Technology
The powerful & beautiful tool called CTC
Published
7 years agoon
By
admin
What do you think of, when you hear "CTC"? CTC can mean the good old Calcutta Tram Company, or to the tea-lover, it can mean CTC Tea, while to the student of chemistry, it could be carbon tetra-chloride! To most of us who have worked as employees in one organisation or the other, CTC means the all important "cost to company". But forget all this, here in the context of project management, CTC is "cost to complete!
The two most important measures of success in a project are time and cost management. Most project failures occur in these two parameters, and likewise, a project is successful if it has been completed in time and within cost. Last time, when we talked about the third element of "checking" in PDCA loop, we were primarily dealing with the challenge of tracking a project and taking corrective actions in terms of time management. It is of equal, if not greater, importance to finish the project within budgeted costs. How does one achieve this? The answer for me, is cost to complete. It will always be my recommendation to budding project managers, to understand the concept of CTC and to use it fully, with all honesty. Yes, effectiveness of this tool is zero, if people approach this with lack of honesty, and it will soon be clear why.
Whenever I worry about a project, the recurring theme that comes up in mind, is that there should be no surprises to me, and I must know about the possibility of time or cost over-runs as soon as the occur. In that sense, project management is all about "surprise management". These risks always exist, but when any of these two risks materialise, we must know soonest. Today, as we talk about cost control, we must have a system in place to know about a potential cost increase as soon as possible, so that corrective actions can be taken at the highest level of the project management team. How can this be achieved? Once again, this is no rocket science, cost to complete is simple, disciplined application of knowledge and transparency. The team has to calculate, capture and report, with a given frequency (weekly/ monthly/ quarterly) the actual total cost already incurred plus the estimated total remaining cost to be incurred before completing the project, and this sum is called "cost to complete". Evidently, the first number, actual cost incurred, can be churned out by accountants, but the second number is a joint estimate by engineers and purchasers, and this is where the importance of knowledge and honesty comes in.
Take for example, the case of a fictitous steel plant, which was estimated to cost Rs 10,000 crore, and take five years to complete, and this formed the basis of viability calculations, and therefore, project approvals. One year down the line, let us say that the cost of acquiring land already went up by Rs 100 crore, and the rates of steel and cement went up inordinately, say by 20 per cent for each. On top of this, if there were some changes in scope of the project, and the cost of equipment to be ordered has gone up in the mean time by an estimated Rs 200 crore. If the cost to complete report was to be faithfully worked out at this point in time, it will perhaps show that the project cost has gone up to Rs 10,700 crore, assuming there were no savings in the work executed so far, to counterbalance these additional costs. If, on the other hand, the cost to complete report is not deployed, or even if deployed, it is not honestly compiled with all information available, then the project manager or his higher management will not know at this stage that the project cost is going up, and cost reduction has to be initiated. One can fool the world (and a gullible boss can also unknowingly fool himself) if we look at the usual data on cash outflow (projected vs actual), or value of commitments made so far, all of which will remain below the total approved cost till it is already too late. Sounds unbelievable, but it keeps on happening in our world everyday.
I had the misfortune of dealing with a small Project in its terminal phase, when everyone suddenly woke up to the shocking fact that the project which was approved for Rs 200 crore, has already spent Rs 150 crore, committed a total of Rs 190 crore, and will need to commit Rs 40 crore more for completion, which meant that the total cost to complete was actually Rs 230 crore, and at such a late stage of the project there was no possibility of any corrective action to be taken, and it was a huge embarrassment to seek fresh approval for this cost overrun. More than the embarrassment, the cost increase, which was by now a fait-accompli, adversely affected the financial viability of the project. If the project manager used the concept of CTC, and looked beyond the traditional reports of cash outflows and project commitments, the potential cost overrun would be known much earlier, and perhaps some cost optimisation opportunities could have been explored, and at the same time, top management would be kept informed of the possibilities early on.
Let us say that simplistically a project organisation has three hierarchical levels. The first one is where the action is, and where the news of cost increase first hits. The second is the project management, who are accountable for overall performance of the project, and these guys need to know about the cost push quickly. The third and last tier is, let’s say, the top management of the organisation, who has oversight responsibility for the project, and also have the job to guide the project manager when needed. For a"cost to complete" reporting system to work effectively, the first two levels of people must be transparent and honest in disclosing all that they know in a scrupulous manner about potential costs, without which, the top level will have no clue whatsoever. This is why I say again and again, that honesty and transparency is a very important attribute here (and everywhere, of course!). To promote this kind of positive behaviour in the project team members, we have to first create an environment where speaking out is encouraged, and messengers with bad news are not seen to be shot down. The other suggestion is to partially automate the generation of CTC reporting through IT system/ERP, which will perforce bring in some amount of discipline and rigour into the frequency and accuracy of the reports, although, let it be understood clearly, that CTC report will always have the need for human inputs from engineers, purchasers and accountants who have their ears on the ground to pick up the early tremors.
