Management of production process information: a case study in China’s cement industry
A systematic investigation of the management of production process information was carried out based on the Fuyang South Cement Company. The problems existing in this company were analyzed in detail. This covered the manufacturing process, energy consumption, equipment management and quality management. A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) composed of five modules, i.e. remote real-time monitoring, manufacturing process management, energy consumption management, equipment management and quality management, was built up to solve these problems. The development strategies and functionality of these modules are described in detail.
1 Introduction
Cement production in China has exceeded 2.0 billion t for five consecutive years and accounts for nearly half the world’s production. Thanks to the competitive market, renovated technology and rigorous regulation, some of the cement companies in China now possess advanced main and auxiliary equipment, have achieved lower energy consumptions, discharge less pollutants and are now comparable with the advanced facilities in the developed countries [1]. However, the level of production process information management in most cement companies in China is far behind the modern companies...
