Your next kiln upset should happen on a simulator.
We train cement control room operators on real kiln problems, like ID fan surges, cold kilns, cyclone jams and power dips, on a simulator tuned to your plant. A mistake here costs nothing. On your kiln it costs a day of clinker.
Runs in a web browser. No DCS connection. No IT project.
Your kiln is only as good as the operator on shift.
Plant managers hear from vendors every week who promise their product pays for itself. Most of those claims don't hold up. What does get attention is a real problem solved. And nearly every plant has the same one: control room operator competency.
Veterans are retiring
The operators who can feel a ring forming or a coating about to drop are leaving, and their know-how leaves with them.
Every shift runs it differently
Buddy training passes on habits, good and bad. Four crews end up running one kiln four ways, and the lab sees it in free lime.
Upsets are rare, then expensive
An operator may see a real ID fan surge or power dip once a year. That is a bad time to learn. One wrong move can trip the kiln.
One avoided lost day pays for years of training.
For a sold-out plant, every ton of clinker you don't make is margin you don't get back. The math is simple.
| Clinker value when used to make cement | ~$100/ton |
| Variable cost of clinker | ~$30/ton |
| Margin lost per ton not made | $70/ton |
| One hour down at 100 tons/hour | $7,000 |
| One day of lost production | $168,000 |
Before restart fuel, refractory and shell stress, and off-spec clinker, which cost you whether you are sold out or not.
Run your own numbers
Estimates only. A market-limited plant can often make up lost clinker later, so its loss per hour is lower; restart costs still apply.
CCR Academy: a flight simulator for your kiln.
Operators sit a real shift on a live control screen. A problem hits. They read the trends, call what's wrong, and make their moves. Then a coach walks them through what went well and what to work on.
- 22 drills across the kiln, preheater, cooler, mills and utilities
- Tuned to your plant's equipment, fuels and raw mix by an experienced engineering team, using advanced AI
- Plain-language coaching, by text or voice, in English or Spanish
- Scored on safety, steady running and response, with crew readiness reports for managers
Control room operators
Practice the upsets they rarely see, until the right move is a habit.
Trainees moving up
Field operators learn the board before they ever take the chair.
Engineers & supervisors
Everyone who touches the kiln learns how a move in one place shows up in another.
Plant managers
See who is ready, who is close, and who needs work, across every crew.
From first call to a trained crew in 90 days.
Tailor
We set the simulator to your kiln line: preheater stages, calciner, cooler, fuels and alternative fuels, and the way your screens look.
Train
Operators run drills on their own or with a trainer. Hints and coaching are there when they need them, and cost points when they use them.
Test
Test mode takes the help away and changes the problem each time, so a good score means the operator knows it, not just remembers it.
Measure
You get a readiness view for every operator and printable training records to support your program.
This wasn't built by a software company guessing at cement. It was built by someone who has run the kiln, the quarry and the whole plant.
Gerry McKervey has managed five cement plants for Essroc, Lehigh, Capitol Aggregates and Giant Cement. He has set clinker production records, commissioned coolers, scrubbers and SNCR systems, and trained the people who run them. CCR Academy puts that experience in front of every operator, on every shift.
Gerry McKervey · Owner, McKervey Solutions · B.S. Mining Engineering, University of Missouri-Rolla
See your kiln on the simulator.
Book a 30-minute demo. We'll run a live drill, show you the crew readiness view, and talk through a 90-day pilot at your plant.