the best mining software companies work for

This approach is making it possible for mine sites to (for the first time) do effective integrated planning and short interval control. So, it pays to avoid these kinds of mistakes, but how?Īn approach that is paying handsome dividends for those that have invested in it is to ensure that everyone on site has a well-coordinated and easy to understand plan each shift, that this shift plan is visible to everyone (so that they are all on the same page) and that actual results and shift reports can be fed into it to facilitate the plan, do, check, act improvement cycle. These issues lead to poor adoption and mean that the expected benefits aren’t delivered.

Basically, because it’s really hard to get busy software companies to adapt and integrate their solutions to meet this need, change management can be forgotten and at the same time technology and innovation projects seldom have the hard-operational edge they need to deliver results for the site. These “technology / innovation projects” have really struggled to deliver tools that the guys at the frontline actually use, the way they were intended to. Recent examples have sought to “mash up” a number of the “point solutions” into an integrated whole, kindly assisted by “smartest people in the room” consultants. So what’s the best approach? Should you pay a software developer or outsourcer to build customised software that works around your mine’s current systems? Or start from scratch with an integrated provider of planning software? Or would a MOS consulting firm do a better job of streamlining the management of your mining operation?

While many software suites perform well in their specific areas of influence (such as operational planning, maintenance, reporting, fleet management, safety monitoring, or analytics) there are no software or technology firms that can provide an end to end solution that connects mine plans to all the work performed to deliver the plan at the frontline. This diagram is an attempt to capture this complexity and the lack of connection between the various solutions available today.Īny mining software that hopes to significantly improve the coordination and performance of a mining operation needs to consider all of these parts of the process and make it easier for the people on site to see reality, make plans and execute on them. And then there are people too: planners, schedulers, coordinators, control room personnel, site supervisors, operators and tradespeople. But not all solutions are created equal.Ĭonsider all the moving parts and processes in a mining operation… production, maintenance of equipment, projects, geology, survey, rehab, safety and hazard management and reporting and analysis. Investment in technology that delivers results is crucial if mines are to compete and remain profitable – the good news is that technological advances are giving us unprecedented opportunities to improve operations. Added to this, most mines are already dealing with legacy systems that are failing or limping along with unsatisfactory results. In mining, the sheer scale of operations can make the task of finding smart, resilient and effective solutions daunting to say the least. Mines are complex, and require an extremely high level of planning, scheduling, coordination and reporting if they’re to run as well as possible.Īcross all industries, software companies are promising to transform efficiency levels and boost profits.

Lifting performance and productivity in a mining operation is no small task. Seeing the whole: systems that only focus on a segment of your operation can’t deliver top quartile results

The best mining software companies work for