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Dispatch technology reduces time of scheduled delays

VEHICLE PARKING The Active Dispatch system ensures that trucks arrive at the right time to be used by operators

MINEXPO 2016 Several new technologies from Wenco were previewed at MINExpo 2016

21st October 2016

  

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Activity Dispatch, the latest advancement in dispatching technology from mining systems manufacturer Wenco Mining Systems can help mines reduce wasted time by eliminating the unnecessary time spent on shift change, meal breaks and other short pauses in production.

The technology loads these scheduled delays into its shift plan and sends trucks to wait at the right place, at the right time, explains the Canada-headquartered company.

Wenco, with offices in Pretoria, in South Africa, points out that delays can take longer than they should. Breaks run over, operators forget to tag in, trucks park at awkward locations, even if better ones are available and, when every stop takes a few extra minutes, hundreds of hours a year can go to waste.

The Activity Dispatch system addresses these issues through automation, taking the pressure off overworked dispatch operators. The company concedes that breakdowns and tie downs still happen, but they do not take longer than necessary.

Activity Dispatch also removes bunching, a problem on disorganised mine sites. Rather than allowing everyone to stop work at the same time, it staggers breaks. Trucks keep flowing, shovels stay active and production does not grind to a standstill.

These small, but important, time gains grow in significance when Activity Dispatch connects to other Wenco dispatching services. Integrated with the efficient hauling of Dynamic Dispatch and the improved fuelling of Fuel Dispatch, the Activity Dispatch system gives mine sites a total dispatching solution, Wenco sates.

“It’s the last piece of the puzzle. We’ve had optimised truck assignments for a long time, and automated fuelling too. Now, we’ve got a solution that handles those short breaks that happen throughout the shift,” says Wenco director of product development David Noble.

At MINExpo International 2016, which took place at the Las Vegas Convention Centre, in Nevada, in the US, in September, Wenco, which has entered its thirtieth year of operation, launched Wenco System 6, a new solution to make mining simpler, smarter and safer.

“It’s a real triumph that our fleet management systems and other technology have had such an impact on mining for over 30 years. System 6 is a huge step forward for us and for mining systems as a whole,” says Wenco president and CEO Phil Walshe.

The sixth edition of the company’s mine performance suite brings major updates to its core applications. It also adds several new solutions designed to address the most crucial issues in mining.

Meanwhile, Wenco’s flagship Wencomine fleet management system has received a complete overhaul. Its two main applications, Fleet Control and MineVision, have merged into a single, easy-to-use interface. Dispatchers have greater flexibility and control when assigning trucks, adjusting haul routes or tracking production.

Walshe explains that Wenco has also rewritten the code base to give the system faster and smoother processing and to allow for more enhancements down the line. Along with this update, Wenco has four new solutions, which says, push mine performance to new limits.

One of these solutions, Walshe points out, is the Avoca Intelligence Suite builds on the technology already engineered by the company, giving it new focus with the power of business intelligence. Drawing on a platform from business intelligence leaders Tableau Software, Avoca offers mines control for the viewing and exploration of their data.

“Our custom-built data warehouse blends information from Wenco and other systems used in mining. That lets Avoca shine a light on relationships and trends long hidden from even the most data-savvy mines. While other business intelligence (BI) systems have struggled to adapt to mining, ours was built from the ground up with industry knowledge. As a result, it handles the data challenges [specific to] mining with flair, especially plotting large volumes of geospatial data,” notes Walshe.

Two of Wenco’s legacy solutions have also received significant updates, which were also debuted at MINExpo 2016. The tyre management system TireMax has been refitted from the ground up and the asset health management system ReadyLine has received new functions.

Online Training Introduced
In addition, to enable miners to learn how to use its technology at their own pace, the company offers its new online training platform, Wenco Learning. E-learning courses built in conjunction with experts from custom education creator Prime Learning help guide students through the complexities of the systems.

The online platform enables mines to keep their staff up to speed, without running costly training sessions that take time away from mine operations. Wenco claims that this is a completely new approach to training for mines.

“It’s just incredible to see the innovations our engineers keep coming up with. Now we’ve expanded into things like BI, e-learning . . . We’re really staying on the cutting edge of technology to help our customers perform better and better,” concludes Walshe.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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