. The construction of the fifth unit with Vertical Roller Mill (Unit 5) which will have a capacity 4,200 MT/day is undergoing construction. 10

SEPARATOR The separator separates the fine product from the mixture and the unground mixture is again fed into the grinding unit.

4.2 LIST OF PACKAGING MACHINES 1. Five rotary Packer 2. One stationary Packer The capacity of the packers is given in the table below:

Table 2: Packaging Arrangement

Packer No.

Capacity

Purpose

Packer 1

90 MT/hr

PC and Export

Packer 2

100 MT/hr

PCC, Truck and barge loader

Packer 3, 4, 5 and 6

200 MT/hr

PCC and Truck

11

5. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION Cement is a hydraulic binder- a finely grinded inorganic material having adhesive and cohesive properties capable of setting and hardening by chemical reaction with water gaining strength and durability over time. It makes concrete when added with water and aggregate. Cements used in construction are usually inorganic, often lime or calcium silicate based, and can be characterized as being either hydraulic or non-hydraulic, depending upon the ability of the cement to set in the presence of water. TYPES OF CEMENTS: Cements can be classified under 5 Categories: Table 3: Types of Cements at Crown Cement

CEM I

• Portland Cement

CEM II

• Portland Slag • Portland Silica Fume • Portland Pozzolana • Portland Fly Ash • Portland Burnt Shale • Portland Limestone

CEM III

• Blast Furnace Cement

CEM IV

• Pozzolanic Cement

CEM V

• Composite Cement

12

5.1 CEM I Portland Cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world, used as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and most nonspecialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the mid19th century and usually originates from limestone. It is a fine powder produced by heating materials in a kiln to form what is called clinker, grinding the clinker, and adding small amounts of other materials. Several types Figure 4: Portland Cement of Portland cement are available, with the most common being called ordinary Portland cement (OPC) which is grey in color, but a white Portland cement is also available. Portland cement is caustic, so it can cause chemical burns. The powder can cause irritation or, with severe exposure, lung cancer and can contain some hazardous components such as crystalline silica and hexavalent chromium. Environmental concerns are the high energy consumption required to mine, manufacture, and transport the cement and the related air pollution, including the release of greenhouse gases (e.g., carbon dioxide), dioxin, NOx, SO2, and particulates (Type of Cements, 2014).

5.2 CEM II a. Portland-Slag Cement: Portland Slag Cement, commonly known as PSC, is blended cement. Slag is, essentially, a non-metallic product comprising of more than 90% glass with silicates and alumino-silicates of lime. At JSW Cement, we use superior quality slag produced at our steel manufacturing plant, conforming to IS: 12089 standards for producing PSC. It is created with a combination of upto 45- 50% slag, 45% – 50% clinker, and 3-5% gypsum. PSC has been voted as the most suitable cement for mass construction because of its low heat of hydration. b. Portland-Silica Fume Cement: Portland Silica Fume Cement is produced by milling clinker, silica fume (max. 10% by weight) and a given amount of gypsum. This cement type is newly adopted from European standards and has not got any sub classes. Its early strength value is PSFC 32.5 within 28 days (Cement Types, 2013). c. Portland Pozzolana Cement: The Portland Pozzolana Cement is a kind of blended cement which is produced by either inter-grinding of OPC clinker along with gypsum 13

and pozzolanic materials in certain proportions or grinding the OPC clinker, gypsum and pozzolanic materials separately and thoroughly blending them in certain proportions. d. Portland Fly-Ash Cement: A type of cement made by mixing ordinary Portland cement with fly-ash, offering concrete fluidity equivalent to that of ordinary Portland cement but with less mixing water by comparison, thus reducing hydration heat as well.

Figure 5: Cement and Fly Ash

e. Portland Limestone Cement: While regular Portland cement may contain up to 5%limestone, PLC is manufactured by inter-grinding Portland cement clinker with between 6% and 15% limestone. The clinker used to make PLC is the same clinker used to manufacture regular Portland cement. f. Portland Burnt Shale Cement: Burnt oil shale can be used as an additive in Portland cement concrete to economically produce structural and non-structural concrete with the same range of design strengths as conventional concrete.

5.3 CEM III Blast Furnace Cement: In Blast furnace cement, the slag as obtained from blast furnace is used. The slag is a waste product in the manufacturing process of pig-iron and it contains the basic elements of cement, namely, alumina, lime and silica. The clinkers of cement are ground with about 60 to 65 per cent of slag. The properties of blast furnace cement are more or less the same as those of ordinary cement. Its strength in early days is less and hence it requires longer curing period. It proves to be economical as slag, which is a waste product, is used in is manufacture. The blast furnace cement is durable, but not suitable for use in dry arid zones. 14

5.4 CEM IV Pozzolanic Cement: Pozzolanic Cement also commonly known as PPC cement. These types of cement are manufactured by using pozzolanic materials as one of the main ingredient. The percentage of pozzolanic material used in the preparation should be between 10 to 30. If the percentage is exceeded, the strength of cement is reduced. Some of the pozzolanic materials used are volcanic ash, shales and certain type of clays. But in our country (In India) Fly ash is the main constituent used in prepartion of cement. And moreover, this type of cement is used more than 80% for construction purposes.

5.5 CEM V Composite Cement: Portland composite cement is a cement consisting of Fly ash (PFA), slag and limestone. PCC is the most suitable cement for construction in Bangladesh. Portland Composite cement contains 80-94% Clinker, which is substantially higher than regular Portland cement containing 65 – 79% Clinker that gives extra advantage in strength development and increase concrete performance.

15

6. RAW MATERIALS Crown Cement is manufactured by blending different raw materials and heating them at a high temperature in order to achieve precise chemical proportions of lime, silica, alumina and iron in the finished product, known as cement clinker. Crown Cement been using clinker, fly ash, slag, limestone and gypsum of world class quality as raw materials, which are imported directly under our own supervision from Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Korea. The imported raw materials are preserved in a weather protected place to maintain the quality of materials intact. Apart from this, to ensure the standard and quality of the raw materials test certificate is obtained from the reputed International “Quality Assurance” firm like the SGS, the LIoyd before they are imported. The same are also tested in our own laboratory to ensure quality (Cement, Crown Cement, 2017).

6.1 CLINKER Clinker is the main raw material used by Crown Cement. Clinker consists of various calcium silicates including alite and belite. Tricalcium aluminate and calcium aluminoferrite are other common components. These components are often generated in situ by heating various clays and limestone Clinker is made by heating a homogeneous mixture of raw materials in a rotary kiln at high temperature . The products of the chemical reaction aggregate together at their sintering temperature, about 1,450 °C (2,640 °F). Aluminium oxide and iron Figure 6: Clinker oxide are present only as a flux to reduce the sintering temperature and contribute little to the cement strength.

