The growing need to continuously improve asset efficiency and reduce operating costs in the mining industry were two of the key drivers in software developer Afrigle IT Innovations’ development of the Afrigle Resource Management (ARM) software, which offers meaningful real-time intervention capability to operations.

With increased labour and production costs in the mining sector, better conservation, increased life expectancy and increased performance of assets are essential for the survival of mines, and remain profit-generating and investor first-choice priorities.

Preventive maintenance and real-time monitoring are becoming a necessity to achieve these goals. The ARM system offers full real-time monitoring and control of miners’ assets, including its labour utilisation rates and inventory. Employees no longer have to waste hours responding to equipment breakdowns, eliminating idle or nonproductive assets.

“We designed the ARM software to capture real-time performance records, measure these against an original-equipment manufacturer or client-specified norm and report on nonconformances as they occur. This improves response times dramatically, taking into account the tedious manual reporting structures that the dated conventional reporting system offers,” says Afrigle IT Innovations software developer and partner Barend de Klerk.

He also noted that the ARM software, which was initially developed to manage maintenance, has been upgraded to a level where it interfaces with the majority of Enterprise Resource Planning systems, as well as offers real-time tracking (surface and underground) of equipment, supervisory control and data acquisition solutions, mobile supervisory control, legal compliance measures, labour recoveries equipment operator access controls (verifies licence validity) and a host of valuable management features.

The company also mentioned that it designed and manufactured a fuel management system which enables the fleet manager to fully control and account for every litre of fuel and oil issued with its computerised fuel monitoring system. The system has a fully automated access future that eliminates the need for fuel attendants and paperwork. The system also monitors consumption of oil and lubricants, and excessive consumption is reported to supervisors through email or SMS where appropriate.

“All of the productivity in the world is not of any use where an operation falls short of complying with the Health and Safety Act. The affordable ARM software encompasses standard and business rules that will improve and maintain safety compliance. Examples of this are the effective management of equipment maintenance and backlogs (items reported by operators) – practices that lead to elimination of equipment malfunctions that could inflict injury, as well as unauthorised equipment access control, to name only two,” points out De Klerk.

He mentions that operations should consider changing to ARM because it is an integral tool in the quest to achieve comprehensive strategic planning and operational excellence.

“By design, it drives the optimal management of assets (both in application and care) and enforces optimal productive application of resources, which delivers tangible results. Changing to a centralised management operation allows an opportunity to share assets, which increases use and reduces costs,” De Klerk concludes.