Operational excellence in cement is about producing smarter, cleaner and more reliably, where cost per tonne meets carbon per tonne. Industry experts weigh in on achieving sustainability through operational efficiency.

Operational excellence in cement has moved far beyond the old pursuit of ‘more tonne’. The new benchmark is smarter, cleaner, more reliable production, delivered with discipline across process, people and data. In an industry where energy can account for nearly 30 per cent of manufacturing cost, even marginal gains translate into meaningful value. As Dr SB Hegde, Professor, Jain College of Engineering & Technology, Hubli and Visiting Professor, Pennsylvania State University, USA, puts it, “Operational excellence is no longer about producing more. It is about producing smarter, cleaner, more reliably, and more sustainably.” The shift is structural: carbon per tonne will increasingly matter as much as cost per tonne, and competitiveness will be defined by the ability to stabilise operations while steadily lowering emissions.

From control rooms to command centres
The modern cement plant is no longer a handful of loops watched by a few operators. Control rooms have evolved from a few hundred signals to thousands—today, up to 25,000 signals can compete for attention. Dr Rizwan Sabjan, Head – Global Sales and Proposals, Process Control and Optimisation, Fuller Technologies, frames the core problem plainly: plants have added WHRS circuits, alternative fuels, higher line capacities and tighter quality expectations, but human attention remains finite. “It is quite impossible for an operator to operate the plant with so many things being added,” he says. “We need somebody who can operate 24×7 without any tiredness, without any distraction. The software can do that for us better.”
This is where advanced process control shifts from ‘automation spend’ to a financial lever. Dr Hegde underlines the logic: “Automation is not a technology expense. It is a financial strategy.” In large kilns, a one per cent improvement is not incremental, it is compounding.

Stability is the new productivity
At the heart of operational excellence lies stability. Not because stability is comfortable, but because it is profitable, and increasingly, low-carbon. When setpoints drift and operators chase variability, costs hide in refractory damage, thermal shocks, stop-start losses and quality swings. Dr Sabjan argues that algorithmic control can absorb process disturbances faster than any operator, acting as ‘a co-pilot or an autopilot’, making changes ‘as quick as possible’ rather than waiting for manual intervention. The result is not just fuel saving; it is steadier operation that extends refractory life and reduces avoidable downtime.
The pay-off can be seen through the lens of variability: manual operation often amplifies swings, while closed-loop optimisation tightens control. As Dr Sabjan notes, “It’s not only about savings, there are many indirect benefits, like increasing the refractory life, because we are avoiding the thermal shocks.”

Quality control
If stability is the base, quality is the multiplier. A high-capacity plant can dispatch enormous volumes daily, and quality cannot be a periodic check, it must be continuous. Yet, as Dr Sabjan points out, the biggest error is not in analysis equipment but upstream: “80 per cent of the error is happening at the sampling level.” If sampling is inconsistent, even the best X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) become expensive spectators.
Automation closes the loop by standardising sample collection, transport, preparation, analysis and corrective action. “We do invest a lot of money on analytical equipment like XRD and XRF, but if it is not put on the closed loop then there’s no use of it,” he says, because results become person-dependent and slow.
Raju Ramachandran, Chief Manufacturing Officer (East), Nuvoco Vistas Corp, reinforces the operational impact from the plant floor: “There’s a stark difference in what a RoboLab does ensuring that the consistent quality is there. It starts right from the sample collection.” For him, automation is not about removing people; it is about making outcomes repeatable.

Human-centric automation
One of the biggest barriers to performance is not hardware, it is fear. Dr Sabjan describes a persistent concern that digital tools exist to replace operators. “That’s not the way,” he says. “The technology is here to help operator, not to replace them but to complement them.” The plants that realise this early tend to sustain performance because adoption becomes collaborative rather than forced.
Dr Hegde adds an important caveat: tools can mislead without competence. “If you don’t have the knowledge about the data, this will mislead you. It is like using ChatGPT. It may give you flawed output.” His point is not anti-technology; it is pro-capability. Operational excellence now requires multidisciplinary teams—process, chemistry, physics, automation and reliability—working as one.
GS Daga, Managing Director, SecMec Consultants, takes the argument further, warning that the technology curve can outpace human readiness: “Our technology movement AI will move fast and our people will be lagging behind.” For him, the industry’s most urgent intervention is systematic skilling—paired with the environment to apply those skills. Without that, even high-end systems remain underutilised.