6.2 GYPSUM Crown Cement uses Gypsum to retard the cement from immediate setting so that builders get enough time to get their work done. Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO. 4· 2H2O. It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer, and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard chalk and wallboard. Gypsum plays a very important role in controlling the rate of hardening of the cement. During Figure 7: Gypsum the cement manufacturing process, upon the cooling of clinker, a small amount of gypsum is introduced during the final grinding process. 16

6.3 SLAG Slag is the glass-like by-product left over after a desired metal has been separated (i.e., smelted) from its raw ore. Slag is usually a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. However, slags can contain metal sulfides and elemental metals. Ground granulated blast furnace slag is a hydraulic cement produced during the reduction of iron ore to iron in a blast furnace. At Crown Cement factory, molten slag is tapped from a blast furnace, rapidly quenched with water, dried and ground to a fine powder. Figure 8: Slag

6.4 LIME STONE Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Limestone is a key component for making Crown Cement. To make cement powder, limestone and clay are ground into a powder, mixed together in the proper proportions and then fed into a rotary kiln, which heats the raw materials to around 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit.

Figure 9: Lime Stone

6.5 FLY ASH Fly ash, also known as "pulverised fuel ash", is a coal combustion product composed of fine particles that are driven out of the boiler with the flue gases. Ash that falls in the bottom of the boiler is called bottom ash. In Crown Cement, fly ash is generally captured by electrostatic precipitators or other particle filtration equipment before the flue gases reach the chimneys. Fly ash is used as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in the Figure 10: Fly Ash production of Crown Cement. A supplementary cementitious material, when used in conjunction with portland cement, contributes to the properties of the hardened concrete through hydraulic or pozzolanic activity, or both.

17

7. WAREHOUSING Warehouse is a large building where raw materials or manufactured goods may be stored before their export or distribution for sale. Cement is made from different raw materials like Clinker, Gypsum, Lime Stone, Slag and Fly Ash. These materials are very delicate as they get completely ruined when they mix with water. The raw materials must be kept safely away from water. These raw materials are placed safely in huge warehouses. Crown Cement has different warehouses for different raw materials. The various warehouses used by M. I. Cement Factory are given in the followings:  CLINKER SILO AND CLINKER SHADE: A clinker silo is a special silo to keep the clinkers used in cement factories. After the raw meal is burned, the emerging clinker of varying consistency is stored for further processing. In addition to the intense dust generation, the sometimes very high product temperatures and the strong abrasion place heavy demands on the measurement technology. Depending on the production capacity of a cement plant, the clinker silos can be of considerable size, often reaching a height of over 50m. The silo used by Crown Cement can hold up to 60000 Metric Tons of clinkers. And the clinker shade has a capacity to store about 25000 metric tons of clinkers.

Figure 11: Clinker Shade

18

 FLY ASH SILOS: Crown Cement uses a special kind of vertical silo to keep its fly ashes. It has two fly ash silos. The capacities of these silos are 1600 metric tons and 1900 metric tons.  SLAG SHADE: A shade is a roof covered storehouse. Slag is a byproduct of steel industries and they are kept in a shade in the Crown Cement factory. It has only 1 shade to keep the slag. The capacity of this shade is 30000 metric tons.  GYPSUM SHADE: Crown cement factory also uses a shade to keep its gypsum stored. Its capacity is 8000 metric tons.  YARD FOR LIMESTONE: Limestone is a sedimentary rock and it doesn’t need very good maintenance. So it is stored in a yard. And this yard can hold up to 10000 metric tons of lime stone.

Figure 12: Limestone stored in the yard

The Crown Cement Factory does not have any warehouse for keeping its finished goods inside their factory. The finished goods are directly transferred to another safe house which is outside the factory.

19

8. PRODUCTION PROCESS MICFL uses clinker, fly ash, slag, limestone and gypsum of world class quality as raw materials, which are imported directly under their own supervision from Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Korea. The imported raw materials are preserved in a weather protected place to maintain the quality of materials intact. The countries from where each of the raw materials are purchased is shown in the following table (Raw Materials, 2017): Table 4: Sources of the raw materials

Name of raw material

Countries from where they are imported

Clinker

Vietnam, Thailand, China, Indonesia

Gypsum

Thailand, Oman, Iran

Slag

Japan, China, India, Taiwan

20

Picture

Lime Stone

Vietnam, Oman, India

Fly Ash

India, Vietnam

The raw materials reach Bangladesh through mother vessel comes to Chittagong port. Then feeder vessels are used to bring them to the site. Except for fly ash, all the other materials are unloaded manually or cranes. Special care is taken to unload fly ash to prevent wastage as it is the most expensive of the raw materials. The E-crane can unload 100 MT of fly ash in one hour. Once unloaded, they are stored in silos and sheds. The storage capacities are given below: Table 5: Raw Materials Storage Arrangement

SI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Particulars Clinker Silo Clinker Shade Fly Ash Silo 1 Fly Ash Silo 2 Slag Shade Gypsum Shade Yard for Limestone

21

Capacity 60,000 MT 25,000 MT 1,600 MT 1,900 MT 30,000 MT 8,000 MT 10,000 MT

8.1 PORTLAND CEMENT (PC) Portland Cement is their primary Cement type I, and belongs to the strength class of 52.5N. It has compressive strength of more than 20 N/nm2 or more than 52.5 N/nm2 if set for 2 days, or 28 days respectively. Its initial setting time is more than 45 minute and has a soundness (Expansion) of less than 10 nm. PC is manufactured by mixing 95% clinker with 5% gypsum. First, they are measured in the Feeding Hopper before being fed into the Grinding unit. The uncrushed clinker is then separated from the fine mixture and re-fed into the Grinding unit. The finished product is then sent to the packer to be packed into 50 kg bags. Then they are loaded into company owned trucks to be sent to the distributers or loaded into their vessels awaiting export. The entire production process of Portland Cement is summarized in a figure which has been developed below (Production Flow Chart, 2017):

Clinker Silo

Gypsum Shed

Storage at Silo/shed

Raw materials unloaded at jetty by crane

Separator

Fine Product Storage (OPC)

Feeding Hopper for individual weigh Feeder

Grinding unit/Ball Mill

Load to Truck

Packer

Figure 13: Production Process of PC

22

Customer

8.2 PORTLAND COMPOSITE CEMENT (PCC) Portland Cement is their primary Cement type II / A-M, and belongs to the strength class of 42.5N. It has compressive strength of more than 20 N/nm2 or between 42.5 N/nm2 and 62.5 N/nm2 if set for 2 days, or 28 days respectively. Its initial setting time is more than 60 minute and has a soundness (Expansion) of less than 10 nm. PCC is manufactured by mixing 80 – 94% Clinker, 620% Slag Limestone and Fly Ash, and 0-5% Gypsum. First, they are measured in the Feeding Hopper before being fed into the Grinding unit. The uncrushed clinker is then separated from the fine mixture and re-fed into the Grinding unit. The finished product is then sent to the packer to be packed into 50 kg bags. Then they are loaded into company owned trucks to be sent to the distributers or loaded into their vessels awaiting export. The entire production process of Portland Composite Cement is summarized in a figure which has been developed below:

Clinker Silo

Gypsum Shed

Fly Ash Silo

Slag Yard

Storage at Silo/shed

Raw materials unloaded at jetty by crane

Separator

Fine Product Storage (OPC)

Lime Stone Shed

Feeding Hopper for individual weigh Feeder

Grinding unit/Ball Mill

Load to Truck

Packer

Figure 14: Production Process of PCC .

