Strategies to improve the production chain of building stone industry in Iran- case study: Mahallat travertine stone industry

The purpose of improvement of building stone industry is to re-engineer the chain of stone production. Re-engineering the chain of stone production encompasses a significant increase in production quantity and an improvement in efficiency. This is performed by supplying high quality final product, and by minimizing the amount of wastes abandoned at environment as well as producing byproducts using rubble stones. In current research, strategies to improve all stages of building stone production chain containing exploration, quarry and processing have been presented mainly focusing on stone type, quarry methods, equipment and quarry machines, processing (cutting and polishing) methods and the machinery, personnels and investement. As a case study, travertine quarries and stone cutting and processing units in Mahallat district located at Markazi province have also been studied. The study of 29 travertine quarries and 18 stone cutting and processing units in this region was done through field visits. It reveals that the chain of the stone production need to be improved in general. Although all quarries in the region are mined by the novel method (wire cutting method), awfull amount of rubble stone is inappropriately produced, so the quarry operation needs improvement on all accounts. Also a large number of stone cutting and processing units in the region (about 65 percent) yet works traditionally which should be equipped with new machinery and optimized. Finally some needed strategies to improve the stone industry which should be done by the government were presented.