Operations Management in Cement Manufacturing

This assignment discusses the management of assets in the cement manufacturing industry and explores various operations involved in the process. It also identifies points where the delivery system may fail to align operational performance measures and suggests the utilization of a lean project to reduce failings. Findings show how a lean approach can assist the system in aligning operational performance measures.

Running head: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Name of Student
Name of University
Author’s Note

1OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Executive summary
For the purpose of planning and forecasting, optimizing and scheduling various work
assignments, to dispatch work to the maintenance as well as field crews, performance
measurement and work order processing. The activities that are carried out in the cement
manufacturing industry need an organized, consistent as well as integrated approach that is
aligned with the operational processes of the organization. This goal is for field as well as
operations personnel in order to perform the perfect activities in the exact time using the
necessary resources. This happens irrespective of the nature of the events, whether they are
planned or unplanned. This assignment discusses regarding the assets that are being managed in
the organization. This report also provides a detailed discussion regarding various operations that
are involved within the cement manufacturing system and presents operational flow of the
activities carried out by the industry. From the illustration provided, the report identifies two of
those points where the delivery system of the organization might fail in order to align the
measures of its operational performance.

2OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
Discussion............................................................................................................................3
How the assets are managed............................................................................................3
Key operations of the system...........................................................................................5
Logical operational flow..................................................................................................7
Identification of points where the delivery system may fail to align the operational
performance measures.................................................................................................................7
Utilization of a lean project to reduce the failings...........................................................9
Three findings where lean approach can assist the system with aligning the operational
performance measures.................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................10

3OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Operations management can be defined as an administration of business practices in
order to create a high level of effectiveness that is possible only within a specific organization. It
usually deals with converting various materials and then labor into various goods as well as
services; this is done in an effective manner to maximize the profit of a particular organization
(Nguyen and Hens 2015). The team of operations management attempts to balance costs with its
revenue, this is done in order to achieve the maximum net operating profit. The organization
chosen in this assignment is a cement manufacturing organization named Gamcem ltd.
This report discusses regarding the ways using which various assets or inventories within
the system of production are managed. This report also provides a detailed discussion regarding
various operations that are involved within the cement manufacturing system and presents
operational flow of the activities carried out by the industry. From the illustration provided, the
report identifies two of those points where the delivery system of the organization might fail in
order to align the measures of its operational performance (Epstein 2018). It further discusses
how lean approach can be used for the production system to reduce the failings. It also identifies
the key findings which discusses the extent in which the lean approach that has been chosen
might assist the system of production during aligning its measures of operational performance.
Discussion
How the assets are managed
Management of assets is very important for the cement manufacturing industry. Various
industries utilize different strategies in order to manage their assets. The company mentioned in
the assignment, utilizes numerous ways by which its assets are managed (Goosen, Swanepoel
and Du Plessis 2016). The organization makes use of Integrated Asset Management approach;
this approach helps the organization in achieving stable operations and meets their target of
production along with maintaining the quality of their products. This also helps them in ensuring
a continuous improvement in reliability, safety, lifetime, availability, efficiency and productivity
of their assets. They also help in maximizing their return on their capital employed (Ivanov,
Tsipoulanidis and Schönberger 2017). Asset management provides various benefits to the

4OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
organization in numerous projects, in numerous cases, the assets that have been owned by the
organization are utilized in many projects and not just one. Using the asset managing approach
the organization generates maximum value from the physical assets that are used by the
organization. They maximize the value of their assets by utilizing then with proper care; the
utilization of various resources is done only when they are actually required. The company does
not replace any resource with another in case a specific resource is not available (Amrina and
Vilsi 2015). They look for an appropriate alternative in case a resource is not available, and then
they ensure that the missing resource is again in stock as soon as possible.
The asset management is done by the company by keeping track or maintaining a record
regarding which ones are more important and the ones that are of least importance (Hossain,
Poon and Lo 2017). The assets are managed irrespective of their importance but their level of
management is maintained on the basis of their priority. The organization also considered
employees as one of the most importance asset of the enterprise; it is ensured that the employees
are provided with enough facilities and with opportunities, usually employees prefer staying in
an organization where they feel they can flourish and where they can get enough opportunities to
grow themselves. The company uses various methods using which they can contribute in asset
management. The consulting experts assess the organization’s current performance with the
target performance of the organization (Kajaste and Hurme 2016). This provides an idea to the
organization regarding the level of assets utilized in the method and expect the amount of assets
left which can be utilized in their next projects.
Key operations of the system
The cement manufacturing system needs to follow various operations. Before beginning
the actual process of cement manufacturing the company requires to carry out numerous
operations that are considered to be important for the organization (Epstein 2018). These
operations must be followed by the organization in order to carry out the actual cement
manufacturing process smoothly without facing any difficulty in between the processes. The
various key operations of the organization are as follows
 Know what is actually happening in market: this is usually done by the
organization with the help of acquiring comprehensive market intelligence
(Subramani and Tamizhanban 2016). This helps the organization in developing a
clear view regarding the micro markets with which the company competes as well

5OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
as the actual position of the organization. The main objective is to determine the
best practices for every micro market. Understanding various market dynamics is
very important for helping the cement company for avoiding common errors in
the industry. Comparing various other organizations with the provided
organization help it know the best way of asset management (Supino, Malandrino
and Testa 2016). Asset management is done by removing all the common errors
performed by other organizations and making their system errorless.
 Determining their strategy: after gaining a clear view of the market dynamics as
well as opportunities, the cement company is able to define its own company’s
objectives, they get a clear knowledge regarding which micro market should be
focused on and if the company would be positioned as a premium player or a low
cost producer. This helps them to set market share aspirations, develop a set of
specific strategic initiatives in order to address issues and opportunities and
anticipate potential changes (Geng, Wang and Jiang 2018). Scenario modeling is
very helpful in this case because it helps the CEO of the company to identify
various potential issues that can be emerged and then think with the help of
actions as well as processes.
 Testing as well as implementing commercial practices: in this operation, the
producer must simulate the impacts of various tactical initiatives like more loyal
customers and their segmentation is carried out properly in numerous market
scenarios (Sucic, Al-Mansour and Pusnik 2016). These simulations provide some
feedback regarding the moves that are likely to undergo or happen and that would
result in great success and the ways by which commercial team would profitably
refine their tactics or strategies. After that the team runs live market tests in order
to determine if the outcomes had matched expectations (Singh, Modgil and Tiwari
2018). This ensures that the commercial team executes the initiative in an
effective manner; the producer prepares a blueprint which provides guidelines for
the recommended tactics.

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Logical operational flow
Diagram 1: Logical operational flow
(Source: created by author)
Identification of points where the delivery system may fail to align the operational
performance measures
There are numerous points where the cement industry faces numerous problems. Usually
the delivery system of the industry faces challenges in aligning the operational performance
measures. Various challenges faced by the industry include
 Green buildings: there are various norms that have been developed for green
buildings which make maximum utilization of wind and sun to reduce their
dependency on the air-conditioning and lightning (Sellitto and Murakami 2018).
Though this factor is not mandatory but the pressure of reducing the emission of

7OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
harmful gases has made it important for the organizations to introduce green
buildings. The implementation of green buildings requires a lot of resources along
with a very high budget. Organizations that are small or medium sized do not
usually get the courage to invest a lot of revenue in this implementation. This is
because there are nu8meorus organizations that do not have high revenue; hence
implementing green buildings would cost them much more compared to their
actual annual revenue (Sasananan, Narkhede and Gardas 2016). This might cause
a huge loss for the organization.
 Upgrading technology: the cement industry faces some challenges due to the fact
that the upgradation of new technologies has made industries more independent
on them (Goosen, Swanepoel and Du Plessis 2016). Cement industries need an up
gradation of technology for various purposes like carbon capture as well as
storage. GHG emissions can never be reduced up to targeted levels just by using
AF or by making blended cement. There are various technologies that help in
separating carbon-di-oxide from waste gases present in the horizon. These new
technologies can be utilized in order to make cement substitutes (Chatziaras,
Psomopoulos and Themelis 2016). The organizations usually face a pressure
because using new technologies and upgrading them continuously requires a
certain group of specialists. It also requires a specific set of resources that must be
bought by the organization (Ivanov, Tsipoulanidis and Schönberger 2017). These
can create issues for the organization because in order to implement various
technologies, the company would require investing a certain amount of revenue in
it and if the company does not get benefitted by the technologies it would be a
loss for them.
Utilization of a lean project to reduce the failings
Lean project usually helps the organization in reducing various failings. The
implementation of lean approach helps in improving the efficiency as well as productivity of the
operations of the organization. The capability of the overall enhancement is a challenge that is
usually faced by the cement manufacturing industry (Li and Hong 2017). Lean approach can be
utilized in order to improve various approaches as well as techniques that would help in

8OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
improving the overall enhancement of the organization. Improved efficiency is widely
acknowledged for reducing the downtime rates as well as satisfies huge level of market demands.
Three findings where lean approach can assist the system with aligning the
operational performance measures
The findings where a lean approach would be able to assist the organization in aligning
with the operational performance are as follows
 Waste minimization: the most advantageous benefit provided by lean approach to
the organizations includes the efficient minimization of waste within the facility
of production. Usually companies sit on huge sums of waste as well as inventory,
this particular process eliminated aged and outdated inventory (Naeem, Awais
and Shahzadi 2017). This process not only minimized the manufacturing of
wastes it also helps in reducing the cost in the operations as well. The
implementation of lean approach helps in keeping a record of how much waste
has been produced and aims at reducing the amount of waste on daily basis. This
helps the organization to keep track weather the operations are going on perfectly
and with efficiency (Hossain, Poon Lo 2017). The low manufacturing of wastes
would help the organization in knowing whether they are improving their
operations or the issues faced by the company.
 Customer relationship: implementing lean approach helps the organization in nit
just focusing in needs of all the customers but focusing on the loyal customers of
the organizations (Lee and Cheng 2016). This helps the operations department to
keep a regular contact with the customers and know regarding the changes that
they want in the products manufactured by the organization. The operations of the
organization are helped to improve the products with the help of feedback
provided by the customers (Chatziaras, Psomopoulos and Themelis 2016). This
helps the organization in building reliable and strong relationship with its trusted
customers and then keeps a steady flow of the revenue that would come in.
 Lean infrastructure: a lean infrastructure would mean that it would deal with
various components; these components include building, suppliers, tools, labor
and equipments. This would aim in fulfilling near-tem inventory demand. This

9OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
facility help in reducing the waste and not providing any space within the
operation as well as enabling the facility to come close in a way that it makes the
production efficient (Ivanov, Tsipoulanidis and Schönberger 2017). This
advantage of lean approach helps the organization in making its operations even
better and reducing the errors in their system.
Conclusion
From the above report it can be concluded that cement industry needs comprehensive
solutions for the purpose of workforce as well as operations management for enhancing
efficiency, safety and operations of the operations. For the purpose of planning and forecasting,
optimizing and scheduling various work assignments, to dispatch work to the maintenance as
well as field crews, performance measurement and work order processing. The team of
operations management attempts to balance costs with its revenue, this is done in order to
achieve the maximum net operating profit. The organization chosen in this assignment is a
cement manufacturing organization named Gamcem ltd. Some key operations of this field
include knowing what is actually happening in market, determining their strategy, testing as well
as implementing commercial practices. This assignment also discusses regarding the ways by
which assets of the company are managed. The activities that are carried out in the cement
manufacturing industry need an organized, consistent as well as integrated approach that is
aligned with the operational processes of the organization. This goal is for field as well as
operations personnel in order to perform the perfect activities in the exact time using the
necessary resources. This happens irrespective of the nature of the events, whether they are
planned or unplanned. This assignment discusses regarding the assets that are being managed in
the organization. It further discusses regarding ways by which lean approach can be used for the
production system to reduce the failings. It also identifies the key findings which discusses the
extent in which the lean approach that has been chosen might assist the system of production
during aligning its measures of operational performance. These aspects are described in details in
the discussion part of the report.

10OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
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