Our manufactured capital comprises our countrywide network of integrated cement manufacturing and grinding units, ready mix concrete plants, offices and other state-of-the-art movable and immovable infrastructure, including warehouses, machinery and vehicles. The management of these assets is a key business imperative and is considered an important element in delivering manufacturing excellence and healthy operational performance.

The COVID-19 crisis disrupted supply chains and operations across the country during Q2 2020. To serve the needs of our consumers, we resumed operations in a phased manner in line with prescribed safety protocols. While resuming operations, we put in place various safety measures, from social distancing, touch-free handwashing to sanitisation of tools and vehicles to ensure the safety of our teams.

Overall, our cement business demonstrated encouraging performance, driven by stringent cost optimisation, efficiency improvements and better price realisation.

Cement EBITDA Per Tonne of Cement Sold (`)

*excluding charges of `129 Crore

CAPACITY EXPANSION AND CAPEX PROJECTS

With cement demand projected to rise significantly in India, development capex projects were kickstarted to increase clinker and cement capacities in the attractive and highly profitable central region of India. This, in turn, will ensure that we have ample capacity to cater to a rising demand scenario.

Clinker unit

Grinding unit

*Commissioned in January 2021

PARVAT

Parvat is an efficiency optimisation programme initiated in 2019 to bring radical changes in the cost structure and to improve delivered cost. Our plants help us deliver on the expectations of our esteemed customers. Therefore, it is only natural that the execution of ‘Parvat’ is in line with the requirements of our plants.

2020 saw us conducting workshops and brainstorming sessions, assisted by an external consulting agency at all our plants across the country. Simultaneously, the leadership took turns to visit different plants to explain the underlying intent and the overarching objective of ‘Parvat’ to our people.

Once the direction was set, the potential savings from the identified initiatives were calculated by the finance department and projected as monthly targets. The ideas were reviewed in marathon sessions with cluster managers and plant directors. The ideas shortlisted were entered into a business intelligence tool, especially created for the management to review all initiatives.

Following the roll-out, progress across these initiatives was mapped every month and at various levels. These reviews helped pre-empt the roadblocks and remove bottlenecks and catalysed better decision-making. Even as the COVID-19-induced lockdown threatened to slow the progress, the teams were quick to resume in full spirit, as soon as the restrictions were lifted. As a result, in 2020, about 500 initiatives were implemented successfully in manufacturing alone.

SUPPLY CHAIN AND LOGISTICS

Our logistics strategy is based on four pillars, which include distribution safety, cost efficiency, use of technology and environmental sustainability. We engage with suppliers, governments, industry bodies, businesses and other partners to collaborate and find new ways to innovate and create positive change.

At ACC, we aspire to create a supply chain mechanism, which is agile, cost competitive and sustainable, leading to customer delight. Our logistics team drives various initiatives at each node to ensure that the distribution network is constantly evolving across services, cost and sustainability.

To modernise and enhance our supply chain, we: