Importance of training “Critical to this approach has been our ongoing investment in training, with each of our operators enrolled on the Gold Card scheme. As the Gold Card is accredited and certified as a professional qualification, our staff has really bought into the investment made with the programme. Equally, because it is delivered by Finning onsite, who have been training our staff on the Eco-DriveTM


programme for a number of years,


operators can really apply the training to the practical challenges they face in the Dove Holes quarry.


“Through this approach I believe we are setting a much higher standard for the industry as a whole, whilst getting the economic benefits of investing in our people. Through engagement and awareness, staff morale and retention has increased with the majority of staff now receiving advanced training. This means that overall we have a much better consistency of machine operation and with that the benefits of reduced maintenance and wear and tear associated with excellent operation techniques. In practical terms this has led to a 12.8% increase in machine availability over the defined baseline.”


MineStar – Live data every hour “Gold standards are not only what we are setting with our operators and managers, but also in the way we use technology to drive up efficiency and reduce downtime. For example, in 2015 as part of our continuous improvement plan, we introduced enhanced production reporting, powered by Cat®


MineStar


technology. This gave us the opportunity to move from weekly reports and reviews with Finning, to hourly live data, fed into our team onsite through handheld tablets. With all of our production statistics including loader efficiency, average payload, cycle times by segment and tonnes per hour at our fingertips, we can now make live decisions on fleet movements and activities onsite, reducing inefficiencies and ultimately cost.”


Using data to alter site operations “As we move closer to real time data, what we can also do is start to match live information with other variables,


6


like the impact of changes in site operations, haul road conditions or length and the availability or fragmentation of blasted rock. This sort of trending data can then be used to measure the cost benefit of operational changes and site modelling.


“Having the data to prove the impact of varying site conditions, can not just help reduce costs at Dove Holes, it can be used across the business to highlight quarrying best practice.


“We can even make the decision to change the activity and alter the truck fleet size at the quarry operation, if cycle times, tonnes per hour or loader efficiencies drop below predetermined targets.


Midnight maintenance For Finning engineers, supporting the Dove Holes team can, on occasion, involve burning the midnight oil to ensure the availability of prime movers for the daily shift patterns, which start at 6am and finish at 01:00am, five days a week. For Greg Wheeler Finning Managed Solutions Contract Manager, technology and the availability of round the clock service is critical to uptime, as he explained: “Through the ProductLinkTM system on the equipment, we monitor the health of each machine, receiving alerts on performance, and any critical issues like oil pressure, overheating brakes or erratic gear changing.


“These alerts are monitored by our designated CEMEX UK Finsight team in Cannock, who liaise with site engineers and operators to ensure machine uptime. Similarly the operators know that if they spot any issues with a machine, they can call the team directly. We can then make a decision on what actions need to be taken to keep the fleet operational. Over the past two years, this has meant that our engineers have often worked through the night, to maintain equipment productivity.”


With Dove Holes now projecting a production target of 6,000,000 tonnes, the Finning Managed Solutions team are in the process of optimising the fleet mix for the future.


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