Cloud-based inventory management optimisation

The COVID-19 pandemic and the War in Ukraine have exposed gaps that have persisted in both material and labour visibility in mining operations. Unfortunately, paper-based techniques, with inherent limitations, cannot address this challenge. Fortunately, Linkederp’s Cloud Inventory® platform has proved effective when deployed in complex conditions in mines globally. By increasing efficiency and adaptability across a customer-focused supply chain, Linkederp’s Cloud Inventory® platform can optimise inventory management, enabling a mine to maintain operational excellence and safety.  

No matter the circumstance, inevitably, mining companies are always faced with pricing volatility for commodities. Making operations leaner and pulling commodities out of the ground at a lower cost is the sure-fire way they employ of managing this challenge.

Gaps 

Currently, mining companies are operating in an atmosphere where both the COVID-19 pandemic and the War in Ukraine have made this task all the more complicated. Particularly, these two critical events have highlighted gaps in both labour and material visibility (inventory management) respectively.

• The pandemic

The pandemic has underscored the need for improved visibility in the following areas: knowing who is where at any given point in time, prescribed maximum capacities at a given job site/mine, and over and above tracking self-assessment health screenings.

• The Ukraine war

The Ukraine War has impacted the global mining business prominently in several ways, in the main:

• No matter the industry, many companies ceased business engagements with Russia. For mining, this has meant a mass exodus of companies with operations in Russia. Many of them made decisions to spinoff Russian investments as a way to mitigate risk and still attract investors in non-Russian assets;
• Sanctions and bans have forced mining companies to exit partnerships, Joint Ventures that go against sanctions;
• Rising energy prices and production disruptions are hitting the mining sector hard; and
• Stockpiling of fast-moving inventory.

Importance of operational efficiency and safety 

Linkederp provides customised cloud-based inventory management solutions to clientele in diverse sectors. Carel Bouwer, the company’s Managing Director, has been observing how these two events are impacting the operations of mining companies in the contemporary environment. She predicts that operational efficiency and safety at operations and projects will be even more important to global mining companies during the atmosphere of industry uncertainty. He singles out improved inventory management as one of the ways that can help them achieve this.

Regarding inventory management, Bouwer urges mining companies to adopt and utilise the best possible innovations, as paper-based processes are limited in the scope of capabilities.

 The drawbacks of paper-based processes 

One of the common reservations that industries have with paper-based processes is the lack of mobility and data granularity needed in their ERP systems. Inescapably, this results in two challenges that are significant obstacles to creating an optimally efficient mining operation.

Usually, in the disconnected environment in which they operate, for mining personnel, using an inventory management approach that involves constantly updating spreadsheets or using paper-based card systems to monitor inventory use and location is not effective. This is because materials go dark at several points along the supply chain, due to a lack of visibility across facilities, once an asset has left a facility, is in use, or is in a disconnected environment. “Costly gaps in field inventory data can have a negative downstream effect on other aspects of the business and lead to counter-productive business decisions at other points of the supply chain. However, in inventory management, it is critical to know what you have and where to avoid decreasing inventory adjustments,” Bouwer elaborates.

The second challenge is that paper-based processes often don’t have granular enough understanding of the state, location and authenticity of assets (including operating equipment) to keep on regular maintenance cycles. Yet effective processes are central to a safe environment and avoiding incidents.

An alternative solution

Given the two aforementioned challenges and their impact on operational efficiency and safety, Bouwer states that the need for an alternative solution to optimise inventory management does not need to be overstressed. “Many mining firms operate in environments where connectivity is limited or non-existent. For this reason, having a collaboration platform to see what inventory is where – even in a disconnected environment – is critical for mining operations. Data is integral to improving operations and safety and maintaining SOPs.”

Cloud Inventory® platform

Clearly, for efficient inventory management, mining companies need a solution that works in both connected and disconnected environments, removes manual processes, and ensures accurate real-time information is fed back to the systems that require that information. Thanks to advancements in cloud-based inventory management technology, this is possible. Cloud Inventory® management technology can enable mines to drastically improve their capability to access inventory data with speed and accuracy.

Bouwer strongly recommends the Cloud Inventory® platform to mining companies as a suitable cloud-inventory management technology for the present environment. “Cloud Inventory® is a mobile-first inventory management solution that utilises the power of the cloud to offer unprecedented real-time inventory visibility and control throughout the supply chain It is ideally suited for mining firms that depend on operating in the wild, where a lack of reliable connectivity can stall operations and reduce productivity.”

By empowering mining firms to control inventory in real-time despite the disconnected nature of the mining environment, Cloud Inventory® increases efficiency and adaptability across a customer-focused supply chain.  Typically, mining firms are fundamentally reliant on field operations.

Hence, equipped with Cloud Inventory®, mining firms can be assured that data from the field is real-time and accurate and that it can be quickly and efficiently communicated across the supply chain. In addition, Cloud Inventory® is built on an infinitely configurable low-code platform. This means that mining firms can easily build apps to meet the unique needs of their operations and can adapt to unforeseen challenges on the fly without costly delays in production or reconfiguration of existing systems.  Ultimately, by increasing efficiency and adaptability across a customer-focused supply chain, Cloud Inventory® can optimise inventory management, which enables a mine to maintain operational excellence and safety.

Insourced or sourced? 

The onus is on mining companies to decide on the cloud-based inventory solution option that would best suit them – outsourced and insourced.  Usually, Bouwer explains a company’s unique situation informs a decision. “It is hard to make a complete generalisation without an individual understanding of each operation. However, if you have easy-to-use / easy-to-implement (and support) solutions that allow you to manage inventory for instantaneous connection with your investments, then insourced inventory management might make the most sense.”

Linkederp is a business partner of the company now called “Cloud Inventory”, previously known as DSI (Data Systems International).