Cement Suppliers Research Articles

Site suitability analysis using MacBeth and COPRAS in a case study of the cement industry under SCM implementation

In the past two years, 2020-2022, the developing construction industry has been a huge issue according to the negative effect of Covid-19 with the increasing pandemic situation in cities and areas. In Covid-19 pandemic situation, the cement manufacturing industry has been crucial and needed more scrutiny. As cement is the second significant component after water in concrete and construction industry. Meanwhile, locating a cement plant in a special area of the city is challenging and affecting more by local communities and other involved environmental factors. The location selection decisions need to grow by environmental, economic, technical and social attributes. This study aims to present the site suitability decisions through a case study of locating a new manufacturing plant for cement production in Tehran surrounding, Iran. In this process, some required technical and tactical criteria are deserved for evaluating and suitability of the plant through decision-makers for cement manufacturing. All the feasible industrial alternative locations were evaluated under various criteria and regarding the Covid-19 pandemic’s negative impact to identify the most appropriate location for the cement industry. The authors proposed two Multi-Criteria Decision Attributes (MCDA) methods of MacBeth and COmplex PRoportional ASsessment (COPRAS) to evaluate and select the most suitable location for site suitability of the cement plant in this problem. Though the MacBeth method does not need to calculate weights of the Geographical Information System (GIS) criteria, the COPRAS method determined and used BWM (Best-Worst Method) as the weighing method. In sum, the comparison of the two methods was obtained according to the given results and ranks of volunteer cement suppliers for site suitability of the cement plant.

Evaluation and Selection of Cement Suppliers under the Background of New and Old Driving Energy Conversion in China

Accompanied by the concept of supply-side structural reform and conversion of new and old driving energy to create a new round of economic development in China, cement supplier evaluation and selection are increasingly crucial for concrete production plants, ensuring not only raw material supply with high quality and at a reasonable price but also sustainable and long-term cooperation with suppliers. Given the limitations of the existing approaches, this study proposes a cement supplier evaluation and selection framework based on the combination of the improved FAHP-CRITIC method and VIKOR method. We first develop a cement supplier evaluation and selection index system under the background of new and old driving energy conversion, including eight first-level indicators and twenty-one second-level indicators. The proposed model then uses triangular fuzzy numbers AHP (TFN-AHP) and the improved CRITIC method to calculate subjective and objective weights by replacing the coefficient of variation with standard deviation, uses the ideal solution-based method to determine their combination weights, and combines the VIKOR method to calculate the comprehensive evaluation values of candidate cement suppliers. After that, the proposed approach is applied to evaluate and select ten cement suppliers for concrete production plants, and the results are compared and analyzed with those using the traditional method. The results of the comparison show that the proposed strategy can be scientific and reliable, helping managers to make the right decision under the background of new and old driving energy conversion in China.

Assessment of Cement Consumption Pattern: A Case from Pokhara, Nepal

Purpose: Cement is a major construction material used in civil engineering works due to which its demand is very high. The consumers and suppliers of the cement market may feel that every brand they are buying and selling is of good quality. The study has been focused to assess the consumption of different cement brands available in the Pokhara Metropolitan city. Design/Methodology/Approach: cement suppliers’ data and field data were collected. Cement suppliers within the study area were considered during the survey. The different brands of cement in use at the site were examined by field survey and analysis was conducted on SPSS software to obtain the results. Findings/Result: Maximum cement suppliers prefer Shivam (18.18%) in OPC type and Brij cement (17.53%) in PPC type. A positive increasing trend of annual cement consumption was observed from 2070 BS to 2076 BS. Annual cement consumption of OPC and PPC were separately studied. Cement consumption data from mass concreting areas were collected. High rise buildings, Pokhara international airport, midhill highway section in the study area, siltation dams, and cement consumption in bridges near the study area were taken into consideration for the study. All RMC suppliers' cement consumption in study area was studied differently from the establishment period. Descriptive statistics was used to study the association between cement preference and the price of cement. Preference of suppliers of cement was not found to be associated with the price of cement. Preference for cement in RMC was not found to be associated with price of cement. Originality/Value: It is action research to analyze cement consumption pattern. Paper Type: Ex-post facto research.