"Cost to complete" has been my favourite when I managed projects, and I can assure you that even in this digital age, and in this fast-changing world, it remains a "bread and butter" concept, which has lost no relevance.
– SUMIT BANERJEE
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Economy & Market
TSR Will Define Which Cement Companies Win India’s Net-Zero Race
Published
2 months agoon
April 27, 2026By
admin
Jignesh Kundaria, Director and CEO, Fornnax Technology
India is simultaneously grappling with two crises: a mounting waste emergency and an urgent need to decarbonise its most carbon-intensive industries. The cement sector, the second-largest in the world and the backbone of the nation’s infrastructure ambitions, sits at the centre of both. It consumes enormous quantities of fossil fuel, and it has the technical capacity to consume something else entirely: the waste our cities cannot get rid of.
According to CPCB and NITI Aayog projections, India generates approximately 62.4 million tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, with that figure expected to reach 165 million tonnes by 2030. Much of this waste is energy-rich and non-recyclable. At the same time, cement kilns operate at material temperatures of approximately 1,450 degrees Celsius, with gas temperatures reaching 2,000 degrees. This high-temperature environment is ideal for co-processing, ensuring the complete thermal destruction of organic compounds without generating toxic residues. The physics are in our favour. The infrastructure is not.
Pre-processing is not the support act for co-processing. It is the main event. Get the particle size wrong, get the moisture wrong, get the calorific value wrong and your kiln thermal stability will suffer the consequences.
The Regulatory Push Is Real
The Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules 2026 mandate that cement plants progressively replace solid fossil fuels with Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF), starting at a 5 per cent baseline and scaling to 15 per cent within six years. NITI Aayog’s 2026 Roadmap for Cement Sector Decarbonisation targets 20 to 25 per cent Thermal Substitution Rate (TSR) by 2030. Beyond compliance, every tonne of coal replaced by RDF generates measurable carbon reductions which is monetisable under India’s emerging Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS). TSR is no longer a sustainability metric. It is a financial lever.
Yet our own field assessments across multiple Indian cement plants reveal a sobering reality: the primary barrier to scaling AFR adoption is not waste availability. It is the fragmented and under-engineered pre-processing ecosystem that sits between the waste and the kiln.
Why Indian Waste Is a Different Engineering Problem
Indian municipal solid waste is not the material that imported shredding equipment was designed for. Our waste streams frequently exceed 40 per cent to 50 per cent moisture content, particularly during monsoon cycles, saturated with abrasive inerts including sand, glass, and stone. Plants relying on imported OEM equipment face months of downtime awaiting proprietary spare parts. Machines built for segregated, low-moisture waste fail quickly and disrupt the entire pre-processing operation in Indian conditions.
The two most common failures we observe are what I call the biting teeth problem and the chewing teeth problem. Plants relying solely on a primary shredder reduce bulk waste to large fractions, but the output remains too coarse for stable kiln combustion. Others attempt to use a secondary shredder as a standalone unit without a primary stage to pre-size the feed, leading to catastrophic mechanical failure. When both stages are present but mismatched in throughput capacity, the system becomes a bottleneck. Achieving the 40 to 70 tonnes per hour required for meaningful coal displacement demands a precisely coordinated two-stage process.
Engineering a Made-in-India Answer
At Fornnax, our response to these challenges is grounded in one principle: Indian waste demands Indian engineering. Our systems are built around feedstock homogeneity, the holy grail of kiln stability. Consistent particle size and predictable calorific value are the foundation of stable kiln combustion. Without them, no TSR target is achievable at scale.
Our SR-MAX2500 Dual Shaft Primary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive) processes raw, baled, or loosely mixed MSW, C&I waste, bulky waste, and plastics, reducing them to approximately 150 mm fractions at throughputs of up to 40 tonnes per hour. The R-MAX 3300 Single Shaft Secondary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive), introduced in 2025, takes that primary output and produces RDF fractions in the 30 to 80 mm range at up to 30 tonnes per hour, specifically optimised for consistent kiln feeding. We have also introduced electric drive configurations under the SR-100 HD series, with capacities between 5 and 40 tonnes per hour, already operational at a leading Indian waste-processing facility.