23

Customer

8.3 BLAST FURNACE CEMENT (BFC) Blast Furnace Cement is a special Cement type III / A, and belongs to the strength class of 32.5N. It has compressive strength of more than 10 N/nm2 or between 32.5 N/nm2 and 52.5 N/nm2 if set for 2 days, or 28 days respectively. Its initial setting time is more than 75 minutes and has a soundness (Expansion) of less than 10 nm. BFC is manufactured by mixing 35 – 64% Clinker, 3665% Slag Limestone and 0-5% Gypsum. First, they are measured in the Feeding Hopper before being fed into the Grinding unit. The uncrushed clinker is then separated from the fine mixture and re-fed into the Grinding unit. The finished product is then sent to the packer to be packed into 50 kg bags. Then they are loaded into company owned trucks to be sent to the distributers or loaded into their vessels awaiting export. The entire production process of Blast Furnace Cement is summarized in a figure which has been developed below:

Clinker Silo

Gypsum Shed

Slag Yard

Storage at Silo/shed

Raw materials unloaded at jetty by crane

Separator

Fine Product Storage (OPC)

Feeding Hopper for individual weigh Feeder

Grinding unit/Ball Mill

Load to Truck

Packer

Figure 15: Production Process of BFC

24

Customer

9. PACKAGING PROCESS The finished product is either loaded directly into bulk carriers as per the customer’s requirement or packaged in standard cement packaging bags. Crown Cement has its own package production plant named “Crown Polymer Bagging Ltd”. It has the capacity to produce 60 million bags per year. The bags are either PP (Polypropylene) woven or made of Kraft paper. Each bag has the capacity to hold 50 kg of cement. The packaging facility has five modern rotary packers and one stationary packer in place. Packer1 has a packing capacity of 90 MT/hr, while Packer-2 through 6 each has a packing capacity of 100 MT/hr. Packer-1 is used for packing Portland Cement (PC) (PC, 2017) and Packer-2 to 6 are used for packing Portland Composite Cement (PCC) (PPC, 2017).

Figure 16: Different packaging used by Crown Cement

The packaging system is semi-automatic in the sense that it requires some human labor to function. After an empty cement bag is attached to the filling spout manually, it automatically fills the bag with cement and drops it to the conveyor belt. The packages coming out of the chute are weighed and then loaded into covered vans or trucks to save the bagged cement from moisture and transfer them to their destination without compromising the quality. Some of the filled bags coming out of Packer-2 are also loaded into barges through barge loaders for river way delivery. Usually no buffer stock is kept for the packaged cement.

25

10. SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT OF CROWN CEMENT The Supply Chain of Crown Cement starts from the very first stage of sourcing and procuring their raw materials which ends in delivering the products in the hands of the customers. Based on this process, their supply chain can be divided in to eight major segments:

Figure 17: SCM of Crown Cement

10.1 PROCUREMENT OF RAW MATERIALS Crown Cement at present produces two types of products: Portland Cement (PC) and Portland Component Cement (PCC). To produce these two kinds of products, Crown Cement needs to acquire five different raw materials: clinker, gypsum, slag, lime stone and fly ash. All the raw materials required for the production of the company are imported from abroad. As quality is the main concern of Crown Cement, all the materials are purchased from the countries where best quality materials are available. These five materials are imported from total eleven points throughout the world (Cement, Presentation Slides, 2017). Table 6: Sourcing Countries of Raw Materials

Raw Materials Clinker Gypsum Slag Lime Stone Fly Ash

Supplying Country Vietnam, Thailand, China, Indonesia Thailand, Oman, Iran Japan, China, India Vietnam, Oman, India India, Vietnam

10.2 RAW MATERIALS SHIPPING ARRANGEMENTS Procured materials are brought from the suppliers to the factory in two phases. 1. From Abroad to Chittagong Port, 2. From Chittagong Port to Factory Site.

26

From Abroad to Chittagong Port: Crown Cement carries the raw materials from abroad using its own ocean going mother vessels. Crown Cement has two existing maximum size ocean going mother vessels: ‘M. V. Crown Voyager’ and ‘M. V. Crown Victory’. In response to growing market demand Crown Cement is planning to increase its production capacity. To ensure the availability of raw materials on time, the company has recently purchased another Mother Vessel. From Chittagong Port to Factory Site:

Figure 18: Crown Cement Feeder Vessel: Crown Mariners

From Chittagong port imported raw materials are brought to the site by the river Dhaleswari using feeder vessels. For this transportation purpose Crown Cement has 14 well maintained feeder vessels of its own.

10.3 UNLOADING RAW MATERIALS E-crane: The company has two jetties equipped with two Ultra-Modern E-cranes with the capacity of unloading 8000 metric ton per hour. Clinkers, Gypsums, Slag and Lime stones are unloaded with the help of these E –cranes. Figure 19: E-Crane 27

Fly-ash Unloading System: Crown Cement uses modern fly ash unloading system which unloads fly ashes with the help of vacuum technique. It has the capacity of unloading 100 metric ton per hour.

Figure 20: Unloading of Fly Ash

10.4 RAW MATERIALS STORAGE ARRANGEMENTS After unloading raw materials are taken directly to specific stores of materials. At Crown cement there are organized storing spaces for raw materials. Clinkers are stored in silo and shades. Gypsum and Slag has their separate shades. Fly Ash is stored in two other separate silos. Limestone is stored in their yard.

Figure 21: Clinker Shade 28

Each of the materials has particular store where they are stocked. According to the production requirement the materials are brought from those stores. Table 7: Raw Material Storage Capacity

Material Clinker Gypsum Slag Limestone Fly Ash

Storing Space Clinker Silo Clinker Shade Gypsum Shade Slag Shade Yard for Limestone Fly Ash Silo 01 Fly Ash Silo 02

Capacity 60,000 MT 25000 MT 8,000 MT 30,000 MT 10,000 MT 1600 MT 1900 MT

10.5 PRODUCTION The raw materials are directly taken to the grinding machines with the help of cranes and other machineries. They need to be extra careful to store and move fly ash as the name suggests, it will fly away unless it is properly covered. The raw materials being brought to the grinding machines starts the production in the plant which ends in the packaging end of the facility.