Digital energy management
Digital optimisation is no longer confined to pilots; its impact is increasingly quantifiable. Raghu Vokuda, Chief Digital Officer, JSW Cement, describes the outcomes in practical terms: reductions in specific power consumption ‘close to 3 per cent to 7 per cent’, improvements in process stability ‘10 per cent to 20 per cent’, and thermal energy reductions ‘2–5 per cent’. He also highlights value beyond the process line—demand optimisation through forecasting models can reduce peak charges, and optimisation of WHRS can deliver ‘1 per cent to 3 per cent’ efficiency gains.
What matters is the operating approach. Rather than patchwork point solutions, he advocates blueprinting a model digital plant across pillars—maintenance, quality, energy, process, people, safety and sustainability—and then scaling. The difference is governance: defined ownership of data, harmonised OT–IT integration, and dashboards designed for each decision layer—from shopfloor to plant head to network leadership.

Predictive maintenance
Reliability has become a boardroom priority because the cost of failure is blunt and immediate. Dr Hegde captures it crisply: “One day of kiln stoppage can cost several crores.” Predictive maintenance and condition monitoring change reliability from reaction to anticipation—provided plants invest in the right sensors and a holistic architecture.
Dr Sabjan stresses the need for ‘extra investment’ where existing instrumentation is insufficient—kiln shell monitoring, refractory monitoring and other critical measurements. The goal is early warning: “How to have those pre-warnings… where the failures are going to come and then ensure that the plant availability is high, the downtime is low.”
Ramachandran adds that IoT sensors are increasingly enabling early intervention—temperature rise in bearings, vibration patterns, motor and gearbox signals—moving from prediction to prescription. The operational advantage is not only fewer failures, but planned shutdowns: “Once the shutdown is planned in advance, you have lesser, unpredictable downtimes and overall, you gain on the productivity.”

Alternative fuels and raw materials
As decarbonisation tightens, alternative fuels and raw materials (AFR) becomes central—but scaling it is not simply a procurement decision. Vimal Kumar Jain, Technical Director, Heidelberg Cement, frames AFR as a structured programme built on three foundations: strong pre-processing infrastructure, consistent AFR quality, and a stable pyro process. “Only with the fundamentals in place can AFR be scaled safely—without compromising clinker quality or production stability.”
He also flags a ground reality: India’s AFR streams are often seasonal and variable. “In one season to another season, there is major change, high variation in the quality,” he says, making preprocessing capacity and quality discipline mandatory.
Ramachandran argues the sector also needs ecosystem support: a framework for AFR preprocessing ‘hand-in-hand’ between government and private players, so fuels arrive in forms that can be used efficiently and consistently.

Design and execution discipline
Operational excellence is increasingly determined upstream—by the choices made in concept, layout, technology selection, operability and maintainability. Jain puts it unambiguously: “Long term performance is largely decided before the plant is commissioned.” A disciplined design avoids bottlenecks that are expensive to fix later; disciplined execution ensures safe, smooth start-up with fewer issues.
He highlights an often-missed factor: continuity between project and operations teams. “When knowledge transfer is strong and ownership carries beyond commissioning, the plant stabilises much faster… and lifecycle costs reduce significantly.”

What will define the next decade
Across the value chain, the future benchmark is clear: carbon intensity. “Carbon per tonne will matter as much as cost per tonne,” says Dr Hegde. Vokuda echoes it: the industry will shift from optimising cost per tonne to carbon per tonne.
The pathway, however, is practical rather than idealistic—low-clinker and blended cements, higher thermal substitution, renewable power integration, WHRS scaling and tighter energy efficiency. Jain argues for policy realism: if blended cement can meet quality, why it shall not be allowed more widely, particularly in government projects, and why supplementary materials cannot be used more ambitiously where performance is proven.
At the same time, the sector must prepare for Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) without waiting for it. Jain calls for CCUS readiness—designing plants so capture can be added later without disruptive retrofits—while acknowledging that large-scale rollout may take time as costs remain high.
Ultimately, operational excellence will belong to plants that integrate—not isolate—the levers: process stability, quality automation, structured AFR, predictive reliability, disciplined execution, secure digitalisation and continuous learning. As Dr Sabjan notes, success will not come from one department owning the change: “Everybody has to own it… then only… the results could be wonderful.”
And as Daga reminds the industry, the future will reward those who keep their feet on the ground while adopting the new: “I don’t buy technology for the sake of technology. It has to make a commercial sense.” In the next decade, that commercial sense will be written in two numbers—cost per tonne and carbon per tonne—delivered through stable, skilled and digitally disciplined operations.
(This article is based on the virtual panel discussion on “Driving Operational Excellence in Cement,” organised by Indian Cement Review, in association with Fuller Technologies, on Feb 26, 2026.)

