16 Mar Mining Company Keeps on Digging with MASS Group’s RFID Tracking
A Mining Company Keeps on Digging with TME® Active and Passive RFID Life Cycle Asset Management
Background
One of the world’s largest mining companies was challenged in keeping a large fleet of massive mining equipment up and running, reliably, in the harsh outdoor environment of an open pit coal mine. The Company’s labor-intensive preventative maintenance and inspection procedures were failing due to the inability to properly track, manage, and maintain fluid samples taken from multiple ports on each piece of equipment that were tested and used to maintain and maximize the health of the fleet. As a result of incorrect labeling of samples, loss of samples, and human data input errors, the Company experienced significant unscheduled downtime and production loss.
The Solution
Combined with durable, encapsulated, harsh environment handling Active and Passive RFID tags to uniquely identify each piece of equipment (asset), port, and sample, MASS Group’s TME® RFID Enterprise Asset Management System was implemented to provide the Company with full and accurate traceability and visibility to each piece of equipment over its entire lifecycle in real time. Using TME®’s extensive data warehousing capabilities, all information including sample data for each piece of equipment was collected and stored. Coupled with TME®’s extensive data analytic and reporting capabilities, technicians and Management were able to obtain meaningful insights to improve and streamline preventative maintenance procedures and routine equipment inspections. Additionally, digitization of the entire process allowed the Company to transition from preventative to more predictive maintenance practices while significantly reducing labor costs.
The Results
As a result of automating their maintenance practices and management of their assets with TME®, the Company realized a 15% increase in asset uptime, 12% reduction in labor costs, and 2-point gain in ROA. Furthermore, with visibility to timely and accurate data to better maintain the equipment, the Company was able to extend the life of its fleet.