The production facility of Crown Cement is very spacious which contains all their necessary layout of the facility. The overall compound being a 25 acre helped Crown Cement to currently facilitate four grinding units which are using cutting edge technology like any modern cement production facility. However, with their growing demand, they are construction another new unit which will have the highest production capacity in comparison to the current ones. The new grinding unit is 29

being constructed with Vertical Roller Mill which will have a capacity of producing 4200 MT cement per day. The production capacity of these four units along with the prosed one is described below: Unit Unit-1 Unit-2 Unit-3 Unit-4 Unit-5 (VRM)

Capacity (Ton Per Hour) 25 35 65 125 175

Currently the facility can produce 250 Tons of cement every hour. However, after the production starts with the latest unit, the production will be increased to 425 Tons per hour. This will help the company to meet their increasing demand.

10.6 PACKAGING The Crown Cement Polymer Bagging plant is inside their production facility. They have interconnected the production and packaging department to better facilitate their production. The polybags are produced in the packaging department from where it is easily transferred by the labor to the final step of the production process.

The Crown Cement packaging department has a total of five modern rotary packing system and one additional stationary packing system. The packers altogether have a capacity of packing 590 Metric Ton of cement per hour. The packers are produced on the basis of the cement production. The Polymer Bagging plant being inside the production facility helps the company to produce on need basis. 30

10.7 CARGO LOADING The beauty of the production process of Crown Cement is that their cargo loading system of the finished product is totally automated. After the finished product has been packed in their bags, the bags follow a spiral cargo belt which starts from the first floor of the final stage of the production department and goes straight downwards to the ground floor towards their cargo trucks.

Some workers always monitor the flow of the bags that are coming towards the trucks. However, this automated flow of packed cement bags helps Crown Cement to load their cargo trucks quickly and efficiently. The other option would have required the need of workers to carry these heavy packets from the production floor to the cargo trucks or vessels. Because of this spiral conveyer belt automated system, the process got easier for the workers and faster for the company. To load these cargo, Crown Cement has 10 loading points for Truck and Covered Vans. From those points, the trucks and covered vans are loaded. Besides, 3 loading points are there for Bulk Carriers so that the Bulk Carriers do not have to line up behind the Trucks and Covered Vans to load their cargo. Moreover, there are 2 more loading points for Modern Barge which is used to deliver the finished goods in the river way.

31

10.8 TRANSPORTATION & DELIVERY Crown Cement has their another sister concern which is Crown Transportation and Logistics. Through this, Crown Cement maintains their entire delivery system themselves. They do not have to use any third party to deliver their products. Their vehicles are loaded from their plant and goes directly to their destinations.

Currently Crown Cement has 45 Bulk Carriers, 245 Trucks and Covered Vans and 18 River Going Cargo which they use to deliver their products to their customer ends.

32

11. FORECASTING 11.1 FORECASTING DECISION In Crown Cement, decisions regarding the forecasting are taken directly from their head office at Gulshan. The management at the factory oblige by the demand forecasted from the head office. Usually the demand is forecasted based on the trend as cement usually has a seasonal demand in Bangladesh. The forecasting is done in such a way from the head office, so that the factory does not have to keep any finished good inventory in the plant. Even though this does not comply the Just in Time method properly, however Crown Cement tries their best to keep a harmony between their production and distribution.

11.2 FORECASTING TECHNIQUE Crown Cement uses the Moving Average Technique to forecast the future demand of the cement. The moving average technique involves a calculation to analyze data points by creating series of averages of different subsets of the full data set. It is also called a moving mean (MM) or rolling. There are different variations of moving average include: simple, and cumulative, or weighted forms. Given a series of numbers and a fixed subset size, the first element of the moving average is obtained by taking the average of the initial fixed subset of the number series. Then the subset is modified by "shifting forward"; that is, excluding the first number of the series and including the next value in the subset. A moving average is commonly used with time series data to smooth out short-term fluctuations and highlight longer-term trends or cycles. The threshold between short-term and long-term depends on the application, and the parameters of the moving average will be set accordingly. The moving average is more reliable than the simple average and the weighted average forecasting techniques. The main advantage of the moving average is that it uses the latest data for forecasting. On the other hand, the disadvantage of this technique is that data of too many periods can make it less responsive to changes in demand pattern. According to the factory management present during the factory visit, the demand of the cement is usually low during the rainy season as most people avoid construction work in the rainy season. Likewise, the demand is high in the dry seasons. Moreover, the cement industry is a cyclical industry, i.e. it is sensitive to the business cycle such that revenues are generally higher in periods of economic prosperity and expansion and lower in periods of economic downturn and contraction.

33

12. INVENTORY MANAGEMENT Inventory management is the process of supervising and controlling of the ordering process, storage and usage of the raw materials, and the quantities of finished products that are ready for sale (Safety Stock, 2015). To be an efficient firm, a good inventory management is a must. Crown cement also has a very detailed and robust inventory management.

12.1 SOFTWARE USED As part of their inventory management, Crown cement currently uses an ORACLE based software. However, they are in the process of replacing the ORACLE based software with a SAP module and it will be introduced very soon. Some of the key features of their inventory management system: 

Order management



Raw material usage management



Finished product management

12.2 INVENTORY MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES 12.2.1 JUST-IN-TIME INVENTORY MANAGEMENT Just-in-time inventory management is an inventory management strategy in which the raw materials and goods arrive at the exact moment of need. This system reduces the inventory related costs as the holding period drops to the minimum (Just In Time, 2017). While ordering for raw materials, Crown Cement tries to follow JIT. However, in reality, it very difficult to maintain such strict timeline due to many external factors such as weather and strike. As a result, they usually plan in such a way that they are not affected by the external factors.

12.2.2 SAFETY STOCK Safety Stock refers the extra stock that is maintained to avoid the risk of shortfall in raw materials or finished goods. When it comes to raw materials, Crown cement do like keep safety stocks to counter the effects that the external factors might have.

34

However, when it comes to finished goods, Crown cement do to keep any safety stock. This is because they produce cement on order basis.

12.2.3 FIRST IN FIRST OUT (FIFO) First in first out, FIFO, is an inventory management technique in which the oldest raw materials are to be used first or the oldest item in the finished goods segment to be sold first. Crown Cement follows FIFO method in both their production and sales. This is done so that no raw materials or finished products are wasted. Furthermore, this method also helps the accounting procedures as the flow of costs matches the flow of physical goods.

12.2.4 ABC CLASSIFICATION ABC classification is the process of categorizing the inventory items according to their relative worth and importance. Here, the items that have the most relative worth and importance are categorized into category “A”. The next segment is the category “B” which contains the next lot according to relative worth and importance and so on. Crown Cement, however, does not follow ABC classification. Their logic is that all of the 5 raw materials are equally important in producing cement and without any one of them, the cement cannot be produced.

35

13. QUALITY CONTROL It is needless to mention that quality control is indispensable and must be ascertained in each step of the production process. They strive to maintain quality at every stage of production. Before reaching the product to the hands of consumers, quality is strictly inspected and there is no point of delivering poor, defective products to the hands of consumers. However, interestingly the defective, substandard products are recycled to match the benchmark quality under strict production process. Overall, the main objective for Crown cement is to produce zero defective yet quality products. They strive hard to maintain the product quality and do so by undertaking the following measures (Quality Control, 2017)

To ensure the quality key personnel such quality control manager, management representative. Meanwhile, in the plant, the head of the executive takes the charge and control the quality, monitors the equipment used in production.



