Concrete

Can the Cement Industry Take the Lead?

Published

3 years ago

June 12, 2023

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Going green on lubrication is one of the most crucial and investment-centric parameters in heavy industries. Cement manufacturing in India is equipped to take the lead in the area of sustainable production. ICR explores the possibility of cement leading the world to a greener future.

Lubrication remains a dirty word when it comes to the environmental impacts of the elements that go into lubricant-making and at the end of life but it need not be so. After all, the purpose of lubrication is to reduce energy wastes that otherwise would have ensued had lubricants not been used, resulting in wear and tear, abrasion and finally failure due to excessive vibration or breakage. Thus, lubricants are actually environmentally positive materials as they help to reduce friction, resulting in a reduction of energy consumption and increased equipment life. A properly formulated lubricant lasts longer, therefore generating less waste. However, the expectation is to extend the environmental positivity to include environmental release of emission as well. This is where the focus is slowly shifting. Lubricants today can be formulated using high-performance biobased materials and meet the more traditional definitions of environmentally friendly, such as being biodegradable, low toxicity and non-bioaccumulative.
The procurement fraternity in cement must look for ways that allow development of lubricants that would be both environmentally friendly and net positive in terms of impact, that includes scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions as well. Let us first have a look at the different types of lubricants in use in the cement industry.

Lubricants in Raw Material Conveying
Even if raw material is brought into the cement plant from a source some distance away, there will still be numerous conveyors throughout the plant.
These conveyors usually are driven by electric motors, some of which will be large due to the power required to pull the belts. The larger types have grease nipples that require infrequent greasing. There will also be greased bearings on both the drive end and non-drive end as well as on tension rolls in between.
Many different types of greases are used successfully in these applications. The specific grease employed is not as important as the frequency of the greasing, which can help to keep dust out of the races and prevent rapid wear rates. Since conveyors are often outside and open to all weather conditions, it is not uncommon to choose a water-resistant grease to inhibit water ingress. The use of greasing systems in which a centrally located reservoir feeds numerous points through piping may be considered. However, the pipe runs could potentially be quite long, requiring a number of these types of systems.
The other alternative would be a single-point grease lubricator that attaches directly to each bearing. These lubricators can be set to expel grease over variable amounts of time to suit the application and bearing size.
They can also significantly reduce the amount of labour required to individually grease the bearings as well as help to alleviate the ingress of contaminants by applying constant pressure on the bearing.
Of course, the total cost of utilising these types of lubricators throughout a plant must be
weighed against the amount of labour involved. In addition, keep in mind that these systems must be inspected on a regular schedule to ensure they are working properly. No automatic lubrication system should ever be implemented on a ‘fit and
forget’ approach.

Gearbox Lubrication (Open and Closed Type)
Conveyors typically are driven by different types of reduction gearboxes, including worm gearboxes, to allow the electric motor to sit adjacent to the conveyor and not protrude excessively. In these instances, a simple oil with the appropriate viscosity can be used. The lubricant does not necessarily need to possess extreme-pressure properties.
Gearboxes and bearings are also found in numerous crushers within the infeed section of the quarry. These components must cope with the same issues as conveyors in terms of dust. Centralised greasing systems are commonly used here, since the bearings are located close to each other, ensuring that the pipe runs are not too long and the grease reservoir can easily be housed inside. These gearboxes generally are quite large and have a substantial oil capacity. The gear teeth often experience high shock loading, so extreme-pressure gear oil is frequently used for this reason.

Crusher gearboxes benefit greatly from regular oil analysis and condition monitoring. The small oil sample required does not affect the overall oil level, and the information gained from the subsequent analysis can save a considerable amount of money in avoiding unplanned downtime and the associated costs of lost production.
There are many different types of open gears associated with cement plants, along with different lubricants and application methods. The main requirement for these open gears is that the lubricant be able to adhere for the entire revolution of the driven gear in order to offer the needed protection. This lubrication requirement occurs when the driving pinion is mating. Therefore, the best lubricants for these applications are sprayed onto the teeth just before the pinion and driven gear mate. The spray pattern is critical for the coverage of the mating teeth to be sufficient.
Normally, the lubricant is sprayed directly from a barrel due to the quantity required. The lubricant may also need a certain degree of heat resistance and must not melt away.

