Trends in the performance management of cement plants

1 Introduction

Cement plants are operating continuously for 24 hours a day and when possible for about 330 days a year without interruption. The rest of the year the plants have their annual shutdown for major repairs. Each day of unscheduled shutdown results in a loss of income, which can be as high as 0.3 million US$ for a standard 1.0 million tons (Mta) capacity plant and cement prices in the range of 100 US$/t. Accordingly plant managers have to concentrate on keeping the plant running and optimising the production costs. These production costs differ greatly depending on region, plant...