Industries

 
Organization Environment & Brief History

 
The Aditya Birla Group, under the visionary leadership of Shri Kumar Mangalam Birla, is a US $24 billion conglomerate with a market cap. of US $31.5 billion. It is anchored by a force of 100,000 employees, belonging to 25 nationalities. It’s operations span 20 countries across six continents. Headquartered in Mumbai, India, over 50 per cent of the Group's revenues flow from its overseas operations. The Group nurtures a work culture where success is built on learning and innovation.

The Aditya Birla Group has been adjudged "The Best Employer in India and among the top 20 in Asia" by the Hewitt, Economic Times and Wall Street Journal Study 2007.

UltraTech Cement Limited is a part of Cement Division of Aditya Birla Group. The Cement business of UltraTech (previously L&T) was started in 1979 at Awarpur and then later on expanded to various locations. The main business of this division is Manufacturing & marketing of different types of Cement for various customer segments like Government, Institutions, Builders / Contractors, Stockists, Cement Based Industries.

UltraTech Cement Division Consists of Five integrated Cement manufacturing Plants and Five grinding Units with a total installed capacity of 17Million Tons per annum (MTPA) located in different parts of the country. AP Cement Works (APCW), located at Tadipatri, Anantapur Dist, A.P. with an Installed Capacity of 2.00 MTPA was commissioned in April'1998 with the latest Cement manufacturing technology from F.L.Smidth & Co, Denmark. The plant has been upgraded to 2.70 MTPA through major debottlenecking exercise in 1999 and 2002 by adopting latest technologies. It is always in the forefront in adopting latest technologies or innovations. It has set up a Waste Heat Recovery Power Plant of 4 MW in Asia (1st of its kind and its size in the world) for recovering cooler waste heat and in the process availing CDM benefits and reducing GHG emissions.

The existing facility is being upgraded by 3.4 MTPA along with a Grinding Unit in Karnataka to expand its market base and market share. With this expansion, APCW – Tadipatri will be the single location highest clinker producing plant in the country with installed capacity of over 6.1 MTPA of clinker. The clinkerization has been commissioned in March’08. Grinding Unit in Ginigera is scheduled to commission by June’08. To meet its increasing power requirements, the unit is also setting up 2 x 25 MW Thermal Power Plant at its premises which is due for commissioning by June’08 in order to reduce its dependency on grid power.

APCW manufactures three types of Cement, Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), Portland Pozzolona Cement (PPC) and Portland Slag Cement (PSC). APCW caters to the needs of cement users in the southern part of India. Its ideal location, as far as market is concerned is its

advantage. It is, equidistant from all the three major cities in the south -Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai and caters to Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Kerala and Goa markets, in addition to Andhra Pradesh. The finished product is sold through the Marketing Department, which has a wide dealer network. APCW has one Grinding Unit at Arakkonam, Tamilnadu attached to it.

The Unit Management fosters a culture of total integrity, credibility, trust, continuous learning, respect for individuals and all partners. It has formulated its own Vision and Mission in line with its Group objectives to drive growth and improvement.

Systems and CMIs: Management believes in doing its activities in a systematic manner. The management had taken initiative of implementing systems in the unit and got certified for ISO:9002(1994) in Oct’99 and ISO 14001(2004) & OHSAS 18001 (1999) together in Jul’00. APCW is the first Cement Plant in the country, which has got certified for all three systems on a unified documented system in the year 2000. In addition to this, its Quality control laboratory has been certified under ISO/IEC: 17025 in the year 2005 and accredited to NABL. The unit has started implementing change management initiatives like Six sigma, TPM, WCM, Bench marking successfully in enhancing its operational growth and achieved substantial benefits at various stages. The unit received many recognitions and awards in the last 9 years from various independent institutions for achieving excellence in its operations, productivity, energy reduction, etc.

Corporate Social Responsibility: As part of Corporate Social Responsibility, APCW is undertaking various initiatives in the field of Education, Infrastructure Building, Sustainable Livelihood, Health & Social Well-being in line with its Social vision and objectives in the surrounding community and villages. To give it an impetus and channelize all efforts in the right direction, all the rural development activities are being carried out through a trust in the name of ‘The Aditya Birla Grameena Vikas Trust’.