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3 Elements of a successful fleet management system

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MiningIQ recently published an article looking at how to make mining operations more efficient. As a more competitive market opens up and there is an increase in compliance and external forces (exchange rate, supply, demand, labour costs, etc.) these businesses are required to maximise productivity at a minimum operating cost all in order to increase profitability.

They found that one of the key business processes that large mining operations can deliver on is their fleet management. MiningIQ discovered that companies such as Glencore, BHP and ADG Mining are all rethinking their approach to fleet management and looking at the smarter way to improve their efficiency and bottom line.

Effective Maintenance Management

MiningiQ stated that Glencore is at the forefront of implementing optimisation into their maintenance management system. Their fleet is made up of millions of dollars’ worth of equipment and their loader rebuilds cost upwards of 1 million dollars.

Through the use of maintenance management optimisation they were able to save; in one circumstance 390,000 dollars.

Truck Haulage Continuous Improvement

They went on to say that Peter Knights, Chair of BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance has even gone beyond using optimisation within the maintenance of his vehicle fleet. He has done this by looking at the most economical way to run his vehicles; through energy and fuel they were able to improve efficiency.

Streamlining The Communications system

MiningIQ’s report found that power, communications, GPS and general infrastructure were key barriers to business efficiencies.

Adam Gray, specialist consultant, mining systems at ADGMining said

“The improvements in truck utilisation were astounding –we’re talking in the realms of more than three per cent, which is a massive figure at the end of an NPV,”

In a lot of cases streamlining the communication systems is as simple as moving off basic excel based programs that don’t allow you to perform specific tasks.

How can I achieve these sort of savings with my fleet?

Biarri is an Australian owned and operated company that was established in 2008. We have worked in many industries but have proven capabilities within Rail, Mining and Oil and Gas. Working with companies such as Rio Tinto, QLD Cotton, Arrow Energy, Origin Energy and Boral (to name a few) and have been able to work across a range of not only Fleet Management problems but; FIFO scheduling, Manpower Planning, Vehicle Routing, Rolling Stock Operational Management, Vessel Load optimisation, and many more.

Biarri builds custom software for you, with you over the cloud. Using the power of mathematics we can provide you with accessible optimisation that anyone in your business can use.

If you want to find out more about how we can help you, Contact us!

Schweppes Vehicle Routing Optimisation

Helping students deliver Vehicle Routing Optimisation

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When Griffith University’s Business School asked for support developing a network optimisation case for the Applied Business Modelling course, Biarri was happy to assist.

An opportunity to teach and demonstrate state-of-the-art thinking

Robert Ogulin Lecturer and Program Director of Griffith’s Master of Supply Network Management (MSNM) identified an opportunity to “teach and demonstrate state of the art thinking” to his logistics and supply chain students. The Masters program provides students with the opportunity to develop an understanding of effective and sustainable management of global sourcing and international business, and Ogulin recognised the importance of ensuring that students get practical experience with advanced supply chain and optimisation tools.

“It is becoming increasingly clear to me that logistics and supply chain students (and business students in general) require more exposure to related IT” Ogulin said.

The course required access to advanced logistics and supply chain software that had been proven in the rigours of a commercial setting. Biarri’s expertise in the development of easy to use, powerful optimisation solutions across a range of commercial applications and industry sectors proved a good fit with Griffith University’s high performance expectations. Biarri’s Vehicle Routing Optimisation (VRO) tool could accommodate a wide variety of constraints and scenarios, from basic functionality for a homogeneous fleet and fixed load/unload times, to more complex issues such as multi-day workload balancing or managing multiple depots and tours.

Biarri’s VRO helped Schweppes Australia achieve great results with the development of a comprehensive vehicle routing solution, customised to Schweppes’ unique requirements. This application was designed to optimise routes based on their customers’ limited delivery windows while still meeting rigorous customer service level agreements. The VRO tool helped Schweppes achieve a 10% reduction in total fleet kilometres, saving the business thousands of unnecessary kilometers and reduced overall environmental impact via reduced fuel and truck usage.

This made Biarri’s VRO a perfect choice for the program, allowing students to test challenging scenarios and deliver optimised results within real-world constraints. A total of 40 students from the Undergraduate BBUS (Logistics and Supply Network Management) and Master of Supply Network Management courses were offered free on-line access to the VRO software across a two week period and by all accounts the project proved to be a success.

“The tool provided an easy to use but powerful learning environment. The scenarios that (Biarri) provided were perfect to get the students to think through the implications of changing constraints or cost parameters”

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