Assessment of Cement Consumption Pattern: A Case from Pokhara, Nepal

Purpose: Cement is a major construction material used in civil engineering works due to which its demand is very high. The consumers and suppliers of the cement market may feel that every brand they are buying and selling is of good quality. The study has been focused to assess the consumption of different cement brands available in the Pokhara Metropolitan city. Design/Methodology/Approach: cement suppliers’ data and field data were collected. Cement suppliers within the study area were considered during the survey. The different brands of cement in use at the site were examined by field survey and analysis was conducted on SPSS software to obtain the results. Findings/Result: Maximum cement suppliers prefer Shivam (18.18%) in OPC type and Brij cement (17.53%) in PPC type. A positive increasing trend of annual cement consumption was observed from 2070 BS to 2076 BS. Annual cement consumption of OPC and PPC were separately studied. Cement consumption data from mass concreting areas were collected. High rise buildings, Pokhara international airport, midhill highway section in the study area, siltation dams, and cement consumption in bridges near the study area were taken into consideration for the study. All RMC suppliers' cement consumption in study area was studied differently from the establishment period. Descriptive statistics was used to study the association between cement preference and the price of cement. Preference of suppliers of cement was not found to be associated with the price of cement. Preference for cement in RMC was not found to be associated with price of cement. Originality/Value: It is action research to analyze cement consumption pattern Paper Type: Ex-Post Facto Research

PEMILIHAN SUPPLIER SEMEN PADA CV. RIZKI JAYA ABADI DI KABUPATEN MOJOKERTO MENGGUNAKAN METODE FUZZY AHP (ANALYTICAL HIERARCHY PROCESS)

One of the important activities in business that can affect business competitiveness is the process of procuring goods or services. The existence of alternative suppliers is often the main problem for business owners. The problem arises when these suppliers have several quality differences in the criteria previously determined by the company. In these conditions the business owner must be able to choose the best supplier to supply goods or services needed by his business. CV. Rizki Jaya Abadi is a construction service company which has several branches. One way to ensure that customer demands are met is to ensure that the building materials used are of good quality or suitable for their purpose. One of the main building materials is cement. In solving these problems, the researchers used the Fuzzy Analythical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) method. This research shows that there are 5 main criteria in choosing cement suppliers, namely Price, Quality, Delivery, Response, and Service. From the calculations performed, it was found that the best cement supplier ranking for CV. Rizki Jaya Abadi respectively is UD. Hana Jaya with a value of 0.2479, UD. Pododadi with a value of 0.2183, UD. Murah Jaya with a value of 0.1933, UD. Stone with a value of 0.1749, and UD. Sari Agung with a value of 0.1655.

APPLICATION OF AHP FOR SUPPLIER SELECTION IN CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES

The procurement process is an important process in supply chain management as it is the spearhead of the entire process. In carrying out the procurement process, there are often problems with the supplier selection activities. This is because the supplier selection process spends a lot of time and resources collecting data and conducting careful analysis that will affect the entire decision alternative. In making decisions relating to the many criteria and the number of alternative suppliers, it requires an effective and uncomplex assessment technique, but it provides accurate results. A mapping and determination of supplier selection criteria is required as a basis for valuation to obtain a qualified supplier. This study focused on PT. XYZ is a construction company in South Tangerang. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to determine the best supplier, there are 4 variables that are reference in conducting the selection of suppliers, such as: cost, quality, delivery, and service. The result in the selection of the supplier company is cost with a weight of 0.268, quality with a weight of 0.290, delivery with a weighting of 0.248, and the service with a weight of 0.194 where conclusions obtained from the analysis of the selection of the best suppliers and in accordance with the criteria, namely PT. CBL for iron suppliers, PT.SAS for cement suppliers, and PT. Citra BSD for suppliers of natural materials

