Cement is literally the Cornerstone of today's building and civil engineering industries throughout the world. The demand for cement in Nigeria far exceeds the supply from the local industry. The local industry has a total installed capacity of 5.42 million tons per annum. As at 1984, the total local cement production is 3,010,000 tons (See Appendix 1.1) as against the annual demand of 7,000,000 tons (Business Concord, 1987).
It is therefore imperative that all feasible cost reduction measures are used in running the industry. This will improve operations efficiency, improve its profitability and allow for further re-investment. This will bring about the necessary expansion and growth in the industry to meet our
cement requirement, which will result in some savings of our meagre foreign exchange earnings.
The Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, Sokoto was established by the former Northern Region, in partnership with a German firm in 1962. The company started production in 1967. Since that time, the company has been operating at a loss. Business organisations that are not profitable need to be
studied in order to solve their problems. This study is aimed at exploring the possibilities of applying operations research technique (Pert Network analysis) in the kiln shut dov/n maintenance practice of the company to reduce its operation costs, It is hoped that, the study will assist CCNN as well as other cement companies in the country in planning and scheduling of their kiln shut down maintenance practice at optimal cost.
The data for the study was collected from the company's maintenance and production records and
interviews with company executives. A Pert Network Diagram was drawn, the critical path and the normal
cost associated with the critical path was determined. The cost implication of crushing some activities within the critical path in relation to
plant downtime costs was analysed. The optimum crew size was also determined; and suitable recommendations made.