Inspection and sample tests are performed in the laboratory by the chemists and technicians. Both physical and chemical tests are performed with the sample of cement before imported for production. Well trained chemists and technicians from home and abroad are extremely qualified and trained.



Crown thrives on continuous improvement of product quality to sustain the cement industry and still holds pivotal position over the years. However, Total Quality Management (TQM) is not practiced by Crown cement.



Before the product is sent out to the factory for production, the strength and ingredients of the product are also tested to match the standard quality.



Besides, the packaging bag and weight per bag are also tested to make sure that the quality of the packaging bag and weight of the bag are correct.



Continuous emphasis on quality assurance helps Crown to reduce machinery breakdowns despite incurring more on maintenance cost to ensure quality.



Involvement of the workers in quality control activities helps them improve their problemsolving capabilities and productivity.



Persistent focus on quality has helped Crown to lower their production cost by minimizing defects and thereby achieve economies of scale 36



The chemists conduct the compressive strength test whereby they make concrete or mortal cubes of different test age of 3 days, 7 days and 28 days, as per ASTM C-150, and 2 days & 28 days as per European Standard (EN).

13.1 LIST OF CERTIFICATIONS Since its inception in 1994, Crown cement has won many awards thanks to its consistent performance over the years. Persistence on quality assurance has paid off Crown cement. Some of the notable accolades won over the years are mentioned below (Certifications, 2017): 2008: Started the procedure for getting ISO 2009: Awarded National Export Trophy (Gold) 2010: Awarded National Export Trophy (Gold) 2014: Achieved ICMAB Best Corporate Award

Figure 22: Certifications 37

13.2 QUALITY CONTROL DEPARTMENT AND PERSONNEL Crown has prioritized research and development by setting up a concrete research and testing lab. As mentioned earlier, the quality control department consists of a modern well-equipped physical and chemical laboratory where raw materials are tested each and every hour during the production process. List of major laboratory equipment and their functions: a) ED XRF Machine: Analysis of ingredients in raw materials and finished products. b) Compressive Strength Machine: Determination of comprehensive strength of cement cubes and cylinders. c) Spectrophotometer: Determination of Chloride percentages in raw materials and finished products. d) Flame Photometer: Determination of alkali percentages in raw materials and finished products. e) Auto cleave: Determination of Soundness of finished products f) Blaine Apparatus: Finesse Testing of finished products. g) Moisture Analyzer: Determine moisture content of raw materials and finished product. h) Vicat Apparatus: Determination of setting time of finished products (Crown Cement, 2017). On the other hand, highly trained and experienced chemists and technicians in the cement industry are employed to ensure the quality. Personnel who inspect and monitor the overall quality include quality control manager, head of executives and management representative. Some of the key technicians are given below: Name

Designation

Engr. Saiful Alam

Executive Director

Engr. ASM Fahim Uddin

Sr. General Manager

Engr. Subodh Kumar Bannerjee

General Manager

Md. Habibur Rahman

Deputy General Manager

Engr. Quazi Asif Afzal Hasib

Assistant General Manager

Abu Ahmed Zahid

Sr. Manager

38

14. WASTE MANAGEMENT Waste Management is slowly becoming one of the major concerns of the cement industry in Bangladesh. It was not given enough importance before, however, the situation is changing dayby-day. There are three major sectors of waste management that the cement industry needs to particularly focus on, they are: o Trash Management o Effluent Treatment Plant o Air-pollution Management Crown cement recognizes that waste management is becoming one of their major weaknesses in recent times, and is planning to improve the situation as much as possible.

14.1 TRASH MANAGEMENT Trash management or Waste disposal is all the activities and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes amongst other things, collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste together with monitoring and regulation. It also encompasses the legal and regulatory framework that relates to trash management encompassing guidance on recycling. Crown Cement is also concerned about strengthening their trash management system. Cement industries are among the most polluting industries in Bangladesh. At Crown Cement Factory, the air of neighboring environment around the cement plant is being polluted by many effluents coming out of the machineries. Highly toxic and carcinogenic pollutants are emitted from cement kiln. Adverse respiratory health effects are also seen in the people exposed to cement dust. Crown Cement is trying to make considerable efforts for controlling the stack emissions using most efficient control systems like bag filter and ESP.

14.2 EFFLUENT TREATMENT PLANT Industrial wastewater treatment covers the mechanisms and processes used to treat wastewater that is produced as a by-product of industrial or commercial activities. After treatment, the treated industrial wastewater (or effluent) may be reused or released to a sanitary sewer or to a surface water in the environment. Crown Cement does not have a proper effluent treatment plant because Crown Cement, being a cement factory, doesn’t need water.

39

14.3 AIR POLLUTION MANAGEMENT Air Emissions include: ● Nitrogen Oxides ● Sulfur Dioxides ● Particulate matter ● Greenhouse gases such as CO2 Crown Cement installed Electrostatic Precipitator and Bag Filter to reduce gases emissions. Now a day’s BFs and ESP are used for gases emission reductions which have high de-dusting efficiency during normal condition. BF’s as filtering which can be of woven or felted cotton, synthetic or glass-fiber in tube or envelope shape which allows passage of gases and arrest dust particle which can be collected at the bottom. Pressure drop over the filter will be very high which cause high power consumption. Bags have a limited life and due to the growth of pinholes, tearing of bag or breaking of seal at fixing point cause high emission. The main advantage of bag filters is during particular conditions like high CO concentration, kiln start-up; kiln shut down the de-dusting efficiency of BFs remains unchanged while the efficiency of other Air pollution control device will be decreased. Crown Cement uses electrostatic precipitator for separating of the dust from the gases. Due to high negative voltage Discharge electrode provides electrons which settle on dust particle. These particles separate on collecting electrodes because of the electric field between discharge and collecting electrode. Accumulated dust is collected in the hopper by electrode rapping. These rapping can be done by sonic wave also if surface treatment is done by acoustic horns

40

15. TIME PLANNING 15.1 DELIVERY PLANNING Crown Cement puts a lot of importance on timely delivery of finished products. Apart from the product quality, they consider timely shipment of products the most important factor in ensuring customer satisfaction. They have many business customers who maintain a very tight schedule for construction works and expect delivery in a timely manner. Crown Cement plans its delivery schedule in a way so that these business customers can be served in due time. If there is a possibility to miss the scheduled time for shipment, then the factory manager asks for more time from the customer. The Head of Production looks after the time scheduling of shipment and takes decisions to smoothly deliver the finished products based on the production and delivery capacity.