Application of AHP for Supplier Selection in Construction Companies

The procurement process is an important process in supply chain management as it is the spearhead of the entire process. In carrying out the procurement process, there are often problems with the supplier selection activities. This is because the supplier selection process spends a lot of time and resources collecting data and conducting careful analysis that will affect the entire decision alternative. In making decisions relating to the many criteria and the number of alternative suppliers, it requires an effective and uncomplex assessment technique, but it provides accurate results. A mapping and determination of supplier selection criteria is required as a basis for valuation to obtain a qualified supplier. This study focused on PT. XYZ is a construction company in South Tangerang. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to determine the best supplier, there are 4 variables that are reference in conducting the selection of suppliers, such as: cost, quality, delivery, and service. The result in the selection of the supplier company is cost with a weight of 0.268, quality with a weight of 0.290, delivery with a weighting of 0.248, and the service with a weight of 0.194 where conclusions obtained from the analysis of the selection of the best suppliers and in accordance with the criteria, namely PT. CBL for iron suppliers, PT.SAS for cement suppliers, and PT. Citra BSD for suppliers of natural materials

Evaluation of Physical and Chemical Properties of OPC and PPC Cement

Cement is a one of the largest industrial product that is manufactured in more than 120 countries. Increasing costs of cement have recorded a continuous growth in its usage in the Indian construction industry. India is marching forwarding cement Production. Cement was first invented by the Egyptians. India started the same in 1904 in Tamil Nadu in Ariyalur. OPC and PPC are the two most widely used cement types in India. There are significant differences in mortar strength, fineness, consistency, soundness, chemical composition and setting time of same type of cement collected from different cement suppliers. Experiments were conducted on 9 brands of OPC and 6 brands of PPC samples collected from local market in Solapur, Maharashtra, India. In this study, the amounts of main chemical constituents such as Silicon oxide (SiO2), Aluminum oxide (Al2O3), Iron Oxide (Fe2O3), Magnesium Oxide (MgO), Sulphur Trioxide (SO3), Calcium Oxide (CaO), and Loss on Ignition (LOI) were determined and compared. All the results pbtained during this study were presented in order to provide qualitative and quantitative differentiation between cement sample. These results were compared with limits specified in the BIS. The possible reasons for variation in chemical composition and their effect on properties of cement have been discussed.

Analysis of Worker Category Social Impacts in Different Types of Concrete Plant Operations: A Case Study in South Korea

As sustainable development has emerged as a priority on the international agenda, increasing emphasis has been placed on “Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA),” wherein environmental, economic, and social performance are comprehensively integrated. This study, as part of an LCSA approach, uses Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) to analyze the worker category social impact for concrete plants in South Korea. For the analysis, three types of concrete plant with different operating systems were selected and evaluated: Direct operation, operated by dedicated concrete manufacturers, and operated by cement suppliers. Eleven major social topics, which were mentioned in the international standards and international institutes, were selected as the subjects of evaluation; the social impacts were evaluated by applying the evaluative criteria for social topics presented in the Handbook for Product Social Life Cycle Assessment of PRé Sustainability. We determined that the highest social impact was found in concrete plants operated by cement suppliers (0.77), followed by plants operated by dedicated concrete manufacturers (0.50), and finally by plants with direct operations (0.09). These results can be applied by concrete plants to improve worker category areas in which they are lacking and by future researchers to evaluate the sustainable development of a variety of industries.

Supplier Selection Study under the Respective of Low-Carbon Supply Chain: A Hybrid Evaluation Model Based on FA-DEA-AHP

