Transportation plays a pivotal role when it comes to mining industries, the challenges seem to increase largely as mines are located in remote regions where reliable reach becomes tough and pose considerable logistics challenge.
Due to the remote locations, mining industries often face complex challenges in the transportation of raw materials and finished goods to and from the mining sites which results in a considerable budget burden for the organization.
Generally, logistics in mining industries involve multi-modal transport systems. It includes rail racks, containers, trawlers, etc. Thus, it becomes more pivotal for these organizations to keep a track of the logistics to ensure that the mined product reaches the consumption point on-time and more importantly minimize the extensive risk of theft in-transit.
Today, logistics is no more a financial component but a strategic and operational function of an organization as it not only just transporting goods but reliability & timely delivery with minimum over head on vehicle life and coordination among driver. Automation in logistics is the future in mining industries. Companies are looking for smart Supply-Chain Management Solution in order to streamline the process and make logistics a more cost-efficient part.
Automation in logistics is the answer to all the challenges faced by mining industries in day-to-day operations. Let’s look at some of the key benefits of automation:
Operational Cost Saving
Real-time tracking enables managers to gain full visibility of their fleets and assets. Real-time fleet monitoring discourages idling and over-speeding; thus, ensuring utmost vehicle efficiency. Today, one of the major concern is fuel theft. Smart fuel sensors reduces such practices. Fuel report enables managers to get a clear idea of consumption and theft. The advanced solution also provides driving behavior monitoring, which helps to kill driving malpractices. This would encourage drivers to keep their attitude with vehicles in-check allowing longer and better engine-life, lower rate of accidents, etc., saving on vehicle maintenance cost.
With various intelligence-driven reports, which includes logs for distance traveled, operational reports, trip reports, vehicle efficiency report, etc. the process of operations is streamlined with a lower rate of redundancy and human-errors.Thus, ensuring minimal operational cost and maximum productivity enhancing integrity and safety for organizations.
Load-Unload Time Cycle
Often in mines, the efficiency of a vehicle is determined by number of load-unload cycles and the number of trip it carry out within a day. Automation provides insights to such cycles where loading and unloading cycles and trips per day can be logged automatically giving us unbiased reports.
Trip Management
Earlier monitoring of trips required traditional practice, where managers would call the drivers to know the whereabouts of the vehicles. In modern-day, automation facilitates specific trip tracking. Trip management provides complete visibility and trip status, such as estimated and required arrival time, delayed trips, and trips on time.
Tracking Underground Mining Assets
With the use of RTLS(Real-time location system) and LBS (Location-based services), monitoring underground assets and mining equipment’s has become easy. Instant alerts communicated to vehicles operating in blast zones, enables organizations to ensure safety measures for the workers are well enforced. Modern-day technology also encourages the use of RFID and sensors to track underground workers; thus, in case of emergency, immediate evacuation is carried out.
Automated Dispatch and Scheduling
A smart Supply-Chain Management Solution facilitates flexible planning and scheduling of trips. This eliminates the need of manual assignments. Automation enables dynamic scheduling; managers can now create optimized routes and map the vehicles for current and future requirements. Proper routing of trips helps to achieve on-time delivery and gain customer satisfaction resulting in repeat businesses and goodwill in the market.
Author:
Ayan Dutta