Sine Bogh Skaarup, Vice President, Head of Green Innovation and R&D, Fuller Technologies, discuss re-engineering cement for a low-carbon, high-efficiency future, and how the company is sharpening its focus to power the next era of cement manufacturing.

As the cement industry balances rapid capacity expansion with the urgent need for efficiency and decarbonisation, technology partners are playing a more critical role than ever before. In this interview, Sine Bogh Skaarup, Vice President, Head of Green Innovation and R&D, Fuller Technologies, share how the company’s deep-rooted expertise, renewed focus on cement, and advanced automation, digitalisation and low-carbon solutions are helping producers improve productivity, reduce emissions and prepare for the next phase of sustainable growth.

How do you support the cement industry, and what technologies do you bring that help improve productivity and operational efficiency?
We deliver more or less all the end-to-end equipment solutions to the cement industry. Our portfolio includes equipment for power and grinding, feeding technology, packing, conveying and full plant automation. There are many different technologies involved across a cement plant, and with more than 140 years of experience, we have consistently delivered solutions that have supported the industry’s development over time.

Do you offer turnkey or EPC solutions to cement plants?
We do not offer turnkey or EPC projects. Our focus is firmly on the core processes within cement technology. We specialise in delivering high-performance equipment and process solutions rather than complete EPC execution.

Can you share some recent innovations or initiatives that you have implemented or are currently working on?
One of our key focus areas is decarbonisation. We help cement producers reduce CO2 and overall carbon emissions. We offer alternative fuel solutions and calcined clay technologies to enable the production of LC3 cement, which play a significant role in decarbonising the cement industry. By combining alternative fuels and calcined clay solutions, CO2 emissions can be reduced by up to 50 per cent, making this a highly impactful approach for sustainable cement production.

What role do digitalisation, Industry 4.0 and advanced technologies play in your operations, and how are they changing the game?
Automation has always been a core business area for us, previously as FLSmidth Cement and now as Fuller Technologies. This focus has existed for decades. Optimising a cement plant, even by a few percentage points, has a significant impact. Digital solutions today can deliver 5 per cent, 10 per cent or even 15 per cent improvements in efficiency, capacity throughput, emissions reduction, and electrical consumption.
Digitalisation and Industry 4.0 also allow us to optimise plant logistics and integrate advanced laboratory systems that precisely control cement chemistry. Accuracy and precision are critical in cement manufacturing, and our digital solutions enable customers to achieve both. This comprehensive approach allows us to support optimisation across the entire plant.

What challenges do you see in the Indian cement industry, and how are you working to address them?
There are no challenges that are uniquely specific to India, as cement production processes are largely similar worldwide. However, India is currently a booming market with rapidly increasing capacity requirements. The key challenge is delivering this capacity on time while ensuring we become a preferred technology partner for cement producers.
At the same time, there is a strong focus on modernisation, achieving the highest efficiency with the lowest possible emissions. India has a unique opportunity because of the large amount of new capacity being installed. This gives the country a chance to set global benchmarks for high-efficiency production and some of the lowest CO2 emissions in the cement industry. Supporting producers in achieving this is a challenge, but it is a very positive and exciting one.

How will the transition from FLSmidth Cement to Fuller Technologies impact the brand and its engagement with the cement industry?
The rebranding follows our acquisition by Pacific Avenue Capital. We are transitioning from FLSmidth Cement to Fuller Technologies with a renewed and sharper focus on the cement industry. Previously, the company had a strong presence in both mining and cement, but cement had gradually become a non-core area. Now, cement is once again our primary focus.
Over the past two years, we had limited presence in the pyro and grinding segments. Moving forward, we are reinvesting and refocusing on these areas. This is an exciting phase for us, as it allows us to relaunch the brand, clarify our identity, and clearly define what Fuller Technologies stands for as a dedicated cement technology partner.