Looking ahead, Fornnax is expanding its portfolio with the upcoming SR-MAX3600 Hydraulic Drive primary shredder at up to 70 tonnes per hour and the R-MAX2100 Hydraulic drive secondary shredder at up to 20 tonnes per hour, designed specifically for the large-scale throughput that higher TSR ambitions require.
The Investment Case Is Now
The 2070 Net-Zero target is not a distant goal for India’s cement sector. It starts today, with decisions being made on the plant floor.
The SWM Rules 2026 are already in effect, requiring cement plants to replace coal with RDF. Carbon credit markets are opening up, and coal prices are not going to get cheaper. Every tonne of coal a cement plant replaces with waste-derived fuel saves money on one side and generates carbon credit revenue on the other. Pre-processing infrastructure is no longer just a compliance requirement. It is a business investment with a measurable return.
The good news is that nothing is missing. The technology works. The waste is available in every Indian city. The government has provided the policy direction. The only thing standing between where the industry is today and where it needs to be is the commitment to build the right infrastructure.
The cement companies that move now will not just meet the regulations. They will be ahead of every competitor that waits.
About The Author

Jignesh Kundaria is the Director and CEO of Fornnax Technology. Over an experience spanning more than two decades in the recycling industry, he has established himself as one of India’s foremost voices on waste-to-fuel technology and alternative fuel infrastructure.
Concrete
Reimagining Logistics: Spatial AI and Digital Twins
Published
3 months agoon
April 13, 2026By
admin
Digital twins and spatial AI are transforming cement logistics by enabling real-time visibility, predictive decision-making, and smarter multi-modal operations across the supply chain. Dijam Panigrahi highlights how immersive AR/VR training is bridging workforce skill gaps, helping companies build faster, more efficient, and future-ready logistics systems.
As India accelerates infrastructure investment under flagship programs such as PM GatiShakti and the National Infrastructure Pipeline, the pressure on cement manufacturers to deliver reliably, efficiently, and cost-effectively has never been greater. Yet for all the modernisation that has taken place on the production side, the end-to-end logistics chain, from clinker dispatch to the last-mile delivery of bagged cement to construction sites, remains a domain riddled with inefficiencies, opacity and manual decision-making.
The good news is that a new generation of spatial computing technologies is now mature enough to transform this reality. Digital twins, spatial artificial intelligence (AI) and immersive augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) training platforms are converging to offer cement producers something they have long sought: real-time visibility, autonomous decision-making at the operational edge, and a scalable solution to the persistent skills gap that hampers workforce performance.
Advancing logistics with digital twins
The cement supply chain is uniquely complex. A single integrated plant may manage limestone quarrying, kiln operations, grinding, packing and despatch simultaneously, with finished product flowing through rail, road, and waterway networks to reach hundreds of regional depots and distribution points. Coordinating this network using spreadsheets, siloed ERP data, and phone calls is not merely inefficient; it is a structural liability in a competitive market where delivery reliability is a key differentiator.
Digital twin technology offers a way out. A cement logistics digital twin is a continuously updated, three-dimensional virtual replica of the entire supply chain, from the truck loading bays at the plant to the inventory levels at district depots. By ingesting data from IoT sensors on conveyor belts and packing machines, GPS trackers on road and rail fleets, weighbridge records, and weather feeds, the digital twin provides planners with a single, authoritative picture of where every ton of cement is, in real time.
The value, however, goes well beyond visibility. Because the digital twin mirrors the physical system in dynamic detail, it can run scenario simulations before decisions are executed. If a primary rail corridor is disrupted, logistics managers can model alternative routing options, shifting volumes to road or coastal shipping, and assess the cost and time implications within minutes rather than days. If a packing line at the plant is running below capacity, the twin can automatically recalculate dispatch schedules downstream and alert depot managers to adjust receiving resources accordingly.
For cement companies operating multi-plant networks across geographies as varied as Rajasthan and the North-East, this kind of end-to-end situational awareness is transformative. It collapses information latency from hours to seconds, enables proactive rather than reactive logistics management, and creates the data foundation upon which AI-driven decision-making can be built. Companies that have deployed logistics digital twins in comparable heavy-industry contexts have reported reductions in transit time variability of up to 20 per cent and meaningful decreases in demurrage and detention costs, savings that flow directly to the bottom line.
Smart logistics operations
A digital twin is only as powerful as the intelligence layer that sits on top of it. This is where Spatial AI becomes the critical differentiator for cement logistics.