Lubrication Systems in Rotary Kilns
Rotary kilns have their own lubrication challenges for both bearings and gearboxes due to their slow rotation, high loads and thermal transfer of process heat. It is common for gearbox oil to be used in a circulation system utilising both heat transfer systems and filtration. The oil is often synthetic, but this is not always necessary if the flow rate is adequate and the heat transfer system is efficient. The inherent frictional properties of certain types of synthetic lubricants may be advantageous, as might the high viscosity index. However, the selection of a synthetic grease likely will be more important than the selection of a synthetic oil for the gearbox, as greased bearings will not provide the same cooling effects.
In most cement plants, slow-moving conveyors, sometimes called clinker conveyors, transport
material directly from the kilns. These conveyors typically are constructed of metal and consist
of a series of buckets that are hinged together. They are often carried by wheels on guide rails with a grease nipple in the centre. Because of the adverse operating conditions, i.e., dusty, and hot, they will require frequent greasing.
Centralised greasing systems will not work in this type of application due to the constant movement of the wheels. A system must be installed that travels with the buckets for a short distance, with greasing probes automatically projected into the grease nipple. This type of automatic system works well, but it must be checked on a regular basis because of the many moving parts and associated sensors. Although every cement plant operates differently and will have its own existing lubrication strategies, preferences, historical problems, maintenance requirements, management structure and available workforce, optimum solutions can be identified regarding the lubricants selected, the equipment used to apply those lubricants and the maintenance regime.
All of these elements can then be combined with appropriate condition monitoring techniques. By coordinating both lubrication and condition monitoring strategies with your maintenance regimes, you can ensure that your cement plant operates more efficiently and cost effectively.

Making Lubrication Systems Greener
Traditionally, when a lubricant was formulated, it contained a mixture of two main ingredients: oil and additives. For grease, a third ingredient was added—a thickener. In modern times, formulation still follows this basic mixture, but the options have expanded dramatically, as many types of natural and synthetic base fluids can be used as the base of a lubricant, not just petroleum oil. Additives are included to impart beneficial performance attributes, such as reduced friction (wear prevention), corrosion protection, heat removal (oxidation resistance), foam and air release, and water separation or emulsion, just to name a few.
There are four key areas that formulators must consider when formulating products: environmental, performance, physical and commercial. The primary lubricant attribute desired by most end users is protection of assets from wear, increasing reliability and useful lifespan. For many regulators, the primary concern is that the lubricant be environmentally friendly. For these agencies, lubricating properties are secondary, if considered at all. But lubricants can be green in many ways that still consider performance, more in line with companies’ aims in pursuit of sustainability.
The traditional environmental lubricant has either been proven to be biodegradable or formulated from biobased materials. Yet, from a more holistic standpoint, lubricants have been environmentally friendly in another way for years. If the proper product is chosen for a given application, it can improve equipment efficiency. As compared to the lubricants even 50 years ago, today’s lubricants can be formulated to provide a much higher level of equipment protection and performance. If the sustainability model of green is considered, they can be more environmentally friendly, provide better performance and improve the economic bottom line.

