TORONTO (miningweekly.com) –  A new advanced productivity and safety application for industrial and mining worksites, resulting in dramatically improved worker response times, enhanced worker coordination and reduced operating costs, was launched by worksite management technology developer Lightship on Wednesday.

The application, also called Lightship, provided site management teams with a “bird’s-eye” view, in real time, of an entire worksite. It connected with mobile devices and worksite sensors to track and communicate with thousands of people and provided a complete memory of all worksite events.

“Lightship represents the start of the smart tech[nology] revolution for site managers. Instead of having to rely on technologically-limited radio systems and standalone equipment monitoring, site teams now have clear, real-time awareness of their entire worksite, even in remote locations.

“Task assignment and management, sensor integration, event history, automated emergency alerts and a vastly superior communications system means worksites will be better, safer and smarter,” Lightship CEO Jae Reichel highlighted.

Despite the dramatic evolution of communications technology, major industries within the resource, construction, facilities management and other sectors have had to rely on many of the same worksite-management tools for years.

Speaking to Mining Weekly Online in an interview, Reichel said the application had been developed over three years and combined several legacy applications under one umbrella.

“The application has the potential to reduce the risk associated with operating and successfully managing large site operations. The application visualises all people and equipment at any given moment, helping to drive cost savings and productivity increases,” he explained.

Reichel pointed out that during a year-long trial at a 40 000 t/y copper mine, the application of Lightship had resulted in estimated cost savings of C$293 158, demonstrating the technology’s power.

Among its key features were team, fleet and equipment management, which tracked and communicated with workers, vehicles and equipment. The application’s task-management function allowed users to monitor tasks that needed to be completed, while automatically assigning new tasks and overseeing who was working on which task. 

The technology further allowed management to monitor asset performance by providing in-depth equipment usage and downtime information, as well as data on performance levels. Lightship could also integrate some advanced communications, safety and automated emergency response systems.