How do you see the cement industry evolving in the near future, and how do you plan to align with this growth?
The cement industry has evolved steadily over many years, but it remains a conservative sector due to the scale of investments involved. Cement plants require massive capital expenditure, and these investments are critical not only for industrial growth but also for national infrastructure development, especially in India and other developing regions.
Efficiency and low-emission production will remain central priorities. Introducing new materials into cement production is essential. Calcined clay and other supplementary cementitious materials will play a crucial role in reducing CO2 emissions. These materials will also help diversify raw material sources, ensuring that the industry can meet growing cement demand while remaining sustainable. Our role is to support this evolution with technologies that enable efficient, flexible and low-carbon cement production.

• Kanika Mathur

As the Indian cement industry moves toward higher efficiency and lower carbon intensity, Milan R Trivedi, Vice President – Projects, Prod & QC, MR, Shree Digvijay Cement, discusses the impact of modernisation as a strategic imperative.

In this conversation, Milan R Trivedi, Vice President – Projects, Prod & QC, MR, Shree Digvijay Cement, explains how modernisation, spanning digital control systems, energy efficiency measures and advanced operational practices, is helping the company improve productivity and strengthen its sustainability performance.

What are the key drivers pushing cement plants in India to prioritise modernisation at this stage of industry evolution?
India’s cement sector sits at a strategic inflection point, transitioning from volume-led growth to value-led competitiveness. The Indian cement industry is at a pivotal inflection point driven by scale expansion, sustainability imperatives and cost competitiveness. With India emerging as the world’s second-largest cement producer, increasing infrastructure push under programmes like PM Gati Shakti and urbanisation demand higher capacity utilisation with superior efficiency.
Major drivers to prioritise modernisation for cement industries focus around environment, efficiency and cost.
Carbon reduction commitments aligned with India’s Net Zero 2070 vision and growing shareholders focus on ESG performance and Stringent environmental norms from the Ministry of Environment and CPCB, pushes on modernisation and compliance front.

If we look at the numbers across India on cost and efficiency front the picture is depicted as
• India is the world’s second-largest cement producer with ~355–370 MTPA capacity, yet energy cost intensity remains approximately10 per cent to 12 per cent higher than global benchmarks.
• Energy and fuel account for approximately 30 per cent to 35 per cent of operating cost,
making modernisation less discretionary and more existential.
• Benchmarking shows best-in-class plants globally achieve specific thermal energy consumption
< 680 kcal/kg cli; many Indian plants still operate above 800 kcal/kg.
This isn’t incremental improvement. It’s
industry transformation to sustainably outperform global peers.

How is plant modernisation helping you balance cost efficiency, productivity, and sustainability targets simultaneously?
For us at Shree Digvijay Cement, we drill down cost efficiency, productivity and sustainability targets simultaneously and conclude to one parameter ‘EBIDTA,’ which brings the sense of ownership at all levels. And this is where the modernisation in terms of digitalisation and dashboard helps us in decision making and maintain a sustainable and efficient performance.
Focus on hourly monitoring of productivity and efficiency KPIs through WhatsApp and digital dashboards. Benchmarking on increasing usage of AFRs, increasing usage of renewable energy and reducing clinker factors through increasing portfolio of PPC and composite cement.
Modernisation enables simultaneous optimisation across the value chain. Benchmarking confirms that modernised Indian plants are closing the performance gap with global tier-I facilities, with simultaneous benefit to EBITDA margins and carbon intensity

Which technologies have delivered the most measurable impact in your upgraded facilities?
At Shree Digvijay Cement, we prioritise technology based on measurable, scalable and commercial outcomes. The decisions are driven for modern technology suitable to achieve impact on environment improvement, efficiency improvement and
cost optimisation.
We were the first in west region of country to establish waste heat recovery system (WHRS) and currently draw almost 35 per cent of total electrical consumption from WHRS. IoT-based predictive maintenance has been just at initial stage at our facility but we have focus to achieve about 20 per cent reduction in unplanned downtown.
Advanced operational controls like online raw mix optimiser, fuel control loops, process control loops helped in optimisation of operation by 4 per cent to 5 per cent improvement in kiln throughput and about 8-10 kcal/kg clinker reduction.
We are yet to explore Digital twins for improving our production and maintenance cycles.
These are not gadgets but core profit drivers with balance-sheet impact.

How do you evaluate ROI and payback periods when investing in large-scale plant modernisation projects?
The main focus in case of modernisation projects drives through the investment decision, which is mainly based on IRR and impact on overall efficiency improvement, cost optimisation and improvement in reliability. However, there are certain modernisation, which has high impact on environmental impact, statutory requirements, etc. has higher priority irrespective of ROI or payback period.
The energy efficiency and reliability investment projects generally provide fast return on investment whereas strategic, digitalisation and environmental investment projects provide long term and compounded benefits.
Typical modernisation investment projects are decided with IRR of about > 20 per cent, payback period of typically 2-3 years for fast-track projects.