15.2 SCHEDULE OF DELIVERY Crown Cement has two seasons in a production year. The demand of cement is at its peak during the dry season (from October to March) and it sees a decline during the wet season (from April to September). Naturally, the schedule of delivery is very tight during the dry season. But Crown Cement hardly fails to meet customer expectations for product delivery thanks to its sister concern, “Crown Transportation & Logistics Ltd.”, which carries out the delivery tasks of Crown Cement. After receiving the production requirement, delivery is normally done within 15 days.

15.3 MEDIUM OF DELIVERY Crown Cement uses two modes of transportation for delivery - by river and by road. As mentioned earlier, the plant is situated by the river ‘Dhaleshwari’ and they try to deliver by river as much as possible since this mode of transportation is most cost-efficient. They have their own water vessels named ‘Crown Voyager’ and ‘Crown Mariner’. They have 2 Crown Voyagers with a capacity of 46,000 MT each and 14 Crown Mariners with a capacity of 2,500 MT each. They also use thirdparty vessels alongside their own for meeting their delivery needs. As for the road transportation facility, they have the largest convoy of vehicles in the industry which consists of 45 bulk carriers and 245 trucks and covered vans. All these vehicles are GPS enabled so that the authority can track and monitor the route of these vehicles in real-time and guide the drivers whenever necessary to ensure that the delivery is made on time.

15.4 POINT OF DELIVERY For business customers, the point of delivery is normally the site location of the construction. For dealers and retailers, it’s normally their warehouse. In case of delivery conflict, business customers are always given more priority over retail customers. For export purpose, the products are sent up to Chittagong port by river or by road and then loaded into containers and shipped to the destinations. Products are also sent through Benapole port at different destinations by road. 41

16. WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT 16.1 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Figure 23: Crown Cement: Organizational Structure

42

16.2 MANAGEMENT TEAM M.I. Cement Factory Ltd has a team of skilled, qualified and experienced Engineers, Expert Marketing Team, Chemist and Technicians under whose supervision, guidance and direct participation the production activities are carried out. Behind the screen, there is a promising, honest and experienced management team to oversee and manage the whole production & distribution network. The sponsors of the project had their experience of forty years in cement trading & manufacturing. From their experience they have learned that there is no alternative to quality, correct weight of goods and rendering of satisfactory services to customers. The efficient management team abides by: 

Integrity in all their dealings.



Excellence in everything they do.



Total Commitment to customer satisfaction.



Thinking ahead and taking new initiatives.

16.3 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT The Company arranged training to its employees and workers in their respective field both internally and also engaging experts on contractual basis. Also let some of the key personnel to attend workshop and symposium on cement matter both at home and abroad. The company has its well-versed engineers and other marketing team who constantly get in touch with the seller and consumers impart technical assistant and advice in construction work.

16.4 ADHERENCE TO COMPLIANCE The company strongly believes that adherence to social, ethical and environmental standards, laws and workplace regulations as laid down by local and international bodies is one of its corporate responsibilities. The following policies have been adopted and implemented by Crown Cement: Compensation and benefits- M.I. Cement Factory Ltd pays their workers more than the minimum wage determined by the government. The lowest wage paid by them amounts to Tk. 6000/month whereas minimum wage set by the government is Tk. 5500. Hours of Work- They comply with hours worked each day and days worked each week. They provide at least one day off in every seven-day period. The workers work for 8 hours a day.

43

Freedom of Association & Collective Bargaining- They recognize and respect the right of employees to exercise their lawful rights of free association and collective bargaining. Safety, Health and Environment- Safety, Health and Environment is a vital part of Crown Cement’s journey towards sustainable development. Their goal is to ensure zero harm to people. They equip their employees and contractors with job specific Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), which leading them to establish a strong safety culture. The company is accountable for prevention of injuries and occupational illness which has been minimized through proper training to all level of employees. They have a target to achieve ISO EMS (Environmental Management System) 14001 and OHSAS (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series) 18001 within the quickest possible time. Prohibitions of Forced Labor- They do not use involuntary or forced labor - indentured, bonded or otherwise.

16.5 PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL M.I. cement Factory Ltd. (Crown Cement) follows the performance Appraisal system strictly. They evaluate their employees on the basis of their performance. Mainly they evaluate what the employees are given target and what they have achieved. M.I. cement Factory Ltd. (Crown Cement) evaluated their employees because they want to know: •

What actually their employees are doing,

•

Whether they are fulfilling their duties and responsibilities or not,

•

Whether they have achieved their target or not,

•

To motivate the employees and make them more effective at work,

•

To give the employees rewards, promotion, increment.

Here in this company mainly followed 2 types of Performance Management System. They are: 1. Employee Performance Evaluation- Yearly (Done Once in a Year) 2. Employee Excellence Performance- Quarterly (Done 4 times in a year).

 POLICY FOR EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION (YEARLY) The total evaluation is for 200 marks. For Self Evaluation there are 100 marks and for supervisor 100 marks are also assigned. •

Employees have to judge themselves on 2 to 4 matrices, which depend on job descriptions. 44

•

Supervisor will also judge employees on matrices, but total value from this will be 95, and the rest 5 marks will be assigned as disciplinary action rate.

•

After the total rate is calculated out of the 200 marks, then it will be divided by 2.

•

According to final rate the employee will get reward or punishment according to his/her performance. For 5 Points (90-100): 4 Increments + Promotion +Incentives, for 4 Points (80-89): 3 Increments + Promotion, for 3 Points (70-79): 2 Increments, for 2 Points (6069): General Increment, for 1 Point (50 -59): No Increment will be given, for 0 Point (≤ 49): he might get warning or get fired.

•

Here, for giving the promotion, employee have to work at least 2 years within the organization neither cannot get the promotion. They will only get the increment and incentives.

 POLICY FOR (QUARTERLY)

EMPLOYEE

EXCELLENCE

PERFORMANCE

AWARD

•

Employee Excellence performance will be evaluated after every 3 months for the period of last 3 months. That means from January-March, April-June, July-September, OctoberDecember.

•

The Evaluation Form will be given to each of Department Head and they will evaluate their departmental employees and give the names as nominee for the further process with supported and logical document. After getting the entire nominee’s name Jury Board will choose the Excellent Performer and the decision of the Jury Board will be final.

•

There will be a Jury Board to evaluate employee’s performance.

•

Highest 2 employees will be chosen as Excellent Performer.

•

Reward will be given within 7 days after completed the evaluation. For the period of January – March, reward and certificate will be given within 7th April.

•

After the performance evaluation respective person will be get Tk. 5,000. & a Certificate as a reward.

•

Performance Evaluation will be done according to some criteria and some points will be given to these criteria. According to the total points employee will be chosen as Excellent Performer.

•

Manager and above officer’s will not be evaluated under this evaluation system.

