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3. Use of this Document Pages
PART THREE
Using this document to develop business
The following provides the reader of this document, either General Management or Sales Team, with some template questions to help generate revenue from this Production Line Intelligence overview and so develop business in the aggregates and cement industries. For many of these questions you may already know the answers. Others might be used on a regular basis when you visit customers and prospects in other industry sectors. It is meant as a resource to act as a prompt and reminder allowing your business to fully capitalise on this market intelligence and production information.
There are three parts that deal with:
1. Preparing (before any visit takes place) – this provides questions to think about and address before attending the company’s site. This further breaks down into two sections being: a. Detail of the company itself b. The people to be seen and which department 2. The meeting – questions to ask during the meeting to understand the needs, requirements, and potential sales opportunities in the prospective customer 3. The follow up – questions to ask or to reflect on, at the end of the meeting or afterwards
Preparing – before the visit
The 'Excavation Site' or 'Processing Plant'
• What are you visiting? – An excavation site of raw materials with crushing and grinding capabilities? – Is this then conveyed directly or transported by road or rail for processing? – A cement processing plant - from crushing, screening, to cooling, storage, bagging and distribution? • What do you already know about: – The size and throughput? – Its scale in terms of capacity, output etc? – The stages of the cement process it has (raw materials preparation, pyro processing, clinker treatment, storage and transportation)? – Do the system suppliers provide aftermarket warranty service? • How old is the facility? • How many people do they employ? • Do they have in-house maintenance engineers? • Who decides on purchasing? • Does this company have other facilities in your region/ territory?
The people to meet
• Who are you going to see? • What is their role or speciality (facility manager/ maintenance manager/technical manager and do they cover maintenance, repair and purchasing)? • What do you know about them already? (hint: search
LinkedIn) • What is your initial summary as to the main challenges they face in relation to purchasing the types of products you can supply?
General
• What are your primary objectives for the meeting – what do you want to achieve? – Exploratory – Presentation – Breadth of service • What are the fall-back objectives if the primary objectives are unachievable? • What is your proposed agenda? • What kind of questions will you ask (in relation specifically to who will be seen)? • What is your plan for follow ups to this meeting (further meeting/proposal/meeting with other people)? • What kind of support material do you need to take with you?
(If not already known, any of the preparation questions can be asked during the meeting to establish site type, size, capacity, age, as noted).
The facility
• What sort of plant or facility is this e.g. excavation of aggregates or processing of raw materials? • What are the processes used from receipt to dispatch? – Grinding – Dry or wet-processing mix – Pyro processing – Clinker treatment - grinding and storage – Transportation - distribution and ready-mix concrete • How are the main machines maintained and repaired? – Internal team, external team, machine builder service engineers?
Maintenance, planning and issues
• What sort of regular maintenance does the plant undergo? – Regular shut-down periods or other? • What is the estimated annual spend on maintenance? • What are the main issues in relation to maintenance? • What are the problems in the process that affect continuity? – What are the main issues in relation to maintenance? – What are they caused by? – Are there on-going projects to deal with this? – Are they using partners – suppliers or distributors – to assist you in this process? • Do they have existing projects carried out in relation to maintenance or energy management etc? – Are existing partners – suppliers or distributors – assisting? • What are the key maintenance/industrial supplies objectives for the facility?
The most utilised products
• What parts are used most on an annual basis? – What are the issues/challenges faced getting those parts? • What are the main concerns in relation to type of production parts that are needed to maintain and improve the line (e.g. bearings, mechanical power transmission, pneumatics, etc.)? • Where is the process most prone to failure or maintenance problems?
Suppliers
• What do you value most in relation to a supplier/ distributor like us? • What kind of support do you look for from your service providers in relation to on-going or emergency maintenance? • What is your biggest current problem with your parts suppliers? – How do you like your supplier partners to assist? • What are the next steps? – Can we come back with a proposal to help you with some of this?
The follow up
• What were the main points you learned from the visit? • How are you going to store this information? • How are you going to use this information? • Who in your business do you need to share this information with? • What are the next steps you need to take and when? • How will you complete these? • What other types of follow up will you undertake and why? – What have been the success stories? – How can these be replicated? • How will you ensure that these follow ups are completed?
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements and a sincere thank you to the following manufacturer members of EPTDA for the generosity of the technical and commercial information and advice that they have supplied and which has given real authority to the document.
Also to a number of technical experts from distributor members of EPTDA operating in this sector, who have provided the concrete examples included in the text and without whose contribution the document would lack its operational and commercial relevance and power for distributors.