Ways to Make Lubricants Green
Crude oil has long been thought of as a non-renewable natural resource. Petroleum oil took millions of years to form in the ground. Renewable products grow, are harvested and turned into products within a relatively short time. Most oils taken directly from animal and vegetable sources do not yield stable lubricants. It is this instability that makes them highly biodegradable, an environmental advantage. Much research has been conducted on renewable oils since the late 1980s through genetic modifications and chemical processing, and some of their insufficiencies are being overcome. Unfortunately, this usually
results in base fluids that can be more expensive than mineral oils.
Early environmentally acceptable lubricants were made from biobased materials or were biodegradable, most formulated using vegetable oil-based fluids. Concessions often had to be made by the users when putting these products into service. They typically become jelly-like at low temperatures and oxidised rapidly at operating temperatures. They were also more expensive. This meant that for a user to employ green lubricants, they had to pay more for a product that didn’t perform as well. There were not many laws in place forcing users to buy them, so only hardcore environmentalists used them. Governments are beginning to put more emphasis on environmentally acceptable lubricants (EALs) by enacting laws making it more difficult for companies to avoid using them. Fortunately, many options are available today through genetically improved vegetable oils or high-performance synthetic fluids, so that higher performing products can be formulated to overcome the low- and high-temperature concerns of the early products. Along with biodegradability, toxicology has become part of the requirement for a lubricant to be green, meaning that formulators now must also consider ecotoxicity and bioaccumulation.
Any effort to reuse or recycle lubricants is green. Some lubricant packaging, such as steel drums and bulk transfer tanks, can be emptied, sent back, refurbished and refilled with new lubricants or other chemicals. Most lubricants, however, cannot be reused because of degradation and contamination, though some end users have tried with limited success. For example, used lubricants are sometimes applied to moving chains. This is not considered a best lubrication practice, but success varies depending upon the condition of the used lubricant. Another reuse for lubricants is that they are collected and burned as heating fuel oil. The fuel is needed as an energy source, so this approach is greener than dumping into a landfill or pouring into the environment.
An entire new segment of the lubricants industry exists called re-refiners. In the infancy of re-refining, waste oil collectors took spent lubricant back to their facility, removed the water, filtered out the solids, and resold it for various lubrication uses. Modern re-refiners do the same, but then, unlike their predecessors, they introduce it into a refinery process just like crude oil. After processing, new high-quality base oils are produced that have been found to be of equal or better quality to virgin base oils. These can be used to produce new lubricants, restarting the closed-loop process.

-Procyon Mukherjee

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Concrete

Refractory demands in our kiln have changed

Published

3 days ago

February 20, 2026

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Radha Singh, Senior Manager (P&Q), Shree Digvijay Cement, points out why performance, predictability and life-cycle value now matter more than routine replacement in cement kilns.

As Indian cement plants push for higher throughput, increased alternative fuel usage and tighter shutdown cycles, refractory performance in kilns and pyro-processing systems is under growing pressure. In this interview, Radha Singh, Senior Manager (P&Q), Shree Digvijay Cement, shares how refractory demands have evolved on the ground and how smarter digital monitoring is improving kiln stability, uptime and clinker quality.

How have refractory demands changed in your kiln and pyro-processing line over the last five years?
Over the last five years, refractory demands in our kiln and pyro line have changed. Earlier, the focus was mostly on standard grades and routine shutdown-based replacement. But now, because of higher production loads, more alternative fuels and raw materials (AFR) usage and greater temperature variation, the expectation from refractory has increased.
In our own case, the current kiln refractory has already completed around 1.5 years, which itself shows how much more we now rely on materials that can handle thermal shock, alkali attack and coating fluctuations. We have moved towards more stable, high-performance linings so that we don’t have to enter the kiln frequently for repairs.
Overall, the shift has been from just ‘installation and run’ to selecting refractories that give longer life, better coating behaviour and more predictable performance under tougher operating conditions.

What are the biggest refractory challenges in the preheater, calciner and cooler zones?
• Preheater: Coating instability, chloride/sulphur cycles and brick erosion.
• Calciner: AFR firing, thermal shock and alkali infiltration.
• Cooler: Severe abrasion, red-river formation and mechanical stress on linings.
Overall, the biggest challenge is maintaining lining stability under highly variable operating conditions.

How do you evaluate and select refractory partners for long-term performance?
In real plant conditions, we don’t select a refractory partner just by looking at price. First, we see their past performance in similar kilns and whether their material has actually survived our operating conditions. We also check how strong their technical support is during shutdowns, because installation quality matters as much as the material itself.
Another key point is how quickly they respond during breakdowns or hot spots. A good partner should be available on short notice. We also look at their failure analysis capability, whether they can explain why a lining failed and suggest improvements.
On top of this, we review the life they delivered in the last few campaigns, their supply reliability and their willingness to offer plant-specific custom solutions instead of generic grades. Only a partner who supports us throughout the life cycle, which includes selection, installation, monitoring and post-failure analysis, fits our long-term requirement.

Can you share a recent example where better refractory selection improved uptime or clinker quality?
Recently, we upgraded to a high-abrasion basic brick at the kiln outlet. Earlier we had frequent chipping and coating loss. With the new lining, thermal stability improved and the coating became much more stable. As a result, our shutdown interval increased and clinker quality remained more consistent. It had a direct impact on our uptime.

How is increased AFR use affecting refractory behaviour?
Increased AFR use is definitely putting more stress on the refractory. The biggest issue we see daily is the rise in chlorine, alkalis and volatiles, which directly attack the lining, especially in the calciner and kiln inlet. AFR firing is also not as stable as conventional fuel, so we face frequent temperature fluctuations, which cause more thermal shock and small cracks in the lining.
Another real problem is coating instability. Some days the coating builds too fast, other days it suddenly drops, and both conditions impact refractory life. We also notice more dust circulation and buildup inside the calciner whenever the AFR mix changes, which again increases erosion.
Because of these practical issues, we have started relying more on alkali-resistant, low-porosity and better thermal shock–resistant materials to handle the additional stress coming from AFR.

What role does digital monitoring or thermal profiling play in your refractory strategy?
Digital tools like kiln shell scanners, IR imaging and thermal profiling help us detect weakening areas much earlier. This reduces unplanned shutdowns, helps identify hotspots accurately and allows us to replace only the critical sections. Overall, our maintenance has shifted from reactive to predictive, improving lining life significantly.

How do you balance cost, durability and installation speed during refractory shutdowns?
We focus on three points:
• Material quality that suits our thermal profile and chemistry.
• Installation speed, in fast turnarounds, we prefer monolithic.
• Life-cycle cost—the cheapest material is not the most economical. We look at durability, future downtime and total cost of ownership.
This balance ensures reliable performance without unnecessary expenditure.

What refractory or pyro-processing innovations could transform Indian cement operations?
Some promising developments include:
• High-performance, low-porosity and nano-bonded refractories
• Precast modular linings to drastically reduce shutdown time
• AI-driven kiln thermal analytics
• Advanced coating management solutions
• More AFR-compatible refractory mixes

These innovations can significantly improve kiln stability, efficiency and maintenance planning across the industry.

Concrete

Digital supply chain visibility is critical

Published

3 days ago

February 20, 2026

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MSR Kali Prasad, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Shree Cement, discusses how data, discipline and scale are turning Industry 4.0 into everyday business reality.

Over the past five years, digitalisation in Indian cement manufacturing has moved decisively beyond experimentation. Today, it is a strategic lever for cost control, operational resilience and sustainability. In this interview, MSR Kali Prasad, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Shree Cement, explains how integrated digital foundations, advanced analytics and real-time visibility are helping deliver measurable business outcomes.

How has digitalisation moved from pilot projects to core strategy in Indian cement manufacturing over the past five years?
Digitalisation in Indian cement has evolved from isolated pilot initiatives into a core business strategy because outcomes are now measurable, repeatable and scalable. The key shift has been the move away from standalone solutions toward an integrated digital foundation built on standardised processes, governed data and enterprise platforms that can be deployed consistently across plants and functions.
At Shree Cement, this transition has been very pragmatic. The early phase focused on visibility through dashboards, reporting, and digitisation of critical workflows. Over time, this has progressed into enterprise-level analytics and decision support across manufacturing and the supply chain,
with clear outcomes in cost optimisation, margin protection and revenue improvement through enhanced customer experience.
Equally important, digital is no longer the responsibility of a single function. It is embedded into day-to-day operations across planning, production, maintenance, despatch and customer servicing, supported by enterprise systems, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) data platforms, and a structured approach to change management.

Which digital interventions are delivering the highest ROI across mining, production and logistics today?
In a capital- and cost-intensive sector like cement, the highest returns come from digital interventions that directly reduce unit costs or unlock latent capacity without significant capex.
Supply chain and planning (advanced analytics): Tools for demand forecasting, S&OP, network optimisation and scheduling deliver strong returns by lowering logistics costs, improving service levels, and aligning production with demand in a fragmented and regionally diverse market.
Mining (fleet and productivity analytics): Data-led mine planning, fleet analytics, despatch discipline, and idle-time reduction improve fuel efficiency and equipment utilisation, generating meaningful savings in a cost-heavy operation.
Manufacturing (APC and process analytics): Advanced Process Control, mill optimisation, and variability reduction improve thermal and electrical efficiency, stabilise quality and reduce rework and unplanned stoppages.
Customer experience and revenue enablement (digital platforms): Dealer and retailer apps, order visibility and digitally enabled technical services improve ease of doing business and responsiveness. We are also empowering channel partners with transparent, real-time information on schemes, including eligibility, utilisation status and actionable recommendations, which improves channel satisfaction and market execution while supporting revenue growth.
Overall, while Artificial Intelligence (AI) and IIoT are powerful enablers, it is advanced analytics anchored in strong processes that typically delivers the fastest and most reliable ROI.