Traditional logistics management systems are reactive. They record what has happened and flag exceptions after the fact. Spatial AI systems, by contrast, are proactive. They continuously analyse the state of the logistics network as represented in the digital twin, identify emerging bottlenecks before they crystallise into delays, and recommend corrective actions.
At the plant gate, AI-powered visual inspection systems using spatial depth-sensing cameras can assess truck conditions, verify load integrity and confirm seal tamper status in seconds, replacing the manual checks that currently slow throughput. At the depot level, Spatial AI can monitor stock drawdown rates in real time, cross-reference them against pending customer orders and inbound shipment ETAs, and automatically trigger replenishment orders when safety thresholds are approached. In transit, AI systems processing GPS and telematics data can detect anomalous vehicle behaviour, including extended stops, route deviations, speed irregularities and alert fleet managers instantly.
Perhaps most significantly for Indian cement logistics, Spatial AI can optimise the complex multi-modal routing decisions that are central to competitive cost management. Given the variability in road quality, seasonal accessibility, rail rake availability, and regional demand patterns across India’s vast geography, the combinatorial complexity of routing optimisation is beyond human planners working with conventional tools. AI systems can process this complexity continuously and adapt routing recommendations as conditions change, reducing empty running, improving vehicle utilisation and cutting fuel costs.
The agentic dimension of modern AI is particularly relevant here. Agentic AI systems do not merely analyse and recommend; they act. In a cement logistics context, this means an AI system that can, within pre-authorised boundaries, directly communicate revised dispatch instructions to plant teams, update booking confirmations with freight forwarders and reallocate available rail rakes across plant locations, all without waiting for a human to process a recommendation and make a call. For logistics executives, this represents a genuine shift from managing a workforce to setting the rules of engagement and reviewing outcomes. The operational tempo achievable with agentic AI simply cannot be matched by human-in-the-loop systems working at the pace of emails and phone calls.
Bridging the skills gap
Technology investments in digital twins and spatial AI will deliver diminishing returns if the human workforce cannot operate effectively within the new systems they create. This is a challenge that India’s cement industry cannot afford to underestimate. The sector relies on a large, geographically dispersed workforce, including truck drivers, depot managers, despatch supervisors, fleet maintenance technicians, many of whom have been trained on paper-based processes and manual workflows. Retraining this workforce for a digitised, AI-augmented environment is a substantial undertaking, and conventional classroom or on-the-job training methods are poorly suited to the scale and pace required.
Immersive AR and VR training platforms offer a fundamentally different approach. By creating photorealistic, interactive simulations of logistics environments, such as a plant dispatch bay, a depot yard, the interior of a cement truck cab, allow workers to practice complex procedures and decision-making scenarios in a safe, consequence-free virtual environment. A depot manager can work through a simulated rail rake delay scenario, making decisions about customer allocation and communication
without the pressure of real orders being affected. A truck driver can practice the correct procedure for securing a load of bagged cement without the risk of a road incident.
The learning science case for immersive training is compelling. Studies consistently show that experiential, simulation-based learning produces faster skill acquisition and higher retention rates than didactic instruction, with some research indicating retention rates three to four times higher for VR-based training compared to classroom methods. For complex operational procedures where muscle memory and situational awareness matter as much as conceptual knowledge, the advantage of immersive simulation is even more pronounced.
Today’s leading cloud-based spatial computing platforms enable high-fidelity AR and VR training experiences to be delivered on standard mobile devices, removing the hardware barrier that has historically made immersive training impractical for large, distributed workforces. This is particularly relevant for cement companies with depots and logistics operations in tier-two and tier-three locations, where access to specialised training hardware cannot be assumed.
The integration of AR into live operations also creates ongoing learning opportunities beyond formal training programs. As an example, maintenance technicians equipped with AR overlays can receive step-by-step guidance for equipment procedures directly in their field of view, reducing error rates and service times for critical plant and fleet assets.
New strategy, new horizons
India’s cement industry is entering a period of intensifying competition, rising logistics costs, and demanding customers with shrinking tolerance for delivery variability. The companies that will lead over the next decade will be those that treat logistics not as a cost centre to be minimised, but as a strategic capability to be built.
Digital twins, spatial AI and immersive AR/VR training are not distant future technologies, they are deployable today on infrastructure that Indian cement companies already operate. The question is not whether to adopt them, but how quickly to do so and where to begin.
About the author:
Dijam Panigrahi is Co-Founder and COO of GridRaster Inc., a provider of cloud-based spatial computing platforms that power high-quality digital twin and immersive AR/VR experiences on mobile devices for enterprises. GridRaster’s technology is deployed across manufacturing, logistics and infrastructure sectors globally.
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