Dilip Buildcon Limited - Focusing on the road ahead

Maximizing production to meet tight project deadlines

Driven by government infrastructure programs, road construction is booming across India and expected to reach a target of 40 kilometres of new road per day. Competition for road building projects in the country can be fierce, with multiple Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) contractors vying for contracts.

Companies able to finish jobs on time and on budget are often positioned to win additional business, with significant bonuses also on the line for completing projects ahead of schedule. Dilip Buildcon Limited (DBL) wanted to maximize aggregate production from its 50 producing sites to ensure its projects did not run into delays due to lack of aggregate material. With delays cut to a minimum, DBL could focus its full attention on road construction in order to meet its aggressive project completion schedules. 

Getting the most out of its crushing assets

Maximizing production from a crushing plant is no easy task and involves staying on top of changing conditions and many moving parts. Having quality equipment in place is a first step but even more important is knowing how to keep the machines running at their highest levels. Having a complete maintenance plan in place, being able to spot issues early, plan future interventions and make sure spare parts are ready when you need them are all important factors in order to maximize availability.

Optimizing throughput means dealing with change to both input feed and the condition of wear parts, as they endure the rigours of daily production. Equipment parameter configuration and control systems need to be constantly monitored to get the most out of the crushing process. Finally guaranteeing a consistent aggregate quality demands flexibility and a deep knowledge of how each piece of equipment works with other machines within the process, to be able to adjust as conditions vary. 

With so much on the line, DBL needed a clear vision of where the company should concentrate its efforts and where a partner could help the company with its ambitious growth targets. It all came down to finding a partner able to supply the right equipment but who was also capable of operating, maintaining and optimizing production across multiple sites while guaranteeing product quality and safety.

“We always planned to focus on our core strength of road construction, but also knew very well that crushing is the back bone of our business”, explained Devendra Jain, CEO and Executive Director of Dilip Buildcon Limited. “Rather than focusing on the back bone of our business, we always wanted outside experts to do that for us.”

“DBL is very aggressive in execution of their jobs” added Kamal Pahuja, Vice President, Mining & Aggregates, Metso India, “and they were very clear that they don’t want to spend their energy on crushing aggregate, because at the end of the day aggregate availability is very important when you are executing a road job and want to finish your road jobs ahead of time. They wanted to have the best equipment available but they didn’t want to burden themselves with the objective of maintaining the plant. They were more concerned with focusing on their strength, which is building roads and leaving to others to ensure that aggregate is available at the right time at the right cost.”

14 Million Euros in bonuses for early project completion and 78 % year over year growth

After evaluating various options, DBL chose to concentrate the bulk of its equipment and production sites with Metso, who it saw as a good fit with their style of choosing to work with brand name leaders. All the applicable Metso crushing and screening machines were covered initially by Annual Maintenance Contracts (AMC) which have since been converted to full by Life Cycle Services (LCS) contracts.

LCS contracts are set up as complete packages comprised of crushing and screening equipment, maintenance and inventory planning, a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), plant operation with production goals and a clear Cost per Ton commercial model. With Metso handling the responsibility of ensuring the supply of aggregate and DBL concentrating on the actual road construction, the results speak for themselves, with DBL experiencing 78.44% continuous year-on-year growth for the last four years. 

“The biggest achievement for us while working with Metso was to give control to Metso to manage the backbone of our business – the crushing. This not only enabled us to get bonuses for completing the projects before time but also established a benchmark for us in the industry to complete projects before time” stated Devendra Jain. “In the last financial year, we earned bonuses worth Rs.102 crores (EUR 14 million) for completing projects before the deadlines.”

The key to keeping the production running at optimal levels is reducing unplanned downtime for the various plant’s core crushing assets. By putting LCS maintenance contracts into place immediately rather than later in the equipment’s life cycle, the machines are maintained at their highest levels from day one. The difference in reliability for machines at sites with service contracts in place compared to sites without long term service agreements is significant.

“The maintenance contracts have been a huge benefit for DBL as even today the Metso crusher we bought in 2004 is running with the same efficiency as a crusher which was bought recently. Running our equipment under the LCS mode has been beneficial to us as the costs were always under control, downtime was reduced and we got immense support for the maintenance of the equipment too” explained Jain.

Summary

Dilip Buildcon Limited’s revenue from building roads is linked to how quickly roads are delivered to the government defined quality. DBL’s main focus is building roads so its challenge was how to reliably provide aggregates to feed its road building projects.

DBL produces a total of 100,000 tonnes of aggregate a day, with a signifi cant proportion coming from 25 of its crushing sites, operated in partnership with Metso. This has helped the company to secure 14 Million Euros in bonuses for early project completion. Metso’s Life Cycle Services solution has allowed the company to concentrate on its road building while Metso ensures that its machinery is always available and producing enough aggregates to meet the needed demand.