How is real-time data helping plants shift from reactive maintenance to predictive and prescriptive operations?
Real-time and near real-time data is driving a more proactive and disciplined maintenance culture, beginning with visibility and progressively moving toward prediction and prescription.
At Shree Cement, we have implemented a robust SAP Plant Maintenance framework to standardise maintenance workflows. This is complemented by IIoT-driven condition monitoring, ensuring consistent capture of equipment health indicators such as vibration, temperature, load, operating patterns and alarms.
Real-time visibility enables early detection of abnormal conditions, allowing teams to intervene before failures occur. As data quality improves and failure histories become structured, predictive models can anticipate likely failure modes and recommend timely interventions, improving MTBF and reducing downtime. Over time, these insights will evolve into prescriptive actions, including spares readiness, maintenance scheduling, and operating parameter adjustments, enabling reliability optimisation with minimal disruption.
A critical success factor is adoption. Predictive insights deliver value only when they are embedded into daily workflows, roles and accountability structures. Without this, they remain insights without action.

In a cost-sensitive market like India, how do cement companies balance digital investment with price competitiveness?
In India’s intensely competitive cement market, digital investments must be tightly linked to tangible business outcomes, particularly cost reduction, service improvement, and faster decision-making.
This balance is achieved by prioritising high-impact use cases such as planning efficiency, logistics optimisation, asset reliability, and process stability, all of which typically deliver quick payback. Equally important is building scalable and governed digital foundations that reduce the marginal cost of rolling out new use cases across plants.
Digitally enabled order management, live despatch visibility, and channel partner platforms also improve customer centricity while controlling cost-to-serve, allowing service levels to improve without proportionate increases in headcount or overheads.
In essence, the most effective digital investments do not add cost. They protect margins by reducing variability, improving planning accuracy, and strengthening execution discipline.

How is digitalisation enabling measurable reductions in energy consumption, emissions, and overall carbon footprint?
Digitalisation plays a pivotal role in improving energy efficiency, reducing emissions and lowering overall carbon intensity.
Real-time monitoring and analytics enable near real-time tracking of energy consumption and critical operating parameters, allowing inefficiencies to be identified quickly and corrective actions to be implemented. Centralised data consolidation across plants enables benchmarking, accelerates best-practice adoption, and drives consistent improvements in energy performance.
Improved asset reliability through predictive maintenance reduces unplanned downtime and process instability, directly lowering energy losses. Digital platforms also support more effective planning and control of renewable energy sources and waste heat recovery systems, reducing dependence on fossil fuels.
Most importantly, digitalisation enables sustainability progress to be tracked with greater accuracy and consistency, supporting long-term ESG commitments.

What role does digital supply chain visibility play in managing demand volatility and regional market dynamics in India?
Digital supply chain visibility is critical in India, where demand is highly regional, seasonality is pronounced, and logistics constraints can shift rapidly.
At Shree Cement, planning operates across multiple horizons. Annual planning focuses on capacity, network footprint and medium-term demand. Monthly S&OP aligns demand, production and logistics, while daily scheduling drives execution-level decisions on despatch, sourcing and prioritisation.
As digital maturity increases, this structure is being augmented by central command-and-control capabilities that manage exceptions such as plant constraints, demand spikes, route disruptions and order prioritisation. Planning is also shifting from aggregated averages to granular, cost-to-serve and exception-based decision-making, improving responsiveness, lowering logistics costs and strengthening service reliability.

