Solutions for Mining

Major component tracking represents one of the keys to success in managing the life cycle of large mobile equipment, but following a part’s location is difficult because it is largely a manual process.

The challenge of tracking major components includes following the physical location and accumulated costs of serialized parts such as engines, wheel groups, struts, pumps, gearboxes and motors, as well as large rotatable items.

Unfortunately, the challenge of tracking rotatable parts often overwhelms typical asset management information systems because, while they are good at tracking tasks and costs associated with large serialized vehicles and their locations, they do not handle the lifecycle of the components well as they cannot track their identity.

Tracking issues for the mining industry that lead to unnecessary risk and loss:

• The Warranty Gap - tracking components without a unique identifier for warranty purposes can be difficult. Problems arise if the component suffers a premature failure because, to the supplier, the warranty on that component starts the day it was sold into stock but, to the Mine, it ought to start the day it was installed.
• In-Service Component Swaps - which are commonplace, can lead to untracked change-outs if they are necessary in order to maintain production. Untimely component change-outs either waste remaining life or result in major failures because the normal benchmark was exceeded. And because the paper/ERP trail documenting component swaps is complicated, leaves maintenance staff unaware of previous switches.
• Component Life Tracking - How do you consistently record actual hours achieved by major components in mining vehicles to create statistically reasonable life estimates? Set the benchmarks too high and you could experience unplanned downtime and extra expenses associated with major failures. If they are too low, the Mine will miss out on service hours.
• Core Tracking - Spent core is very valuable and needs to be tracked carefully from site to transport to receipt by the rebuilder. When, as is often the case, they go missing it can cause both financial stress and critical shortages of exchange components necessary to support the life cycle of the fleet. It can also unduly strain relationships with critical suppliers when finger-pointing occurs.

How can Assettagz help?

Assettagz is purpose-built to track mobile and fixed assets. It uses RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags, a web hosted application and handheld computers to track major components in mining equipment.

An RFID tag, which works in much the same as a barcode, is applied to an asset allowing it to be tracked. Location, date, cost and specifications are the most common pieces of information that are recorded.

For mining, RFID technology is preferable to barcodes as tags can be permanently attached to industrial structures and equipment, and they also survive in harsh, dirty environments.

With Assettagz you will not only know where your components are and when they got there, but you will also know who installed them and how many hours they have been operating. Assettagz can happily exist as a standalone system or be fully integrated with your ERP system, enabling you to reference previous repairs and parts lists whilst you are physically inspecting the asset.