Finally to the individual members of the EPTDA Know Your Market Committee and particularly to its Task Group, who have freely given their advice, guidance and inputs throughout the process of producing this document.
Authored by:
Disclaimer:
The costed examples contained in this document are illustrations taken from real practice. They are, however, not predictions of future value achievable from various projects that can be undertaken in this sector. The authors, contributors and EPTDA do not accept any liability for any commercial decisions that may be taken as a result of these examples.
Sources:
1. Science Mag, ‘The World Needs to get Serious About Managing Sand says UN’ 2. Marble, ‘How is Granite Mined’ 3. Mineral Products Association, ‘Aggregates’ 4. Grand View Research, ‘Aggregates Market Size, Share and Trends Analysis Report by Type’ 5. UEPG, ‘Annual Review 2018-2019’ 6. Grand View Research, ‘Aggregates Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Type’ 7. Ibid. 8. Forbes, ‘China Used More Concrete in 3 Years than the Entire 20th Century’ 9. Aggregates Business, ‘Global Aggregates Growth Examined by GAIN Convener Jim O’Brien’ 10. UEPG, 'Annual Review 2018-2019' 11. CEMBUREAU, ‘Main World Producer – The G20 Group Cement Production’ 12. UEPG, ‘Annual Review 2018-2019’ 13. UEPG, ‘Annual Review 2019-2020’ 14. Ibid. 15. Statista, 'Cement Production Worldwide from 1995 to 2019' 16. Vulcan Materials Company, ‘The Future of the Construction Industry: Impact on Aggregates Demand & Supply’ 17. Grand View Research, ‘Aggregates Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Type’ 18. Research Gate, ‘Aggregates and Construction Markets in Europe: Towards a Sectoral Action Plan on Sustainable Resource Management’ 19. Volvo CE, ‘Carbon Emissions Reduced by 98% at Volvo Construction Equipment and Skanska’s Electric Site’ 20. Cemnet, ‘Gobal Cement Report’ 21. Volvo CE, ‘Carbon Emissions Reduced by 98% at Volvo Construction Equipment and Skanska’s Electric Site’ 22. Quarry Magazine, ‘Delivering Predictive Maintenance for Exploratory Drilling’ 23. Quarry Magazine, ‘Global Market Still Cold on Recycled Aggregates’ 24. Business Wire, ‘Recycled Construction Aggregates Market to Surpass 6.2 Million Tons by End of 2027’ 25. UEPG, ‘Annual Review 2018-2019’ 26. UEPG, ‘Annual Review 2019-2020’ 27. Property Forum, ‘Europe’s Construction Industry will be Hard Hit by Covid-19’ 28. Green Facts, ‘The Mining of Sand, a Non-Renewable Resource’ 29. Science Mag, ‘The World Needs to get Serious About Managing Sand says UN’ 30. Quarry Magazine, ‘Water Management in the Extractive Industries’ 31. UEPG, ‘Water Management in Aggregates Quarries and Sand and Gravel Sites’ 32. Volvo CE, ‘Four Things You Should Know About the Quarry and Aggregates Industry’ 33. Aggregate Research, ‘Aggregates Group CEMEX Moves Towards Net-Zero CO2 Concrete’ 34. HeidelbergCement, ‘Cement Producers Have Founded an Oxyfuel Research Corporation’ 35. Argus Media, ‘European Cement Sector Eyes Net Zero by 2050’ 36. CEMBUREAU, ‘Construction & Demolition Waste’ 37. Mineral Products Associates, ‘Aggregates: Recycled Aggregates’ 38. Vulcan Materials Company, ‘The Future of the Construction Industry: Impact on Aggregates, Demand & Supply’ 39. Global Cement, ‘Global Cement Top 100 Report 2017-2018’ 40. Aumund, ‘Cement’ 41. Claudius Peters, ‘About Claudius Peters’ 42. FLSmidth A/S, ‘About Us’ 43. KHD, ‘Company Profile’ 44. Köppern, ‘Home’ 45. Loesche, ‘Cement Industry’ 46. Gebr. Pfeiffer, ‘Company Profile’ 47. Wikipedia, ‘Polysius’ 48. Promecon, ‘Cement’ 49. Schenck Process, ‘Company’ 50. thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, ‘Cement’ 51. Voith, ‘Cement’ 52. Europa, ‘Competitiveness of the European Cement and Lime Sectors’ 53. Cemnet, ‘Global Cement Report’ 54. Europa, ‘Competitiveness of the European Cement and Lime Sectors’