With the development of global environment and social economy, it is an indispensable choice for enterprises to achieve sustainable growth through developing low-carbon economy and constructing low-carbon supply chain. Supplier is the source of chain, thus selecting excellent low-carbon supplier is the foundation of establishing efficient low-carbon supply chain. This paper presents a novel hybrid model for supplier selection integrated factor analysis (FA), data envelopment analysis (DEA), with analytic hierarchy process (AHP), namely FA-DEA-AHP. First, an evaluation index system is built, incorporating product level, qualification, cooperation ability, and environmental competitiveness. FA is utilized to extract common factors from the 18 pre-selected indicators. Then, DEA is applied to establish the pairwise comparison matrix and AHP is employed to rank these low-carbon suppliers comprehensively and calculate the validity of the decision-making units. Finally, an experiment study with seven cement suppliers in a large industrial enterprise is carried out in this paper. The results reveal that the proposed technique can not only select effective suppliers, but also realize a comprehensive ranking. This research has enriched the methodology of low-carbon supplier evaluation and selection, as well as owns theoretical value in exploring the coordinated development of low-carbon supply chain to some extent.

Consideration of strength and service life in cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of self-compacting concrete in a maritime area: a study in the Brazilian context

One solution for reducing the environmental impact of the civil construction industry is to incorporate by-products and waste from other industries into materials such as concrete, which is the most commonly used construction material. Therefore, this study presents a comparison of the production of self-compacting concrete containing mineral admixtures in a Brazilian context. To compare mixtures fairly, it is necessary to use indicators that incorporate all the relevant aspects; therefore, two environmental impact indicators were used, considering mechanical strength and service life (SL) as parameters. The concrete mixtures studied contained ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) and fly ash at replacement levels of 20, 30, and 40%. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a method that can be used to quantify the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. SimaPro software was used as a tool to perform the LCA. To assess the durability of concrete, the SL of each mixture was estimated using Life-365 software. The difference in the clinker transportation of different cement suppliers was an important parameter in the analysis. Based on all of the indicators analyzed, it was concluded that utilization of the highest GGBFS content in the cement was the environmentally preferable solution.

Trust and communication as predictors of customer satisfaction in business-to-business relationship marketing in the South African cement manufacturing industry

Customer satisfaction has become relevant in the South African cement industry as it leads to customer loyalty and cooperation. In the current climate, to ensure long-term profitability, cement suppliers need to adopt strategies to ensure customer satisfaction. This study’s literature search has revealed that there is limited published research, particularly in South Africa, which deals with customer satisfaction determinants in the cement industry. The major objective of the study was to test if trust and communication influence customer satisfaction in the context of business-to-business relationship marketing in the South African cement manufacturing industry. The methodology involved a survey and was quantitative in nature. Data were collected from 362 major business-to-business cement customers throughout South Africa’s nine provinces using the face-to-face interview technique using a seven-point Likert scale structured self-administered questionnaires. The data collected in the empirical study were analysed using descriptive, correlation and regression analysis. The empirical results of this study suggest that, in order to maintain customer satisfaction, a cement supplier has to invest in ways of enhancing customer trust and communication. As a result this study makes both theoretical and practical contribution in the field of relationship marketing

Using Fuzzy Matter-Element Model and Triangular Fuzzy AHP Method to Select the International Construction Project Material Suppliers

Selection of material supplier is important to international construction project management, and can bring impacts on the project's quality, schedule and cost. Considering the features of international construction projects, we built a selection decision-making evaluation index system. Triangular fuzzy AHP (Analysis of Hierarchy Process) method was used to calculate the weights of evaluation index. Using the medium value of triangular fuzzy number, a simple and convenient method was developed to test the consistency of judgment matrix. Base on calculating the weights of evaluation index, a fuzzy matter-element model was proposed to calculate the comprehensive evaluation values. Taking the selection of cement suppliers of the Congo (Brazzaville) National Road One Second Project as an example, the Euclid closeness of alternative suppliers was calculated to determine the ranking order of alternatives.

Importance of Consistent Cement Quality for a Sustainable Construction

The EN and SLS specifications for Portland cement have largely similar provisions on physical and chemical parameters of cement. However, consistency of cement within standards specifications is significantly high and it affect to standard deviation of concrete. In order to obtain good concrete quality, concrete users need to target a low standard deviation of concrete strength. In order to reduce the strength standard deviation of concrete strength, the material properties variations need to be lowered. This paper discusses variation in cement properties from 5 different cement suppliers. Cement from given suppliers varies between batches/ shipments. It is well understood that there are significant differences in mortar strength, chemical composition, fineness, setting times of same cement type (Type 1) from different suppliers. Experiments were conducted with 48 cement samples of 5 different cement suppliers collected over 10 months time from January 2011 to October 2011. It was found that as all cement brands comply with EN and SLS standards. However, coefficients of variation (COVs) of most parameters, especially strength, are significantly high. This paper answers two key questions; are all nominally similar cements the same? Does cement from same supplier always behave consistently? Finally it recommends cement users and specifies a systematic way to select a consistent cement supplier for an economical and sustainable construction.

Use and acceptability of reduced‐weight Portland cement bags in masonry construction: An observational pilot study

AbstractBackground Mason tenders are involved in semi‐ and unskilled work in support of bricklayers and block layers. Their work consists of manually transporting building materials and equipment, supplying individual brick/block layers with materials, and mixing and stocking mortar.Objective The purpose of this pilot study is to determine the current availability and acceptability of reduced‐weight Portland cement bags among mason contractors, cement suppliers, and manufacturers as a vehicle to decrease the exposure of mason tenders to physical risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders (MSD).Methods Forty‐six producers, suppliers, and contractors that use Portland cement bags were used in this observational exploratory study. A questionnaire was administrated over the phone and data were collected regarding availability, practice of use, and preferences between full‐ and reduced‐weight Portland cement bags.Results Only 17% of the companies produce/supply/use the reduced‐weight cement bags. The main factors mentioned by the companies that influence the nonuse of small bags are reduced demand; increased cost; storage, shipping, and handling difficulty; special equipment requirements; and special packaging. Only 11% of companies interviewed are aware of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) lifting recommendations that the maximum lifted weight should be 51 lb.Conclusions This exploratory study suggests that reduced cement bags may not be in wide use by producers/suppliers/users of Portland cement. A full‐scale study is recommended to confirm these practices and find ways to significantly reduce the risk to which masonry workers are exposed.Application The potential application of this study can be the development of new guidelines regarding the production/supplying/usage of 47 lb cement bags. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Ultra-Thin, Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Overlays for Urban Intersections

An industry partnership involving state and local highway officials; ready mix concrete producers; and fiber, admixture, and cement suppliers paved the way for extensive testing of a new concrete technology in Tennessee. Known as ultra-thin whitetopping (UTW), this experimental repair procedure involves placing a layer 50 to 75 mm (2 to 3 in.) thick of high-strength concrete over milled asphalt. Crucial to a long life for the thin concrete is a high synthetic fiber content, normally 1.4 kg/m3 (3 lbs/yd3) with joints spaced at a minimum of 0.92 to 1.22 m (3 to 4 ft) on center. From 1992 to 1995, seven cities in Tennessee participated in UTW demonstrations. The field tests were so successful that synthetic fiber-reinforced UTW is now being bid on many state and local projects. Presently, the primary use of UTW is to rehabilitate high average daily traffic intersections. Other potential uses include overlays of residential streets, parking lots, and airport aprons.

Ultra-Thin, Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Overlays for Urban Intersections

An industry partnership involving state and local highway officials; ready mix concrete producers; and fiber, admixture, and cement suppliers paved the way for extensive testing of a new concrete technology in Tennessee. Known as ultra-thin whitetopping (UTW), this experimental repair procedure involves placing a layer 50 to 75 mm (2 to 3 in.) thick of high-strength concrete over milled asphalt. Crucial to a long life for the thin concrete is a high synthetic fiber content, normally 1.4 kg/m3 (3 lbs/yd3) with joints spaced at a minimum of 0.92 to 1.22 m (3 to 4 ft) on center. From 1992 to 1995, seven cities in Tennessee participated in UTW demonstrations. The field tests were so successful that synthetic fiber-reinforced UTW is now being bid on many state and local projects. Presently, the primary use of UTW is to rehabilitate high average daily traffic intersections. Other potential uses include overlays of residential streets, parking lots, and airport aprons.