Capital Equipment News October 2020

LOAD WEIGHING SYSTEMS

Scales attached fleet-wide give management the “pulse” of the entire operation.

Putting productivity in your hands

of a weighing system – Measure-Analyse- Improve – these systems can provide valuable insights into the daily flow of an operation. “Tracking KPIs in the operation as they happen gives site management the opportunity for quicker actions on areas of concern identified by onboard weighing systems. Once you start analysing weighing data, inefficiencies in the supply chain become clear and precise. Having this information available in real time allows for improvements immediately, with proven positive outcomes such as increased production for same periods, reduced cost per tonne, a decrease in machine hours for the same production output, leading to a more efficient and profitable operation,” says Luttig. According to Ivan van Heerden, MD of Dynamic Weighing Systems (DWS), the sole agent for the VEI Group line of on-board weighing and payload management systems in southern Africa, productivity is predicated on efficient throughput of the ore. “By utilising weighing systems, productivity can be tracked from the face to the loadout point, thus allowing for efficient cost per tonne analysis. Stockpile management is also made easier by knowing exactly how much is in the stockpile in real time,” says van Heerden. Key gains Unlike traditional survey methods, says van Heerden, onboard weighing systems

H aving lost production during the hard lockdown, mines and quarries face increased pressure to rapidly ramp up pro- duction. Capex projects may have to take a backseat as the urgency to rapidly meet new production targets moves to the fore. Today’s modern weighing systems, says Glen Webster, sales manager at Loadtech, the authorised Loadrite distributor in southern Africa, provide a networked, holistic view of operations, enabling site managers and operators to respond proactively with each load, as well as site- or project-wide by the hour, day and week. “Increased productivity goes beyond faster, more accurate loading. It now directly impacts the bottom line in each phase and across the entire project,” he says. Christiaan Luttig, marketing director at JBI Industrial Solutions, the sole distributor of Pfreundt’s range of load weighing solutions in sub-Saharan Africa, says effective use and utilisation of weighing systems provides much more than just load & haul production totals. Looking at the fundamentals With lockdowns almost behind us, the more pressing concern for mines and quarries at the moment is to rapidly ramp up production in an effort to recoup output lost during the hard lockdown. In an environment where emphasis is fixed firmly on output, fleet-wide, modern load weighing systems can give management the ‘pulse’ of the entire operation, putting productivity into their hands, writes Munesu Shoko .

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