•

This Performance Evaluation will effect on the Employee’s Yearly Performance Evaluation. 45

17. WORK ENVIRONMENT: HEALTH AND SAFETY 17.1 WORKING CONDITIONS Currently, 1745 employees are overall employed in Crown Cement factory where 588 workers work in the plant. Workers are entitled to work for 8 hours a day whereas there is no provision for overtime. Meanwhile, the employee turnover rate is less than 1 year implying that the high morale of the employees. Employees are allowed to take paid sick leave of total 14 days in a year and are also compensated on various festivals and Eid bonuses. Workers are given minimum wages as per law. Furthermore, Crown discourages child labor as it is strictly prohibited to employ child aged under 15. Crown also ensure that the employees are free from any sort of discrimination and harassment or any sort of harsh treatment. The overall working conditions have helped employees keep their motivation and dedication upright to work for the company with satisfaction. Very recently Crown stroke a deal with a leading industry of the country GPH Ispat to innovate and develop environment-friendly construction materials such as cement. The working condition is facilitated by safety precautions, emission controls, emergency exits, emergency response team, first aid despite notwithstanding dust, noise and pollution.

17.2 SAFETY ACCORD Cement factory is a hazardous place to work in with cement carrying a traceable amount of toxic substances. However, Crown gives utmost importance to ensure workplace safety. Since workplace safety is a much-debated issue in the industrial sector of Bangladesh, Crown has all the modern safety devices and emergency Equipment to ensure a very safe working environment. Despite unpreventable dust and noise inside the cement factory, all the workers work with safety precautions such as face mask, helmet inside the plant to protect from dust and unexpected falling objects. They are made aware of the safety precautions and trained to use and respond to the emergencies if needed. Furthermore, safety precautions and signs are noticeable at the entrances to aware the employees. Employees are always strongly recommended to put on the safety gears. Warnings are also placed in hazardous working areas with proper lightings. To ensure that the machinery and equipment do not break down under any circumstances, they are regularly maintained and repaired. Moreover, employees put on safety harnesses such as goggles, gloves and boots when working in elevated places or inside the plant. It is always comfortable working in a condition that is not hazardous. Hence Crown has been able to maximize employee productivity by keeping them free from all sorts of physical injuries.

46

17.3 TREATING INJURIES Some circumstances are still unavoidable and so there are slim chances of injuries. However, Crown has provisions such as first aid, medical services, emergency transportation to the hospital to counteract any sort of physical injuries to its employees. Employees are promptly treated as per the degree of injury. Due to all the necessary measures and provisions, Crown has done a remarkable job in counteracting physical damage to its employees.

17.4 RESPONSIBILITIES OF SAFETY AND HEALTH MANAGER They have an Environment Safety and Health Manager in the factory, whose responsibility is: 

To take personal ownership & responsibility for protecting people from harm, developing strategies that drive performance and support continuous improvement.



To determine and provide the necessary HSE services at the work site.



To provide guidance and support to the Safety Representatives assigned to each Functional Lead.



To support develop, implement and revise the HSE plan (e.g. HASAP)



To audit the site HSE management system to determine compliance levels.



To develop a site-specific HSE training matrix to establish and ensure minimum training requirements.



To analyze statistical data; track & trend results; make recommendations and recognize achievements.



To prepare and submit required reports to the concern higher authority.



To assist in the investigation of incidents for root cause identification and recommended preventive action; include supervisors and management to prepare injury, incident and loss control reports. Share lessons learned.

47

18. CHALLENGES Since it began its operation in the year 2000, Crown Cement factory has become a modern and efficient cement producing plant with state-of-the-art machineries, modern technology and the best quality raw materials. Despite all these things, it faces regular challenges some of which are production-centric while others are related to the external environment. Following is a list of challenges faced by Crown Cement – 

Almost all of the raw materials are imported. So if the supplies are cut-off due to adverse political cause or other disturbance, the production may be affected severely.



There are many other cement factories in the area and almost all of them, including Crown Cement, use the narrow road in front of the plant. As a result, a huge number of trucks and vans coming in and out of the factories cause regular traffic congestion in the area.



Exporting finished goods via Chittagong port takes a portion out of the profit since the factory is situated far away from Chittagong and the transfer cost is high.



In the dry season, when demand for construction and building materials is at its peak, the factory undergoes a lot of pressure to keep up with customer demand and sometimes making deliveries on time becomes very challenging.



The plant produces a lot of dust. Even though the factory has installed industry-level dust collectors around the plant to limit pollution as much as possible, the amount of dust in the air is still not at an acceptable level and it may cause health hazard for the workers.



Crown Cement is planning to expand its plant by taking over surrounding lands of local inhabitants. This acquisition will be a challenging task for the company.



According to the industry forecast, the demand for cement will see a decline after 2050. Although it is a long way into the future, Crown Cement should start building a contingency plan to keep its business running when the time comes.

48

19. RECOMMENDATIONS 

In the dry season, when demand for construction and building materials is at its peak, sometimes they fail to make deliveries on time. Since they are increasing their production capacity further, delivery will become the only problem. They should design a flexible distribution channel in this regard.



The plant needs to bring down dust pollution to an acceptable level. In order to reduce dust, dusty areas such as roads can be dampened or wetted & thereby decreasing air pollution to a great extent.



According to the industry forecast, the demand for cement will see a decline after 2050. Although it is a long way into the future, Crown Cement should start building a contingency plan to keep its business running when the time comes.



They need to improve their storage capacity. At the time of the visit, their storage for clinker was full. Due to this, they were unable to unload the delivery of clinker they had received.

49

20. CONCLUSION Right after the inception, Crown Cement has been one of the leading manufacturers in Bangladesh. It paved the way of exporting cement in global market as the pioneer in 2003. At present Crown Cement has become the reliable brand name in the market of cement. It is contributing not only by earning foreign currency for Bangladesh but also by enabling strong foundation for infrastructures (roads, bridges, buildings etc.) of Bangladesh. One of the prime factors behind the success of Crown Cement is its high quality product. With the support of in-house well equipped laboratory, Crown Cement is supplying consistently quality cement in the market. Along with that, strongly integrated supply chain and healthy work environment for employees add valuable essence to the operational efficiency of the company. But there are still some rooms for improvement in the journey of success. Making the road to factory site wider in order to remove the transportation hassles and installing more dust collector to reduce air pollution should be paid attention with importance. In terms of operation and production, Crown Cement has already a strong management system. It strictly follows the standards set by the Government and other regulatory bodies related to the industry. If it can get over to few challenges it facing, then that time is not so far when Crown Cement will be the market leader of cement industry.