How prepared is the current workforce for Industry 4.0, and what reskilling strategies are proving most effective?
Workforce preparedness for Industry 4.0 is improving, though the primary challenge lies in scaling capabilities consistently across diverse roles.
The most effective approach is to define capability requirements by role and tailor enablement accordingly. Senior leadership focuses on digital literacy for governance, investment prioritisation, and value tracking. Middle management is enabled to use analytics for execution discipline and adoption. Frontline sales and service teams benefit from
mobile-first tools and KPI-driven workflows, while shop-floor and plant teams focus on data-driven operations, APC usage, maintenance discipline, safety and quality routines.
Personalised, role-based learning paths, supported by on-ground champions and a clear articulation of practical benefits, drive adoption far more effectively than generic training programmes.

Which emerging digital technologies will fundamentally reshape cement manufacturing in the next decade?
AI and GenAI are expected to have the most significant impact, particularly when combined with connected operations and disciplined processes.
Key technologies likely to reshape the sector include GenAI and agentic AI for faster root-cause analysis, knowledge access, and standardisation of best practices; industrial foundation models that learn patterns across large sensor datasets; digital twins that allow simulation of process changes before implementation; and increasingly autonomous control systems that integrate sensors, AI, and APC to maintain stability with minimal manual intervention.
Over time, this will enable more centralised monitoring and management of plant operations, supported by strong processes, training and capability-building.

Concrete

Redefining Efficiency with Digitalisation

Published

3 days ago

February 20, 2026

admin

Professor Procyon Mukherjee discusses how as the cement industry accelerates its shift towards digitalisation, data-driven technologies are becoming the mainstay of sustainability and control across the value chain.

The cement industry, long perceived as traditional and resistant to change, is undergoing a profound transformation driven by digital technologies. As global infrastructure demand grows alongside increasing pressure to decarbonise and improve productivity, cement manufacturers are adopting data-centric tools to enhance performance across the value chain. Nowhere is this shift more impactful than in grinding, which is the energy-intensive final stage of cement production, and in the materials that make grinding more efficient: grinding media and grinding aids.

The imperative for digitalisation
Cement production accounts for roughly 7 per cent to 8 per cent of global CO2 emissions, largely due to the energy intensity of clinker production and grinding processes. Digital solutions, such as AI-driven process controls and digital twins, are helping plants improve stability, cut fuel use and reduce emissions while maintaining consistent product quality. In one deployment alongside ABB’s process controls at a Heidelberg plant in Czechia, AI tools cut fuel use by 4 per cent and emissions by 2 per cent, while also improving operational stability.
Digitalisation in cement manufacturing encompasses a suite of technologies, broadly termed as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), AI and machine learning, predictive analytics, cloud-based platforms, advanced process control and digital twins, each playing a role in optimising various stages of production from quarrying to despatch.

Grinding: The crucible of efficiency and cost
Of all the stages in cement production, grinding is among the most energy-intensive, historically consuming large amounts of electricity and representing a significant portion of plant operating costs. As a result, optimising grinding operations has become central to digital transformation strategies.
Modern digital systems are transforming grinding mills from mechanical workhorses into intelligent, interconnected assets. Sensors throughout the mill measure parameters such as mill load, vibration, mill speed, particle size distribution, and power consumption. This real-time data, fed into machine learning and advanced process control (APC) systems, can dynamically adjust operating conditions to maintain optimal throughput and energy usage.
For example, advanced grinding systems now predict inefficient conditions, such as impending mill overload, by continuously analysing acoustic and vibration signatures. The system can then proactively adjust clinker feed rates and grinding media distribution to sustain optimal conditions, reducing energy consumption and improving consistency.

Digital twins: Seeing grinding in the virtual world
One of the most transformative digital tools applied in cement grinding is the digital twin, which a real-time virtual replica of physical equipment and processes. By integrating sensor data and
process models, digital twins enable engineers to simulate process variations and run ‘what-if’
scenarios without disrupting actual production. These simulations support decisions on variables such as grinding media charge, mill speed and classifier settings, allowing optimisation of energy use and product fineness.
Digital twins have been used to optimise kilns and grinding circuits in plants worldwide, reducing unplanned downtime and allowing predictive maintenance to extend the life of expensive grinding assets.

