Cem’In’Eu asked IBITEK to digitalise three of its French sites end to end: production monitoring, truck flow management and remote maintenance, integrated with the group’s ERP. At the Aliénor grinding station in Tonneins, loading 25 tonnes of bulk cement takes 28 minutes on average from the first year of operation, against 40 minutes to several hours under a conventional setup. The system runs 98 % of bulk shipments fault free, for a measured profitability gain of around 20 %.
The context
In 2018 Cem’In’Eu set out to break with the conventional cement model by siting grinding units close to end customers, with innovation as the cornerstone of its differentiation strategy. The Aliénor Ciments station is that thinking in practice: built on freehold land at Tonneins in the Lot et Garonne, connected to the rail network by a private siding, it serves the Nouvelle Aquitaine and Occitanie markets with a capacity of 240,000 tonnes a year.
A model like this leaves no room for logistics friction. The site runs three shifts, six days a week, and its commercial promise rests precisely on shipping responsiveness. Loading performance therefore becomes a strategic asset rather than an internal housekeeping matter.
A scope covering production, logistics and remote maintenance
IBITEK worked across three complementary building blocks rather than a single isolated need, which sets this project apart from single function deployments.
Production monitoring covers data archiving at each site, production management, downtime tracking, laboratory management, plus reporting and dashboards. It is integrated with the group’s Odoo ERP, so that production data and management data tell the same story.
Truck flow management was deployed across all three sites: one bulk loading terminal and two grinding installations. It was the scalability of the system, proven at the first site, that led the group to replicate it, with a common functional core and site specific developments for each location.
Remote maintenance completes the setup with secure remote access control on equipment, a prerequisite for intervening without travelling to geographically dispersed sites.
Results
From the first year of operation, loading 25 tonnes of bulk cement takes 28 minutes on average on site. A conventional setup runs between 40 minutes and several hours as soon as there is a rush or an allocation error that forces the logistics team to step in physically.
The system runs 98 % of bulk shipments fault free. Taking into account enforcement of safety rules, the drop in error rate, reduced time on site, traceability and early detection of loading anomalies such as an overweight vehicle or an unmet payload, the measured profitability gain is around 20 %.
The real test came with the strict Covid 19 lockdown: the site stayed operational and every shipment was handled contact free. The shipping process, which Cem’In’Eu had made one of the pivots of its growth, kept running when many others stopped.