50

REFERENCES Brief History. (2017). Retrieved from Crown Cement: http://www.crowncement.com/company/aboutus/brief-history/ Cement Types. (2013). Retrieved from Cement.org: http://www.cement.org/cement-concretebasics/concrete-materials/cement-types Cement, C. (2017). Crown Cement. Retrieved from http://www.crowncement.com/ Cement, C. (2017). Presentation Slides. Certifications. (2017). Retrieved from Crown Cement: http://www.crowncement.com/products/quality/certificates-test-report/ Crown Cement. (2017). Retrieved from Crown Cement: http://www.crowncement.com/products/quality/quality-control/ Just In Time. (2017). Retrieved from Investopedia: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/j/jit.asp PC. (2017). Retrieved from Crown Cement: http://www.crowncement.com/products/cement/portlandcement-pc/ PPC. (2017). Retrieved from Crown Cement: http://www.crowncement.com/products/cement/portlandcomposite-cement-pcc/ Production Flow Chart. (2017). Retrieved from Crown Cement: http://www.crowncement.com/products/production-flow-chart/ Quality Control. (2017). Retrieved from Crown Cement: http://www.crowncement.com/products/quality/quality-control/ Raw Materials. (2017). Retrieved from Crown Cement: http://www.crowncement.com/products/rawmaterials/ Safety Stock. (2015). Retrieved from Easy Stock: http://www.eazystock.com/blog/2015/04/30/4reasons-for-carrying-safety-stock-inventory/ Type of Cements. (2014). Retrieved from The Constructor: https://theconstructor.org/building/types-ofcement-composition-uses/5974/

51

APPENDIX

A

STRUCTURED QUESTIONNAIRE FOR INTERVIEW FACILITY LOCATION 1. What are your reasons for choosing this particular location to set up your facility? 2. What are the main advantages of this specific location? 3. Are there any disadvantages of this site location? 4. Do you have any plan to shift this location? If yes, then where? 5. What is the total area of the premises? 6. Was Crown Cement facility situated in any different location previously? LAYOUT 7. Please describe the layout of this facility. 8. Can we have the flowchart of the overall operations? MACHINERIES 9. How many types of machineries are there and which one is used for what purpose? 10. Where are the machineries being purchased from and why? 11. What is the usual lifetime of the machineries? PRODUCTION PROCESS 12. Please discuss about your production process. 13. Which production process is followed for the operations. FORECASTING 14. What forecasting technique is used? 15. What forecasting software? QUALITY CONTROL 16. What QC measures are you taking? 17. Is there implication of Total Quality Management? 18. What do you do with the rejected goods?

B

SCHEDULING 19. How do you plan the production process? 20. What time management or scheduling do you use? INVENTORY AND WAREHOUSE 21. Please explain about the raw materials warehouse 22. What type of raw materials are kept inside the warehouse? 23. What is the capacity of the raw material warehouse? 24. Please describe the finished goods warehouse 25. What is the capacity of the finished goods warehouse? 26. How do they prioritize your inventory items (i.e. ABC) 27. How the raw materials are being procured? (locally/abroad) 28. What kind of inventory management software is used for Crown Cement? ENVIRONMENT AND SAFETY 29. Tell us about your Effluent Treatment Plant? 30. How much the factory is polluting the area? What steps are being taken to overcome that? 31. What are the procedure to treat an injured person during any in-factory accident?

C

INTERVIEW SUMMARY IDENTITY OF PRESENTATION AND Q&A PERSONNEL. Abu Ahmed Zahid: Sr. Manager (QA & Lab): Main Presenter Engr. Quazi Asif Afzal Hasib: Assistant GM (Production) Mr. Mosleh Uddin: AGM COMMENT ON THE LOCATION OF THE SITE/PLAN. Advantages: 

Bulk Raw Material can come from the river beside the plant



Cement business of the country is controlled from the area where the plant is situated along with Meghna Ghat and Chittagong



Close to Dhaka, so has an advantage to deliver product there from the plant

Disadvantages: 

The road just outside the plant is very narrow, causes traffic congestion



Having many other plants in the area also causes a lot of traffic

AREA OF THE PREMISE. 25 Acre.

ANY OTHER PLANT BEFORE STARTING THIS ONE? No.

ANY PLAN TO SHIFT THIS LOCATION? IF YES, THEN WHERE? No plan to move anywhere from here. However, plan to make local expansion is here. To do so, locals of the area are planning to be moved at the company’s expense to other location.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRODUCTION PROCESS. Provided two Flow Charts in the slides they presented. D

WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM CAPACITY OF PRODUCTION? 6000 units a day FROM WHERE THE MACHINERIES USED IN THE FACTORY HAVE BEEN PURCHASED? China, Germany, Japan and some other European countries. Mostly from Germany and Japan.

WHAT IS THE LIFETIME OF THE MACHINERIES BEING USED IN THE PLANT? Depends highly on the type of the machine. For example, the Grinding machine has 40 years of warranty, so the company will not have to bear any cost for 40 years for any faults of that machine.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WAREHOUSE. Shown in details during the plant visit.

WHAT TYPE OF INVENTORIES ARE KEPT IN THE WAREHOUSE? All 5 of their raw materials. And also their finished product which does not required to be inside the plant for long as they produce based on the orders they receive.

HOW IS THE INVENTORY IS MANAGED? FIFO

SOURCES OF RAW MATERIALS. All from abroad. Gypsum from middle east, Limestone from Vietnam etc.

ANY KIND OF ABC CLASSIFICATION USED? No.

ANY KIND OF EFFLUENT TREATMENT PLANT? No. because water is the enemy for cement. So the factory doesn’t need any ETP. E

HOW IS THE DEMAND IS FORECASTED? ANY SOFTWARE USED? Demand is seasonal. Demand is less during rainy season and high during dry season. They were using Oracle as ERP, but is shifting in SAP from this May.

ANY QUALITY CERTIFICATION? Yes. Shown in the slide during their presentation.

WHAT TYPE OF MEASURES ARE TAKEN FOR QUALITY CONTROL? There is a Quality Control Manager. Management Representative control the overall quality. In the plant, the head of the executives control everything. (So, the TQM is not being implemented in the company.) However, the aspect of continuous improvement is there. Sample tests are always performed in the in-site labs.

HOW IS THE QUALITY ENSURED? Non-conforming products are identified and made sure that they are not being delivered to the customers. Non-conforming products are recycled.

FROM WHERE ARE THE RAW MATERIALS SOURCED? Abroad. Details in slides.

HOW THE RAW MATERIALS REACH THE SITE? Through mother vessel comes to Chittagong port. Then feeder vessels are used to bring them to the site.

DOES CROWN CEMENT HAVE THEIR OWN MOTHER AND FEEDER VESSELS? Yes. 3 mother vessels and 14 feeder vessels. Details in slides. HOW IS THE FINISHED PRODUCT DELIVERED TO CUSTOMERS’ ENDS? Through Crown Cement’s own vehicles. Details on slides.

F

WHAT KIND OF POLLUTION IS BEING CAUSED BY THE PLANT? Only air pollution. Measures are being taken to reduce it as much as possible. 64 dust collectors have been set up so far in the plant.

HOW MANY WORKERS ARE WORKING CURRENTLY ON THE PLANT? 588 workers

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE WORKING FOR CROWN CEMENT IN TOTAL? 1745 WHAT IS THE WAGE OF THE LABORS? Tk. 6000/month. (Minimum wage set by the government is Tk. 5500)

ANY OVERTIME SYSTEM? No. workers work for 8 hours a day.

WHAT IS THE EMPLOYEE TURNOVER RATE? Less than 1 a year.

G

PHOTO GALLERY

H

I