KJS is in its advanced stage of setting up another 2.5MT capacity cement project in Maihar, along with a 30MW captive power plant, writes Pawan Ahluwalia.
After having set up a most advanced technology cement plant of 2.5 million tonne capacity in Maihar, we at KJS never looked back, either at our business ethics or customer satisfaction approach. There is cut-throat competition in the cement industry and barring few who took over old plants, the rest have all preferred to have international technology.
Capacity expansion is taken up having in mind the improved per capita consumption of cement in times to come and the infrastructure development of the government in the next financial year. The only factor for increased production is quality and after sales service, besides a larger territory coverage for selling the product. At KJS, we have initiated a new project to impart education in cement usage by sending our civil engineers teams with cement bags and construction equipment. This project will not only educate the consumers and builders but will add the quality impact to our product. Towards our approach of optimum utilisation of resources, we have initiated conscious efforts in running our kiln to its full capacity and have successfully achieved by producing 6, 000MT per day. Our cement mill runs for a minimum of 22 hours and our captive power plant with full capacity load.
Maintenance cost
To reduce the cost of maintenance and continues operation Effective Preventive Maintenance Planning is another successful practice which is being applied; this ensures uninterrupted plant operation and the executing of monthly sales targets.
Energy conservation
Energy consumption is a high cost component of cement production. Conserving energy is essential to minimise the cost of production. The international standard of energy consumption for per tonne of cement varies but in Indian industry, it has been achieved at a low of 76 unit per tonne of cement. To achieve this target, KJS constituted an energy audit team which monitors energy consumption on a day- to- day basis and we are pretty sure we shall achieve the target very shortly even though we are new unit.
Efficiency improvement
To improve efficiency we use imported coal which has given us an advantage of reducing our ultimate cement manufacturing cost. Sustainability is equally important and KJS continues to strive hard for sustaining our production and sales, closely coordinating with each other and taking proactive decisions in dispatch planning which gets us successful results.
Railway terminal
Our internal railway terminal is in the final stage and very shortly we shall have our own railway yard for rake dispatches. To continue efforts to minimise the raw material cost which in fact, is a constraint for us, we have to purchase quite a substantial quantity of raw material i.e, limestone from outside as a sufficient lease area has not yet been allotted to us by the government. Government support for raw material availability like limestone mines lease, coal linkage and taxation benefits is urgently required.
Publicity
Being in the initial stage of the cement business, all controls are being applied on publicity; however, required assistance is extended to marketing department for reaching out to the consumers.
Motivation of employees
KJS is concerned about the welfare of employees and we are fully motivated so quite a large number of welfare activities are in motion. I personally meet employees once a month and solve their problems. Since quality is the paramount requirement of KJS even in selecting the emplo¡yees, we never compromise the quality of people we engage.
Professionalism
All over, our professional approach in our cement and production systems has yielded results and the discipline can be seen in the work culture of the organisation. A scientific manpower planning system is in place to avoid a situation of redundant manpower.