Grinding media and grinding aids in a digital era
While digital technologies improve control and prediction, materials science innovations in grinding media and grinding aids have become equally crucial for achieving performance gains.
Grinding media, which comprise the balls or cylinders inside mills, directly influence the efficiency of clinker comminution. Traditionally composed of high-chrome cast iron or forged steel, grinding media account for nearly a quarter of global grinding media consumption by application, with efficiency improvements translating directly to lower energy intensity.
Recent advancements include ceramic and hybrid media that combine hardness and toughness to reduce wear and energy losses. For example, manufacturers such as Sanxin New Materials in China and Tosoh Corporation in Japan have developed sub-nano and zirconia media with exceptional wear resistance. Other innovations include smart media embedded with sensors to monitor wear, temperature, and impact forces in real time, enabling predictive maintenance and optimal media replacement scheduling. These digitally-enabled media solutions can increase grinding efficiency by as much as 15 per cent.
Complementing grinding media are grinding aids, which are chemical additives that improve mill throughput and reduce energy consumption by altering the surface properties of particles, trapping air, and preventing re-agglomeration. Technology leaders like SIKA AG and GCP Applied Technologies have invested in tailored grinding aids compatible with AI-driven dosing platforms that automatically adjust additive concentrations based on real-time mill conditions. Trials in South America reported throughput improvements nearing 19 per cent when integrating such digital assistive dosing with process control systems.
The integration of grinding media data and digital dosing of grinding aids moves the mill closer to a self-optimising system, where AI not only predicts media wear or energy losses but prescribes optimal interventions through automated dosing and operational adjustments.

Global case studies in digital adoption
Several cement companies around the world exemplify digital transformation in practice.
Heidelberg Materials has deployed digital twin technologies across global plants, achieving up to 15 per cent increases in production efficiency and 20 per cent reductions in energy consumption by leveraging real-time analytics and predictive algorithms.
Holcim’s Siggenthal plant in Switzerland piloted AI controllers that autonomously adjusted kiln operations, boosting throughput while reducing specific energy consumption and emissions.
Cemex, through its AI and predictive maintenance initiatives, improved kiln availability and reduced maintenance costs by predicting failures before they occurred. Global efforts also include AI process optimisation initiatives to reduce energy consumption and environmental impact.

Challenges and the road ahead
Despite these advances, digitalisation in cement grinding faces challenges. Legacy equipment may lack sensor readiness, requiring retrofits and edge-cloud connectivity upgrades. Data governance and integration across plants and systems remains a barrier for many mid-tier producers. Yet, digital transformation statistics show momentum: more than half of cement companies have implemented IoT sensors for equipment monitoring, and digital twin adoption is growing rapidly as part of broader Industry 4.0 strategies.
Furthermore, as digital systems mature, they increasingly support sustainability goals: reduced energy use, optimised media consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions. By embedding intelligence into grinding circuits and material inputs like grinding aids, cement manufacturers can strike a balance between efficiency and environmental stewardship.
Conclusion
Digitalisation is not merely an add-on to cement manufacturing. It is reshaping the competitive and sustainability landscape of an industry often perceived as inertia-bound. With grinding representing a nexus of energy intensity and cost, digital technologies from sensor networks and predictive analytics to digital twins offer new levers of control. When paired with innovations in grinding media and grinding aids, particularly those with embedded digital capabilities, plants can achieve unprecedented gains in efficiency, predictability and performance.
For global cement producers aiming to reduce costs and carbon footprints simultaneously, the future belongs to those who harness digital intelligence not just to monitor operations, but to optimise and evolve them continuously.

About the author:
Professor Procyon Mukherjee, ex-CPO Lafarge-Holcim India, ex-President Hindalco, ex-VP Supply Chain Novelis Europe, has been an industry leader in logistics, procurement, operations and supply chain management. His career spans 38 years starting from Philips, Alcan Inc (Indian Aluminum Company), Hindalco, Novelis and Holcim. He authored the book, ‘The Search for Value in Supply Chains’. He serves now as Visiting Professor in SP Jain Global, SIOM and as the Adjunct Professor at SBUP. He advises leading Global Firms including Consulting firms on SCM and Industrial Leadership and is a subject matter expert in aluminum and cement. An Alumnus of IIM Calcutta and Jadavpur University, he has completed the LH Senior Leadership Programme at IVEY Academy at Western University, Canada.