What innovations have been made in concrete technology for controlling the cost of manufacture?

Question

Control on cost can improve Returns on capital employed (ROCE).Any innovations on the same ?

Answer 1

you are quite correct in your understanding of business economics, however the cost of creating concrete is so small per bag that it is almost equivelant of the cost of the raw materials, each of which is carefully selected for their minimum possible expense. Why did you think that almost all of the mass of concrete is crushed stone, purchased from the leftover waste earth extracted in the process of creating quarries, wells, and mines, and using various types of stone to create different coloured raw concrete, thereby eliminating the need to paint otherwise ugly grey constructions like dams, skyscrapers and roads. The grey is so common in todays world because that particular stone is possibly the most common in the world, thus the cheapest.

Cost of manufacturing innovations can best be made in the area of overhead, like finding a better way of transporting liquid concrete. Concrete trucks are a giant bowl, and when the grey material dries on the inside surface of the bowl it layers, reducing the bowl's capacity quite rapidly. The removal of these layers is not financial worth it compared to replacing the truck, but if some innovation in bowl technology, that concrete was molecularly incapable of sticking to, were to replace the steel bowls in use today, the truck could be used for the life of the engine, improving ROCE.