Cement, Energy and Environment

existence of a service agreement between the client and FLSmidth Automation Australia. The service agreement also includes 24 hour telephone support for the ECS/ProcessExpert along with other ECS Products. Most importantly, online remote access is available to the FLSmidth engineers to carry out tuning and maintenance on any of these systems. The ability to carry out remote service is very important. The customer is located around 1OOOkm from the FLSmidth Australia Office and is even in a different time zone. Yes, Australia is a big place! Also included in the service agreement are two one-week on site visits to carry out work on the systems. This time is mainly spent keeping the ProcessExpert up-to-date with new or changed plant equipment and running procedures. Adelaide Brighton Cement Birkenhead has been a very strong supporter of the ECS/ProcessExpert systems for over 14 years now, a clear indication how much the client believes in FLSmidth technology and service. The company is well aware that the existence of a service agreement gives them the best service and the run times that they desire from the ECS/ProcessExpert, making sure the capital investment is fully utilized. Remote monitoring and support For years FLSmidth Automation has had the ability to diagnose and then monitor a plant's process and machinery issues remotely through a secured portal. FLSmidth Automation has created a combined and uniform solution for collecting, storing and visualizing KPI's from different plants. As a result, FLSmidth Automation's support is much more proactive. For example, if the use of an asset (eg ECS/ProcessExpert) falls below 90 per cent for a set period, one of its specialists will contact the plant to investigate and remedy the situation together with them. Consequently, remote monitoring not only significantly improves FLSmidth Automation's response time, but also minimizes costs charged for site visits. Furthermore, the service and support provided through remote monitoring can extend well beyond FLSmidth Automation. As customer need dictate, specialists throughout all areas of FLSmidth's organization can led their specific expertise. Optimization around the world The desire for process optimization is universal in the cement industry; reduced production costs, continuous improvement of quality, and adherence to environmental constraints. An ECS/ProcessExpert System helps cement plants to achieve operation and production goals and, as a result, enables the cement industry to meet increasing business challenges. Courtesy: International Cement Review, December 2009, Pp53-54. Maintenance SIX SIGMA - A SELECTIVE STRATEGY WITH COMPETITIVE GAINS FOR PERFORMANCE OPTIMISATION Multiple applications of six– sigma concept to design, manufacturing process control and plant maintenance provide a competitive advantage. Maintenance performance for enhancing productive machine availability is of particular importance, in this context. The subject title identifies the basics, analyses the scope, discusses the usage and focuses the application aspect with consequent competitive gains in the global scenario for achieving performance optimization. It suggests a strategic selection of the span to 6-sigma or 5-sigma or 4-sigma depending on the degree of inherent variability of the manufacturing process or capability of the plant machinery. The target of correcting the defects or quality violations per million opportunities remains fixed. SanwarM Mishra, Ex-UNIDO Consultant, Dadhichi Nagar, P.O. Sikar-332001 Rajasthan Introduction: Knowledge is no body's monopoly. When one company excels the other in business performance in respect of cost or quality or both, it is the achievement of a competitive advantage over the other. It can be effected by various methods e.g. by reducing the product and process defects, by introducing process innovation or a strategic shift, by a technological breakthrough, by using lean production method, by reducing manufacturing cycle time and so on. But it should not be at a prohibitive cost. Higher quality at lower cost is the dream of all executives. It pleases the customers as well. Dr. William Smith at Motorola conceived such an idea of Six Sigma or six standard deviations. Standard deviation is the numerical measure of the degree of spread of the frequency distribution data. Data are scattered around the center and the extent of this scatter is called the variation. The range, 14 ..