What operational challenges do you face while upgrading brownfield plants without disrupting ongoing production?
Brownfield upgradation or modernisation projects always brings its own challenges. They are more complex and has constraint windows for completion. Major complexity and challenges are space constraints, limited execution time frame and interfacing of legacy equipment with new digital systems.
When it comes to such complexity and challenges, our driving factors like meticulous shutdown planning, modular installation and phased commissioning have resulted in delivering results.
In past two years we have demonstrated the same by upgrading our plant control system from FLS Automation to ABB system for our existing 1.5 mtpa plant and upgrading our grinding capacity from 1.5 mtpa to 3.0 mtpa within same plant location.
The greatest operational risk is execution during live production windows, we mitigate it through phased commissioning, night-shift deployments, and modular executions and delivered committed production. The other execution challenges is movement of heavy erection equipment through exiting plant and limited approach in brownfield project. The cross-functional coordination between production, maintenance, and project teams ensures minimal output disruption and maximum execution results.
Our project governance adopts belt-and-road style execution discipline, detailed Gantt planning, stage-gate reviews and kill-switch risk controls to ensure production continuity and timely execution of project.

How is modernisation reshaping workforce skills, safety standards, and day-to-day plant management practices?
Workforce skills have demonstrated upgrades with the help of modernisation and digitalisation. Today’s plant manager invests 80 per cent of time in forward-looking optimisation decisions versus reactive problem-solving. Operators now work with digital dashboards, AI predictive alerts and real-time KPI analytics, and not analogue gauges. A clear shift from manual control to data-driven decision-making is evident.
Safety performance has improved measurably and enhanced through real time monitoring and interlock systems. Safety dashboards including near-miss reporting and digital lockout/tagout protocols have reduced LTI metrics year-on-year. CII studies show plants with digital training programmes reduce safety incidents by >30 per cent and improve operator utilisation, directly correlated to culture change.
The day-to-day plant management practices has improved the productivity by automated report generation. At Digvijay Cement, we now use this productivity to monitor and track not only KPIs on day-to-day basis but also EBIDTA monitoring up to the department level to hammer the ownership.

In what ways are modernised plants contributing to lower carbon emissions and alignment with ESG commitments?
We benchmark our carbon intensity against decarbonisation pathways, affirming that modernised plants deliver quantifiable carbon abatement rather than aspirational targets. Modernised plant comes with efficient, controlled and flexible operational method in cement grinding for reducing clinker factor by increasing supplementary cementitious material like fly ash, slag in addition to gypsum. Fuel mix optimiser, high momentum burners and AFR co-processing have helped in reduction of fossil fuel consumption. Both clinker factor and AFR co-processing are key drives in reducing Scope 1 emission intensity.
Today Digvijay Cement has its total grid energy replacement to the level of 60 per cent by installation of WHRS system in plant and utilisation of captive and contractual hybrid source of renewable energy such as wind energy and solar energy.
These initiatives align with global frameworks such as the GCCA roadmap and India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Transparent carbon accounting and digital monitoring strengthen ESG disclosures.

What role do partnerships with technology providers play in ensuring long-term efficiency and future readiness of your plants?
Future readiness depends on adaptability. Plants must be upgradeable, data-compatible and scalable. Strong partnerships ensure that modernisation is not a one-time event but a continuous journey. Strategic partnerships are critical. Technology providers
bring global benchmarking, R&D capabilities and upgrade pathways.
In our strategy, technology partnerships are not transactional. They are strategic alliances. Execution of project based on package mode rather than transactional procurement. Annual Rate Contracts for long term and timely availability of spares and consumables which also gives leverage to cost control.
We benchmark partner performance against global innovation, ensuring we always stay at the innovation frontier.
Cement plant modernisation is about upgrading equipment ad redefining competitiveness.
At Shree Digvijay Cement, the philosophy
is clear:
• Every modernisation must enhance EBITDA.
• Every efficiency gain must lower carbon intensity.
• Every investment must strengthen long-term resilience.
Modernisation is a leadership mindset. The next decade will not reward the largest producer; it will reward the most efficient, sustainable and digitally enabled ones.

• – Kanika Mathur